- Aug 14, 2003
- 3,994
- 82
Quick question for anyone running production: what are you doing before and during a shift to keep from wrecking your body?
Are you using pneumatic loaders or lift tables for green, or still muscling buckets? Doing any mobility work before firing the burner, or just diving into the pallets?
Here’s why I’m asking, and take it as a friendly PSA:
After 36 years behind commercial drums, I can tell you the hardest part of this job isn’t profile development or roasting consistency. It’s what 150-lb burlap sacks, concrete floors, and awkward lifting do to your spine over time.
When you’re in your 20s or 30s, you think you’re a forklift. You deadlift full sacks solo, hump 50-lb buckets over your shoulder into a top hopper, pull heavy manual pallet jacks across cracked floors, and spend half the day hunched over a packaging table or cooling tray.
You don’t feel it right away. It’s quiet. But it adds up year after year until one day you’re dealing with torn discs, severe nerve pinches in your neck, and numbness down your arms that takes you off the production floor for good.
A few things I wish guys took more seriously:
What setups, tools, or habits are keeping you guys upright on the floor?
Are you using pneumatic loaders or lift tables for green, or still muscling buckets? Doing any mobility work before firing the burner, or just diving into the pallets?
Here’s why I’m asking, and take it as a friendly PSA:
After 36 years behind commercial drums, I can tell you the hardest part of this job isn’t profile development or roasting consistency. It’s what 150-lb burlap sacks, concrete floors, and awkward lifting do to your spine over time.
When you’re in your 20s or 30s, you think you’re a forklift. You deadlift full sacks solo, hump 50-lb buckets over your shoulder into a top hopper, pull heavy manual pallet jacks across cracked floors, and spend half the day hunched over a packaging table or cooling tray.
You don’t feel it right away. It’s quiet. But it adds up year after year until one day you’re dealing with torn discs, severe nerve pinches in your neck, and numbness down your arms that takes you off the production floor for good.
A few things I wish guys took more seriously:
- Get mechanical help for green loading. Pneumatic loaders, hoists, scissor lift tables, whatever you can get. If an owner says they can’t afford it, remind them that machinery is a write-off; your spine isn't replaceable.
- Stop lifting 150 lb bags solo. Cut and scoop into buckets, or make it a two-person lift every time. There’s no pride in blowing out an L4–L5 to save two minutes.
- Raise your work tables. If you’re bagging, weighing, or heat-sealing, bring that table up to elbow height. Spending hours looking straight down destroys your neck.
- Get thick anit-fatigue mats. Standing on bare concrete all shift transfers every bit of shock right into your lower back.
- Warm up first. Spend five minutes stretching your hips and shoulders before you grab that first bag of green.
What setups, tools, or habits are keeping you guys upright on the floor?
