Practice Makes Prevention
by December Vega, LAT, ATC
Have you ever wondered why athletes continue practicing a movement long after they’ve learned how to perform it? A quarterback doesn’t learn to throw a ball once and call it a day. A shortstop doesn’t learn how to turn a double-play and never rehearse motions again. These same motions are practiced thousands of times so they remain consistent when the tension mounts and pressure rises.
The same principle applies to industrial athletes. Training introduces safe movement and repetition helps make it reliable. When a shift gets heavy, fatigue sets in, or production demands increase, an industrial athlete is more likely to rely on their established habits. Repetition helps ensure those habits become the default choice when work becomes more demanding.
From Practice To Habit
Continuous training helps build deep muscle memory, which is the ultimate injury prevention tool. When a worker faces intense physical or mental exhaustion, their brain then subconsciously looks for energy and mostly time-saving shortcuts. Repetitive ergonomic coaching out on the floor, conditions the body to automatically choose safe biomechanics over dangerous shortcuts.
There is no universal number of repetitions that guarantees a movement will become automatic. The complexity of the task, how often it is performed, and the consistency of the coaching all play a role. That’s why training should not be treated as something workers complete once. Safe movement must be revisited, practiced, and reinforced as part of the work itself.
From Habit to Prevention
To help our industrial athletes avoid making unsafe choices, we need to treat safety like a daily athletic conditioning program. Repetition doesn’t have to mean repeating the same full training session, either. It can include practicing a lift before beginning an unfamiliar task, revisiting push-and-pull mechanics when equipment changes, reviewing positioning before a high-volume period, or using a pre-shift meeting to rehearse one movement that will be performed throughout the day. The timing should follow the work: reinforce the movement before it is needed, when conditions change, and often enough that the correct technique remains familiar.
We can also encourage each other to spot and correct movement, because safety is a team effort, not just an individual responsibility.
By coaching safe movements daily, we ensure that the right posture is the only instinct a worker has left when fatigue kicks in. Continuous reinforcement (rather than a single encounter) is what actually drives long-term behavioral changes and reduces workplace musculoskeletal disorders. It keeps us all safe, strong, injury-free, and productive for the long haul.
December Vega, LAT, ATC || December spent 2 years at a Honda transmission plant directly after graduating from Northern Illinois University with her athletic training degree. She then decided to move back to Illinois where she was a float ATC at a Northwestern Medicine orthopedic clinic, before joining Work Right in 2024. She loves reading, playing video games with her fiancé, and walking her two beagles.
Be sure to check out our other blogs for further injury prevention education and tips for the industrial athlete from Work Right!