Posture based Assessment of Plogging Activity

Plogging is a combination of jogging with picking up litter. It is an eco-friendly fitness craze which started off as an organized activity following the increased concern of plastic pollution. People involved in plogging are exposed to repetitive bending. Plogging activity can be carried out in stoop, squat, semi-squat or lunge posture. The present research aims to identify which posture is more suitable for the activity. Posture analysis was conducted in thirty-six healthy subjects during plogging using Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) to check the risk level of the postures. Kruskal-Wallis test is performed in order to determine whether there are any statistically significant differences between the risk level of different postures as well as post-hoc test is conducted in order to find out the interaction between risk level and postures for significance. Squatting posture and lunge posture are found out to be more suitable during the plogging activity when compared to the other two postures such as stoop and semi-squat due to the less lumbar loading. Ergonomic interventions can play a vital role in reducing posture-related injuries by introducing a user-friendly hand tool for picking plastic wastes.