Allan Brown from MEMIC is a physical trainer by schooling, and he was the speaker at Friday’s meeting. Mr. Brown shared some of his 33-years of ergonomic experience gained from his schooling and from training workers and employers at one of Maine’s largest companies.
His message about ergonomics really touches close to home, since Maine has one of the oldest work forces (with the average worker age being close to 48 years old) and with over 85% of current jobs being considered sedentary when compared to approximately 50% of jobs in the 1950’s. For instance, Allan and others were noticing that workers in the office were having more aches, pains, or injuries than those in the warehouse. This lead to companies starting to use standup desks to help with posture and change positioning at work.
Mr. Brown also discussed comorbidity which is the coupling of multiple diseases or disorders, and which often occurs as one grows older (e.g., oh, my aching back, and my eyes are going). He also demonstrated how correct posture comes from sitting or standing properly at work, and how changing positions throughout the day will help all of us to reduce strain. He noted that those of us that stand up and walk around the office, and maybe standing occasionally throughout the day, have been shown to be healthier in the long run.
Allan compared our posture to a seven-button club, whereby the number of buttons one sees on your shirt in the mirror gets smaller (6 buttons), and smaller (5 buttons), as we crouch, slouch, or bend over. If you can align your spine vertically, all seven buttons on your shirt have a shot at showing, and this is the best posture for reducing comorbidities and strain.
He drove his points home by having Patty Erickson (photo at left) and Elise Hodgkin (photo below) demonstrate how our typical 13-pound head can really affect the musculature, and how holding one’s head in a proper position can allow certain muscles to relax. 
He went as far as to connect Elise’s upper back muscles to a machine that recorded the muscles' electrical pulses, and converted the readings to sound: the tighter the muscles were when she reached forward, the louder the sound became. With a little practice, Elise was able to relax those muscles using proper posture.
The long and short of Mr. Brown’s presentation is that over the years, gravity can bring you down, but there are some things you can do to counter act it. For additional information, he can be contacted at: abrown@memic.com.
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(Photo L-R: 2nd VP Ellen Niewoehner, President John Curran, Allan Brown and Justin Lamontagne.)