Construction workers use simple warm-ups

It’s 6:30 a.m., the dawn of a new day, and while many folks are just wiping the cobwebs from their eyes, Honolulu’s construction workers are already up and energized for a full shift on the job site. They have to be ready to pick up whatever and wherever they left off the previous day, so there’s not much time to ease into the job.

Workers building Keauhou Place, a residential-retail development in Kakaako, have a simple way to get warmed up. It takes just three minutes but it’s safe and effective.

“If we send our guys out cold without warming up a little bit, we see more injuries,” said Jamie Renard, site safety professional for Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co., general contractor for Keauhou Place. “We get them a little loose, get the blood flowing, so they can roll right into whatever task they have.”

The company is the largest and oldest full-service general contractor in the state, building most of Hawaii’s highways and skyscrapers. The company has incorporated a workout regime into its workday for “as long as I can remember,” said Renard, who’s been in construction 12 years.

But the routines change as new information becomes available about what works best.

“It used to be a stretch-and-flex program, but we saw some studies that said stretching cold can actually cause injuries,” he said. “So it’s more of a warm-up program. It’s not heavy cardio but there is light cardio. There is a lot of light stretching.”

Early one recent morning a crew of about a dozen workers got warmed up for building the pilings that would support the 40-story tower, drilling down to about 125 feet using a gigantic drill, said engineer David Neary.

Led by foreman George Meyers, their workout took only a couple of minutes. At first it seemed reminiscent of a grade-school PE class, beginning with about 10 seconds of arm circles, backward and forward. But instead of moving to jumping jacks — too much impact on the knees, Renard said — the workers proceeded to simple, subtle movements, tilting the neck from side to side and back to front, lifting one arm behind the head and pulling it from the elbow with the other, then placing their hands behind the waist and pulling and gently stretching.

From the upper body the exercises move down the body, beginning with a bend at the waist to reach for their toes. Most don’t make it all the way, but that’s not important, Renard said. Previous incarnations of the warm-up regime had workers crossing their legs while trying to touch the toes, but that was too much.

“We had one guy who actually strained his leg,” he said. “You don’t expect to have that kind of injury first thing in the morning.”

Lunges, followed by a reach for the sky, finished off the routine. Depending on their job, workers might also include a Hula Hoop-like movement, loosening up the knees and ankles, and “sucking up” to engage the core muscles.

“It’s not meant to strain or stretch the muscles very much; it’s more just to get the blood flowing to different parts of the body without making everybody move,” Renard said.

Meyers said he considers the warm-up to be very important to his crew. “It just helps out with your body to get everything loose to start out your morning. I think of it like playing sports, before they get out on the field they do their stretches,” said Meyers, who played baseball and football in his younger days.

Blaine Kahalewai, who was about to cart a wheelbarrow of trash across the site, said, “It’s good for us to warm up in the morning.” He ran track and field and played football in school, and his work at the site reminds him of that.

“It’s real strenuous,” he said. “You got to make sure your muscles are warm.”

He also finds the warm-up helpful after fighting traffic into town from his home in Waipio. “It’s a lot of stress,” he said.

Renard said getting properly warmed up is especially important for construction workers, who by nature tend to be competitive and push themselves on the job. He’s noticed differences across generations, where older workers who grew up in the outdoors get competitive with younger workers who are still in school or play video games.

“You have old guys who are slowing down but are trying not to slow down and the young guys who are trying to keep up with the old guys,” he said with a laugh.

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