If you were injured at work and are unable to return to your job, you may need a work conditioning or work hardening program. If you are hurt on the job, your employer or their insurance company will require you to go through a work conditioning or hardening program to prove that you’re ready to resume work. The goal of these programs is to educate you to prevent workplace injuries in the future, as well as get you back up as good as or better than you were before the injury.

Work Conditioning

Work conditioning is an intensive program aimed to strengthen your physical discipline for a few hours a day, 5 days per week. It involves physical therapy to improve your strength and endurance as well as improve your range of motion. This may include practice of specific work-related activities. An occupational therapist can help you return to work by achieving maximum medical improvement quickly.

Work Hardening

Work hardening is a multidisciplinary, total body strengthening and endurance program. You would undergo therapy for several hours per day, 3 to 5 days per week. The work involved in your job is replicated and the following are monitored –

  • your posture
  • your motion
  • how long until you become fatigued
  • your ability to safely perform tasks involved in your job
  • whether you are able to focus or you are experiencing any nervousness or paranoia due to the physical trauma you had to go through

Both programs are designed to help you return to work fully prepared. Work conditioning usually precedes work hardening, depending on the type of work your job requires you to perform and the damage sustained from injury.

To learn more or to consult the best Arizona workers compensation and personal injury doctors in Phoenix, Arizona, call Arizona Injury Medical Associates at 480-347-0941.