How Physical Therapy Reduces Shoulder Pain in Warehouse Workers
If you run a busy warehouse or distribution center for Amazon, UPS, FedEx, DHL, or USPS, you've seen it. Workers frowning when they reach overhead. People avoiding certain tasks they used to do easily. Employees rubbing their shoulders during breaks.
Shoulder pain is one of the most common complaints in warehouse work, and it's not just uncomfortable. When someone's shoulder hurts, they can't safely lift, reach, or do the repetitive movements the job requires. When a worker’s shoulder is compromised, they lose their lifting strength. This leads to increased risk of serious workplace accidents.
Shoulder pain is common in physically demanding jobs, with rates increasing past age 50. For warehouse workers doing overhead work all day, it happens even earlier.
Why Warehouse Work Causes Shoulder Pain
Think about what your team does all day. The human shoulder is incredibly flexible, but it is not designed to lift heavy weights at awkward angles for 10 hours straight.
Grabbing heavy boxes off shelves that are above head-level forces the shoulder joint to do all the heavy lifting in its weakest position.
When workers have to reach deep into a bin or a rack to grab an item, it multiplies the weight and strain on the front of the shoulder.
Sorters making the same quick, jerky motions to scan and toss packages hours on end creates severe friction in the shoulder muscles.
Throwing heavy freight packages high up to build a wall inside a trailer exhausts the rotator cuff muscles (the small muscles that hold the shoulder together).
The shoulder is your body's most mobile joint, which also makes it the most vulnerable. All that reaching and lifting wears it down over time.
What your warehouse workers may complain about:
Pain when reaching overhead or out to the side
Aching that gets worse with repetitive movements
Sudden weakness, like their arm might give out while carrying a heavy box.
Stiffness that limits how far they can reach
Pain that shoots from the shoulder down the outside of the arm.
Trouble sleeping on the sore shoulder
How Physical Therapy Treats Warehouse Work Shoulder Pain
When shoulders hurt from warehouse work, you need to make the muscles around the shoulder stronger and get back the movement you've lost. Physical therapy helps warehouse workers by:
Building a stronger foundation: Strengthening the muscles of the mid-back and shoulder blades so the shoulder joint has a solid base to lift from.
Calming inflammation: Using targeted techniques to reduce the swelling in overworked muscles.
Teaching safe lifting: Showing workers how to use their legs and core, and keeping boxes close to their chest, so the shoulder isn't taking the entire burden of the load.
How TheraMotive Brings Mobile Physical Therapy Clinics to Your Warehouse
Warehouse workers with shoulder pain usually don't get help until it's affecting their ability to work. Why? Getting to a Physical Therapy clinic during work hours is nearly impossible. TheraMotive makes getting help easy by bringing mobile physical therapy clinics right to your loading dock.
Our mobile physical therapy clinics are fully equipped, climate-controlled medical RVs with wheelchair ramps and private treatment rooms. We park right in your lot.
We have the ability to see up to 30 workers a day, workers can step outside for a quick appointment during a shift change or break without ever leaving the facility.
We manage all the insurance billing and coordinate directly with your HR and safety teams, removing the administrative headache.
Our licensed physical therapists use technology to spot patterns. If everyone working in Aisle 4 is getting shoulder pain, we can alert your safety team that the shelves might be set up poorly.
Why not to wait until your Warehouse Worker Can't Lift Anymore
Shoulder pain affects about half of workers in physically demanding jobs. And for many people, shoulder problems don't fully go away. About 4 out of 10 people will still have shoulder pain a year later.
Getting help early makes a huge difference. TheraMotive's mobile clinics make it easy for people to get care when the problem is small instead of waiting until they can barely use their arm.