Background: Good physical health and capacity is a requirement for offshore wind service technicians (WTs) who have substantial physical work demands and are exposed to numerous health hazards. Workplace physical exercise has shown promise for improving physical health and work ability among various occupational groups. Therefore, we aimed to assess the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of Intelligent Physical Exercise Training (IPET) among WTs in the offshore wind industry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe aimed to assess the physical capacity and physical work demands of wind service technicians (WT) in different field conditions (onshore and offshore workdays). We recruited 27 male WTs (mean age of 31 years (SD: ±7), VOmax of 46 mL O2/kg/min (SD: ±7)) and assessed their physical work demands for a total of 110 workdays using heart rate monitors and accelerometers at five body placements. On average, each day, sitting was the most recorded activity (43%), followed by standing (19%), lying (13%) moving (9%), walking (8%) and high intensity physical activities (1%).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhysical activity is known to benefit health while muscle activation and movements performed during occupational work in contrast may result in work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Therefore, we posed the research question: which mode of muscle activation may result in a reversal of work-related disorders? To address this, we performed electromyographic (EMG) and kinematic assessments of workers with diverse exposure categories: sedentary monotonous work, prolonged walking/standing, and physically heavy work. The various job-specific exposure variables could be categorized in terms of duration, intensity, repetition, static component, peak force etc.
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