What is the Body Smart Program?

Body Smart is an established workplace health program developed by Edser Health and refined through years of delivery across construction, rail, mining, hospitality, and corporate environments. It is built on a clear, evidence-based framework and designed to be genuinely engaging — the kind of training workers talk about after the session, not the kind they forget by lunchtime.

The program brings together two core components: critical thinking for hazardous manual task identification and prevention, and healthy behaviours grounded in four key pillars of human health. These two elements are not separate conversations. They are interconnected. A worker who understands both the physical risks of their tasks and the lifestyle factors that affect their physical resilience is significantly better equipped to stay well at work.

Body Smart is delivered onsite, face to face, by qualified Edser Health clinicians. Every session is adapted to the specific demands, risks, and language of your workforce. There is no generic slide deck. There is no reading from a script. The content is built around your people and the work they actually do.

Program details
Delivered onsite at your workplace
Small groups for maximum engagement
Facilitated by qualified clinicians
Tailored to your industry and workforce
Supporting materials available
Suitable for

Any industry where workers perform physical tasks or face musculoskeletal risk. Construction, rail, mining, warehousing, manufacturing, hospitality, local government, and office environments have all benefited from Body Smart.

The two foundations of Body Smart

Body Smart works because it addresses the two things that most injury prevention training ignores: how workers think about risk, and how workers live outside of work. Together, these foundations build genuine resilience.

Component one

Critical thinking for a sustainable workplace

Most workers know that lifting incorrectly can cause injury. Fewer understand why certain tasks are genuinely hazardous, how to recognise those hazards in their own job, and what to do when they spot them. Body Smart closes that gap.

The critical thinking component of Body Smart is built around the real physical demands of your workers' roles. Rather than presenting generic safety theory, we work through what hazardous manual tasks actually look like in your specific environment. Workers learn to identify risk factors — force, repetition, awkward postures, sustained load — in the context of tasks they perform every day.

Participants engage in hands-on activities including task analyses and video reviews tailored to their work group. This is not a lecture. It is a facilitated conversation that builds genuine understanding, not just compliance.

The content is developed in alignment with current Australian standards and best practice, but it is delivered in plain language that workers can act on immediately.

Workers will leave able to:
  • Identify hazardous manual tasks in their own role
  • Understand the characteristics of tasks that create injury risk
  • Apply practical risk prevention strategies to their daily work
Component two

Healthy behaviours for resilient workers

Injury risk is not only about what workers do at work. It is also about the physical condition they arrive in. Sleep deprivation, poor nutrition, low physical activity, and high stress all increase the likelihood of injury and slow recovery when injuries occur.

The healthy behaviours component of Body Smart explores four key pillars of human health and how they interact with each other and with musculoskeletal injury risk. Rather than presenting these as abstract wellness concepts, we connect each pillar directly to the physical realities of your workers' lives and jobs.

The approach is practical and judgement-free. Workers leave with simple, realistic strategies they can apply immediately, without needing a gym membership, a nutritionist, or a complete lifestyle overhaul. The goal is small, sustainable changes that accumulate into meaningful improvements in physical resilience over time.

This component is one of the most consistently well-received parts of the Body Smart program, because it treats workers as whole people rather than just bodies performing tasks.

Workers will leave able to:
  • Understand how lifestyle factors directly affect injury risk and recovery
  • Build simple, practical health habits suited to the demands of their work and life
  • Take immediate action on at least one healthy behaviour change

Who is Body Smart for?

Body Smart is designed for workplaces that are serious about injury prevention and want training that goes beyond ticking a box. It works particularly well for organisations that have looked at their safety data and know that something needs to change, but have found that standard manual handling courses have not moved the dial.

It is also well suited to organisations that want to take a more holistic approach to worker health — not just addressing the tasks themselves, but building a workforce that is physically and mentally resilient.

Enquire about Body Smart
Industries we have delivered Body Smart to:
Construction
Rail and transport
Mining and resources
Warehousing and logistics
Manufacturing
Local government
Hospitality
Office and corporate

Bring Body Smart to your workforce

Get in touch to talk through your team, your industry, and how we can tailor Body Smart to your specific needs.