Save Your Hands, Injury Prevention for Massage Therapists book, home study CEU continuing education course class, self care for massage therapy students and professional bodyworkers

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Injury Prevention Tips

To prevent injury as a manual therapist, you need to be aware of the common risk factors in your work and home life that can cause injury, and take the necessary steps to reduce your exposure to them. Here are some injury prevention tips you can put into practice every day:

Protect your hands from sudden shock, heavy vibration, and undue stress from lifting or carrying in your away-from-work activities, to reduce your overall exposure to these risk factors.
Warm up before you start working. You need to get the circulation going to provide the necessary exchange of oxygen and removal of metabolic byproducts from your tissues to keep them healthy as you work. Get your circulation going with some aerobic activity, and then do stretches to get your hands and arms limber and ready to work.
Make time to relax, breathe and stretch throughout the work day to counteract tension that can accumulate and increase your injury risk.
Schedule enough time between clients to allow you to relax, breath and stretch (minimum 15 minutes, more is better).
Use a power-adjustable table instead of a stationary table. A power-adjustable allows you to quickly and easily adjust table height to help you maintain good body mechanics and near-neutral postures as you work.
Get regular massages to counteract tension, work on trigger points, and encourage good circulation.
Increase your workload gradually - sudden increases can provoke an injury.
Stay in touch with the signals your body is sending you. Don't concentrate so much on treating your patient that you lose awareness of the signals of pain and discomfort you need to heed in order to stay healthy.
Avoid doing other hand-intensive activities. You are already overtaxing your upper extremities with your work. Asking them to do computer work, intense gardening, or hours of piano practice on top of that increases your injury risk.
Be careful not to take on too many additional classes or workshops. Hands-on practitioners routinely pursue continuing education opportunities throughout their careers. If you plan to take a full weekend of hands-on workshops, ease up on your schedule before and after the weekend so you don't overload vulnerable body parts like the hands or back.
Develop a realistic attitude toward your work. There are limits to what you can do for your clients. Your clients must participate in their own treatment and recovery. It is contrary to the therapeutic process to hurt yourself to help others. Respecting your own limits is healthy, and will help you prevent injury.
Work out at least three times a week, using a combination of strengthening exercises, stretches and aerobic activity. See the conditioning program in Save Your Hands! for exercises and stretches designed especially for manual therapists by a physical therapist.
Lighten up: Don't exhaust yourself with every client. Pace yourself throughout your day and your week so you don't end up physically and emotionally depleted at the end of the work week.
Treat symptoms early and effectively: it's your best strategy for keeping low-level symptoms from progressing to full-fledged injury, since despite your best prevention efforts, symptoms can still occur.

For more helpful tips and advice, read Lauriann and Rick's articles on self-care and injury prevention.