Muscles, bones and joints

How to prevent common injuries to muscles, bones and joints

Common injuries to muscles, bones and joints

Healt​hy muscles, bones and joints are important to a fit, active lifestyle, and a safe and secure working life. To protect these from injury and illness, such as back pain or repetitive strain symptoms, you could adopt safe working practices, understand risks and responsibilities, and spot patterns or trends in workplace incidents, accidents or absence.

Injuries to muscles, bones and joints in the workplace can be caused in a number of ways, such as: ​

  • carrying out repetitive tasks
  • staying in one position for too long, such as at workstations or prolonged driving

Injuries can also be caused by work tasks that involve manual force. This includes to:

  • carry
  • move
  • push
  • pull
  • slide
  • stop
  • extract

This can lead to issues such as:

  • sore joints
  • cuts, burns and freezing
  • lower back and neck injuries
  • muscular pain and poor circulation
  • sleep disturbance, stress and fatigue

Injuries to muscles bones and joints are often referred to as musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). You can find out more about MSD on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website.

Visit the HSE site for more about MSD​

Carry out a risk assessment

The best way to find out about the risks, and how to address these, is by discussing issues with staff and carrying out a risk assessment.

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Find out more

You can share the video below with your employees to help raise awareness and encourage discussion on the subject.