Making Ergonomics Measurable: Myontec and Varma Explore Muscle Load at Work

From observing work to measuring its real physical demands

How physically demanding is a job for the person performing it? Traditional ergonomic assessments can identify working postures, repetitive movements and other potential risk factors. But observation alone does not always reveal how much the muscles are actually working.

Together with Varma, a Finnish pension insurance company, Myontec explored a more objective approach: measuring employees’ muscle activity directly in their normal working environment. The project demonstrated how wearable electromyography (EMG) can bring objective muscle-load data into occupational ergonomics and help organizations better understand the physical demands placed on employees.

Measuring muscle load during real work

One of the key advantages of Myontec technology is the ability to measure muscle activity non-invasively while a person moves and works naturally. Instead of limiting ergonomic assessment to a laboratory environment, wearable EMG garments allow measurements to be performed during actual work tasks.

This makes it possible to identify:

• overall muscular workload during the working day

• which muscle groups experience the highest load

• differences in muscle loading between work tasks

• left–right asymmetries

• unnecessarily high or sustained muscular loading

• opportunities to improve working methods, equipment or workplace design

The result is an additional layer of objective information that can complement traditional ergonomic assessment.

Turning muscle data into better working conditions

In the Varma pilot, muscle-load measurement was used to gain a better understanding of employees’ physical workload and explore ways to improve work quality and optimize workload. The principle is simple: when physical workload can be measured, it becomes easier to understand where improvements can be made.

For example, measurements can be performed before and after an ergonomic intervention. Changes in tools, equipment, working techniques or workstation design can then be evaluated based on their actual effect on muscular loading. Rather than relying solely on how an intervention looks or feels, organizations can add objective physiological evidence to the decision-making process.

A data-driven approach to occupational ergonomics

Musculoskeletal loading is highly individual. Two employees performing the same task may experience different muscular demands because of their working technique, anthropometrics, experience or physical capacity.

Wearable EMG helps make these differences visible. Myontec ErgoAnalysis brings muscle-load measurement from the laboratory into real workplaces, helping ergonomics and occupational-health professionals identify demanding work phases and evaluate the effectiveness of ergonomic improvements.

The approach can support:

Workload assessment – Understand how demanding different tasks are at the muscle level.

Ergonomic development – Compare alternative working methods, tools, equipment and workstation designs.

Intervention verification – Objectively evaluate whether an ergonomic change actually reduces muscular loading.

Employee wellbeing – Identify excessive or asymmetric loading that may warrant closer ergonomic attention.

Product and workplace development – Generate measurable evidence to support human-centered design decisions.

Better work starts with better information

The collaboration between Varma and Myontec was an early example of how wearable muscle sensing can be used outside sports and research laboratories to address an important workplace question:

What is the work actually demanding from the human body?

Today, wearable technology makes it increasingly practical to answer that question in the environment where it matters most—the workplace itself.

By combining professional ergonomic expertise with objective muscle-load measurements, organizations can move toward more evidence-based decisions that support safer, more sustainable and productive work.

🎥 Watch the original Varma and Myontec project video:“IMPROVING WORK PERFORMANCE AND SAFETY WITH MUSCLE LOAD MEASUREMENT”

Interested in measuring the physical demands of work in your organization?

Contact Myontec to learn more about ErgoAnalysis and wearable EMG-based ergonomic assessment.