Effects of neuromuscular fatigue on workplace tasks

与工作场所手动材料处理相关的上肢和下背部肌肉骨骼损伤已成为医疗保健系统压力方面的社会负担，更不用说受伤员工本身的健康和福祉了。许多损伤是由于重复和长时间的工作性质导致的肌肉疲劳状态，这是一种已知的损伤倾向。然而，人们还不清楚的是，工人们在肌肉疲劳的情况下对他们的工作技术所做的调整。我们的研究已经证明了在进行矢状面限制性举重活动时，反复承受次最大负荷对肌肉疲劳和力量恢复的影响。我们还发现了那些后来在工作中出现腰痛的个体在协调运动模式上的差异。拟议的研究将调查当工人执行复杂，疲劳的工作任务时，协调运动模式的修改。了解神经肌肉疲劳对个体协调和运动模式的影响是制定指导方针和工作策略以减少工作场所相关肌肉骨骼损伤发生率并确定最有利的工作休息指导方针的关键一步。

Musculoskeletal injuries to the upper extremity and low back related to manual material handling in the workplace have become a societal burden in terms of stress on the health care system not to mention the health and well-being of the injured employees themselves. Many of the injuries are a function of the repetitive and prolonged nature of the work resulting in a state of muscle fatigue, a known predisposition for the injury. What is not clearly understood however, are the accommodations workers make to their work technique in light of fatigued muscles. Our research has demonstrated the effects on muscle fatigue and strength recovery when subjected to repeated submaximal workloads while performing sagittal constrained lifting activities. We have also identified differences in coordinated movement patterns in individuals who later developed low back pain at work. The proposed research will investigate the modifications to the coordinated movement patterns when workers perform complex, fatiguing work tasks. An understanding of the effects of neuromuscular fatigue on individual coordination and movement patterns is a critical step towards developing guidelines and work strategies to reduce the incidence of workplace associated musculoskeletal injuries and determining the most advantageous work to rest guidelines.