Caring for the Industrial Athlete

As the assembly line rumbled just a few feet away, Kelly Hartman listened to a plant worker explain an issue with his leg.

“He was touching his leg, and he told me what he did to it and what he did on the assembly line,” Hartman said of the man describing his injury. “I asked him some questions and then provided some possible options for follow-up care.”

Hartman and fellow athletic training major Megan Dee talked with many people that day at the Volvo New River Valley plant health and wellness fair. They listened to plant workers and informed them of simple stretches and exercises they could do to possibly ease the aches and pains they earned through repetitive motions during a hard day’s work.

Hartman and Dee, both seniors and members of the University’s Athletic Training Student Association, attended the health fair armed with cards, flyers and a wealth of knowledge to help explain workplace ergonomics, stretching and injury prevention. Injuries such as carpal tunnel, plantar fasciitis and shoulder and back pain are common on an assembly line, Dee said.

At the fair, “someone might walk up and tell us, ‘My shoulder hurts.’ Then we ask, ‘What do you do at work?’ or ‘Do you do this repetitive motion?’” explained Health and Human Performance Assistant Professor Ellen Payne as she rotated her wrist. “‘If you do, try doing this stretch.’ We tell them a lot of preventative things they can do.”

If it seems to be a minor injury, “We tell them to get it looked at by a doctor,” Payne said. “They need to take care of it early and not let it develop into something that’s going to end up as a workmen’s comp claim and time off.”

Payne first organized the trip to the Volvo health fair two years ago as a way to immerse athletic training students in experiences working with individuals who are not traditional athletes.

"At Volvo, our students get to have interactions with what some people call the industrial athlete, or the nontraditional patient,” Payne said. “Athletic trainers are getting more and more into settings like Volvo.”

For Radford University athletic training students, it’s their initial experience working with employees at an assembly plant setting.

“They’re in the factory, they can see the machines employees work with every day. For their clinicals here at Radford, they’re usually at high schools, colleges and physical therapy clinics. That’s more of the traditional athletic training route, but as the profession grows and as new jobs are created, we’re seeing more and more athletic trainers in industry.”

The change in setting and type of patient was important to Hartman, who plans to pursue a career in athletic training, perhaps in the military or industrial setting such as Volvo.

“It was really cool getting the experience in industry,” Hartman said. “It’s a change from working in an athletic setting. It’s great getting that experience.”

Companies around the world are recognizing the value of having athletic trainers work with their employees. Having healthy workers can save a company money through injury prevention, Payne noted.

Kevin Muniz ’05 coordinates wellness and fitness programming at Volvo. It was his idea three years ago to bring Radford University athletic training students into the plant for the fair.

“I wanted to bring the athletic trainer students in because we have a lot of ankle, knee, hip, back, shoulder, elbow, wrist and finger issues and overuse injuries here,” Muniz said. “Like athletes, these employees need to get back to their playing status as soon as possible.”

Plant workers can’t “take time off from their work like an athlete can from their sport,” Payne said. “They have to keep working.” ■