Can resistance training help reduce neck and shoulder pain in office workers?

Research suggests it can help. A systematic review and meta-analysis of workplace resistance training studies found reductions in neck and shoulder discomfort, along with improvements in neck and shoulder muscle strength. However, the authors rated the overall certainty of the evidence as limited because of substantial variation between studies.

How often should office workers do resistance training?

The studies included in the review used a range of approaches, including several structured sessions each week as well as shorter exercise bouts incorporated into the workday. The most appropriate frequency will depend on the workforce, exercise intensity and program design.

Do workplace resistance exercises require a gym?

Not necessarily. Resistance exercise can be performed using simple equipment such as resistance bands, light free weights or bodyweight exercises, making it possible to incorporate strength work close to the workstation.

Is strength training enough to offset prolonged sitting?

No. Resistance training can support musculoskeletal strength and may reduce discomfort, but the review did not find measurable improvements in the cardiometabolic or mental health outcomes assessed. A broader workplace health strategy should also address sedentary time, movement, cardiovascular activity and workstation factors.

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Suitable Duties Programs

How to Design Meaningful Modified Work

Suitable duties programs help injured workers stay productive while recovering. With meaningful tasks, clear restrictions and regular reviews, employers can support a safer and more effective return to work.

Author:

Jack Waller, Physiotherapist & Manager

Published October 26, 2026

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Suitable duties programs are where return to work succeeds or fails. The medical certificate says “fit for suitable duties” — and then the real question begins: what will this worker actually do tomorrow? Answer it well, and you keep an injured worker productive, connected and recovering. Answer it badly — token tasks, vague restrictions, resentful supervisors — and you push a recoverable injury toward a long, expensive claim.

This guide is for return to work coordinators, supervisors, HR managers and employers who want to design suitable duties programs that genuinely work: meaningful for the worker, workable for the team, and defensible under your state’s return to work obligations.

What Are Suitable Duties?

Suitable duties (also called modified duties, light duties or alternate duties) are tasks an injured worker can perform safely within their current medical restrictions while they recover. A suitable duties program documents:

The specific tasks the worker will perform
Hours, days and shift patterns, often graduated
The restrictions being accommodated (lifting limits, postural limits, no ladder work, etc.)
Review dates for upgrading the program as capacity improves
Who’s responsible for supervision and escalation.

Under Australian workers compensation schemes, employers are generally obliged to provide suitable employment where reasonably practicable when a worker has capacity — with the details varying by jurisdiction (WorkSafe Queensland — suitable duties). But well beyond compliance, suitable duties are clinically valuable: appropriate work is part of recovery, not a delay to it (Comcare — health benefits of good work).

The Difference Between Good and Bad Suitable Duties

Good suitable duties look like this

Real components of the worker’s own role that fit their restrictions
Genuine value-adding tasks from elsewhere in the business — quality checks, training juniors, process documentation, stocktakes, audits
Tasks selected because their measured physical demands match the worker’s assessed capacity
A program that visibly progresses — this fortnight’s duties are closer to normal than last fortnight’s

Bad suitable duties look like this

Sweeping a corner of the warehouse for eight hours
“Filing” invented to fill time
Sitting in the lunchroom “on standby”
Duties that quietly exceed restrictions because nobody checked the actual task demands.

Token work damages recovery. It tells the worker they’re a burden, breeds resentment in the team carrying their load, and often breaches restrictions anyway. Workers on demeaning duties disengage — and disengaged workers recover slower.

How to Build a Suitable Duties Program That Works

Step 1: Know your tasks before you need them

The workplaces that handle suitable duties best have done the homework in advance: a job dictionary documenting the physical demands of every role and task on site — forces, postures, frequencies, durations. When an injury happens, matching restrictions to tasks takes minutes, not weeks, and the treating practitioner can see exactly what’s available instead of defaulting to “unfit for all duties”.

Step 2: Translate restrictions into tasks

“No lifting over 5 kg, no sustained forward bending” means nothing to a supervisor until it becomes “can operate the wrapper, do QA checks and drive the tug; can’t pick, palletise or unload”. A physiotherapist who knows both the injury and the site — the core of workplace-based injury rehabilitation — makes this translation precise.

Step 3: Make the duties add value

Ask one question of every proposed duty: would this task be worth doing if nobody were injured? If yes — deferred maintenance checks, 5S work, training content, mentoring apprentices, updating procedures — the worker contributes and knows it. Most sites have months of genuinely useful backlog waiting for exactly this labour.

Step 4: Brief the supervisor and the team

The supervisor must understand the restrictions, the reasons, and their authority to enforce them — including stopping the worker doing too much, which is common with conscientious workers. Where appropriate, brief the team: openness prevents the corrosive “why does he get the easy jobs” narrative.

Step 5: Upgrade relentlessly

Suitable duties are a ramp, not a destination. Build fortnightly reviews into the program from day one, reassess capacity formally, and expand duties every time capacity allows. Programs that stall at the same duties for months are the leading cause of “stuck” claims.

Step 6: Document everything

Record the offered duties, the worker’s agreement, restriction compliance and each review outcome. Good documentation protects everyone and keeps insurer and practitioners aligned.

Suitable Duties Ideas by Industry

Stuck for options? Real examples that have worked, by setting:

Manufacturing and food production: quality inspection, line auditing, label and date-code checks, rework stations, training new starters on theory components, 5S and standard-work documentation, calibration checks.
Warehousing and logistics: cycle counting, stock investigations, tug or walkie operation (capacity permitting), inbound paperwork, safety observations, load restraint checks, RF data cleanup.
Construction and trades: site inductions support, toolbox talk delivery, materials scheduling, plant pre-start documentation, drawing register management, quality ITP checks, hazard inspections with a buddy.
Office and administration: graduated hours on modified workstation setups, alternating sit-stand tasks, phone-based work where sustained postures are the restriction.

The pattern across all of them: real tasks, real value, restriction-compatible demands. Every site has a backlog of exactly this work — suitable duties programs are often the first time anyone resources it.

The Financial Case for Doing This Well

Suitable duties are sometimes resisted as a cost — “we’re paying full wages for partial output”. The arithmetic says otherwise. A worker on 60% productive duties costs you 40% of a wage in lost output. A worker at home costs 100% of their output, plus replacement labour, plus claim costs that compound with duration, plus premium impact for years. Australian scheme data consistently shows claim costs rising steeply with time off work — which is why insurers themselves fund and encourage suitable duties.

There’s also the audience effect. Every worker on site watches how an injured colleague is treated. A workplace that visibly finds meaningful work for its injured people is banking trust it will draw on in its next enterprise negotiation, its next safety campaign and its next injury.

Handling the Hard Cases

“We have no light duties here.” Rare in reality. A physiotherapist-led task review almost always finds meaningful options — partial tasks, redistributed tasks, project work. The claim “no suitable duties exist” should follow a documented search, not precede it.

The worker refuses duties. First check the duties are genuinely suitable and the offer was clear and written. Then explore the real barrier — pain fears, transport, team friction — before escalating through scheme processes.

Restrictions keep changing. Ask the treating practitioner for function-based restrictions (what the worker can do) and offer your job dictionary so certificates reflect your actual tasks.

A One-Page Suitable Duties Template

Whatever system you use, every program document should fit on a page and answer these questions at a glance:

Who: worker, supervisor, return to work coordinator, treating practitioners
What: the specific tasks approved, in plain operational language
Limits: the restrictions in force, stated as task limits (“no lifting from below knee height”) rather than clinical jargon
When: hours, days, breaks, and the date of the next scheduled upgrade review
Escalation: what the worker does if pain increases, and what the supervisor does if duties run short

Signed by worker and supervisor, copied to the practitioner and (where relevant) insurer, refreshed at every review. If your suitable duties paperwork takes longer to read than the shift takes to start, it will be ignored — clarity is compliance.

SUITABLE DUTIES PROGRAMS

Design Duties That Actually Rehabilitate

Employ Health builds suitable duties programs on real task data — job dictionaries, onsite physiotherapy and return to work expertise that turn “fit for suitable duties” into a concrete plan by tomorrow morning. Contact us to get ahead of your next injury.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a suitable duties program?

A documented plan of tasks, hours and restrictions that lets an injured worker keep working safely within their medical capacity while recovering, with scheduled reviews that upgrade duties as capacity improves.

Are employers required to provide suitable duties?

In most Australian jurisdictions, employers must provide suitable employment where reasonably practicable when an injured worker has capacity for work. Requirements and thresholds vary by state or territory scheme.

What if the doctor says “fit for suitable duties” but gives no detail?

Provide the practitioner with your job dictionary or a list of available tasks and their physical demands. Practitioners certify more precisely — and more generously — when they can see real, safe options.

Do suitable duties have to be in the worker’s normal role?

No. Duties can be modified elements of their own role, tasks from other areas, project work, or a combination — provided they’re safe, meaningful and within restrictions.

How often should a suitable duties program be reviewed?

Fortnightly is a good default for musculoskeletal injuries. Every review should formally reassess capacity and expand duties wherever possible, keeping the program moving toward pre-injury work.

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