Anyone, or anything, can get a repetitive stress injury and a repetitive stress injury will usually show some kind of signs before it sets in completely.  The best way to avoid a repetitive stress injury is to know what causes a repetitive stress injury and what you can do to avoid it.  Once you learn what steps can be taken to reduce a repetitive stress injury then suddenly some of the things you see in everyday life begin to make sense.  When you see the secretary wearing a wrist brace, or when the state Department of Transportation closes down bridges for work every year, or why oil and other lubricants are used on certain metal parts you will understand why those things are done and why those precautions against repetitive stress injury need to be taken.

A repetitive stress injury is when something is constantly in use and then eventually just breaks down from the constant wear and tear.  Probably the best example for human beings is a condition called carpal tunnel syndrome.  Carpal tunnel syndrome is a pain the wrist and forearm area that makes moving your wrist extremely painful.  Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is most likely to affect women than men and is the result of putting your wrist in a position it was not meant to stay in and then keeping it that way for extended periods of time.  The best position for the wrist is straight out but, for example, a guitar player who plays every night could develop carpal tunnel syndrome because of the way the wrist is bent while playing.  There are exercises and precautions that can be taken to prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome but if nothing is done in a situation like this then it could develop and it is painful.

Over The Bridge

Probably the best example of repetitive stress injury to non-humans is when a bridge collapses due to the parts failing on it.  This is why states spend so much money to work on bridges every year.  While the cars are driving on the bridges the metal parts the bridges are made of are constantly bending and moving with the weight of the vehicles.  If this bending and weight is not accounted for every so often then at some point the bridge will fail and collapse.  We recently saw an example of this in Minnesota where a bridge collapsed after years of use.  It was later found out that there were warnings about repairs needed on that bridge and that is indicative of what stress can do to mechanical parts.

Oil and other lubricants are used to reduce the repetitive stress injury to things like the engine in your car.  Oil lubricates the moving parts in your engine and without that lubrication the metal on metal action in your engine will quickly cause your engine to seize up and could cause a need for major repairs.  Anywhere there is a lot of metal on metal moving connections you will usually see a lubricant.  Next time you are at an amusement park take a look at where all of the metal beams meet and where everything moves.  Chances are you see lubricant put on to reduce repetitive stress injury.

Tags: Repetitive Stress Injury

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