Your employment in a New York industrial workplace may provide you and your family with a good life, but as you are likely aware, industrial workplaces carry some risk of injury, such as neck strain. A case of neck strain may last for a short time, but it can also cause severe pain and prevent you from working until you recover.
Some people apply for workers’ compensation because they suffer neck strain while on the job. Spine-health describes some causes of neck strain that might happen in an industrial workplace.
Lifting a heavy object
Picking up an object that is too heavy for you to lift may create a variety of muscle injuries. This is because you are overexerting your muscles beyond their normal capacity. While you will probably suffer a back injury, lifting a heavy object could also strain your neck muscles.
Suffering an impact
Workers may suffer a number of falls or collisions in an industrial workplace. The potential for neck strain rises when you experience a sudden impact that turns your head and cervical spine too fast for your muscles to sustain. This may create forms of neck strain like whiplash.
Engaging in a new activity
Your workplace might have you perform a task you have never done before. The problem is that having a muscle perform a new, strenuous action makes it more vulnerable to muscle strain. If your workplace has not trained or prepared you properly, you might overexert your neck muscles when you make your first attempt at this new activity.
Holding an awkward posture
Some workers suffer neck pain because they stay in an awkward position for too long. Trying to sit or stand in a certain way for an extended period can overexert your neck muscles and tendons. For example, you may perform work that has you look down for a prolonged period of time. Wearing heavy gear while standing awkwardly may also contribute to your neck strain.
Knowing how neck strain occurs may help you to take action to prevent it from happening. Nonetheless, if you should suffer a painful neck injury, workers’ compensation remains an option to help cover your medical bills.