by Alissa C. Atkins, Esq.

As 2013 begins, many of us have made resolutions to get healthy. We are bombarded with ways to eat better, exercise more and improve communication — basically how to change everything we wish we did better in 2012. And with the New Year comes gym memberships and athletic gear and plans to lose weight. But that’s not all. According to physicians at Piedmont Hospital, these resolutions also bring an increase in soft tissue claims, primarily in the lower back, as well as more claims of shoulder and knee pain. These are not the types of repetitive use injuries such as “tennis elbow” they see from hardcore athletes throughout the year, but rather tend to be from beginners who overload their muscles in an effort to get the ripped bodies they seek in minimal time. The doctors caution against jumping in to any exercise program without properly warming up and knowing your body’s physical limitations.

While this seems like nice advice to start the year, it is also a trend to be aware of in the workers’ compensation field. Concentra reports an increase in reported low back injuries in the first quarter of the year. Primarily these are legitimate injuries, but may have been sustained at home or in a gym. In industries with highly physical jobs such as construction, this may not be an issue because activity is not out of the norm, but workers with more sedentary jobs may sustain injuries outside of the workplace and may not even realize the severity of the injury for a few days, then report the pain as work-related. This is not to say that the workers’ compensation claim of an employee who began a fitness program should automatically be denied, but it is definitely something to consider in evaluating new claims.