Pain means tissue damage

– not true, says Lowth. Pain is the brain’s interpretation of danger, which can be influenced by various non-physical factors.

He adds that suitable workplace training is vital, especially for people doing hazardous manual tasks, such as those involving sudden or high force, vibration, awkwardness, repetition or long durations.

“The best thing you can do with a hazardous manual task is eliminate it,” he says. “However, I don’t think you want to eliminate all manual tasks because not all manual loading is hazardous.” He points out that while some jobs involve heavy, awkward work that tends to cause injuries, many other people experience negative health effects from sedentary work. “There has to be a sweet spot in the middle, where you’re loading your body in a way which is beneficial for musculoskeletal health,” he says.

This idea was raised in a 2017 paper published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The authors describe how the Goldilocks Principle of ‘just right’ needs to be acknowledged in occupational life, rather than designing physical activity simply to ‘not cause harm’.

Cleaners, for example, “have long continuous periods of physical activity at low metabolic intensity, causing fatigue without promoting cardiorespiratory fitness,” they write. “To have a health promotion effect, cleaning work could be designed to have higher intensity bursts separated by tasks offering recovery.” Rotation between manual tasks is one solution, Lowth notes, as is thinking of yourself as an “industrial athlete” who trains to be fit for their tasks.

Professor O’Sullivan likens this to running. “It’s likely that if you aren’t used to running and you are weak and unfit, that running 10 kilometres straight off will hurt. The key is to be fit and strong and gradually build up – to start injury-free, while caring for your general health.”

Regarding lifting, he says that we “currently don’t know if there is a best posture to reduce back pain risk, but we do know that keeping fit and strong for the task is important.” A healthy lifestyle – including things like getting adequate sleep and keeping to a healthy weight – is also always beneficial. mindfood.com/research-benefits-yoga

Most yoga practitioners will tell you there are a range of benefits to be had from this exercise . New research has recently shone a light on even more physical and mental health benefits.