Abstract

A previous study demonstrated that brush cutters handle a heavy physical workload and that they must have good cardiorespiratory capacity to do it safely. Some of them are inactive during the off-season and begin the work season in reduced physical condition that could lead to excessive fatigue. A direct link between excessive fatigue and reduced productivity, deterioration in health, and increased work accidents has already been established. This study’s authors wanted to verify the feasibility of an approach consisting of measuring the effects of pre-season physical training on physical condition and strain, productivity, and accidents.

A group of physically trained workers and a control group collaborated in this study. The former followed the Programme d'entraînement physique pour les travailleurs forestiers (PEPTF, physical training program for forestry workers). It improved the workers’ cardiorespiratory capacity. However, the program should be more demanding in order to increase this capacity to the level required for reforestation work.

The authors believe that this approach should be repeated for one or two years in order to obtain sufficient data to ensure solid results, mainly regarding measurements related to productivity, strain and work accidents. At the end, if the results are conclusive, the PEPTF could be one means of improving brush cutters’ OHS.