What is physical labor? Labor Code heavy physical labor

Have you ever wondered why physical work is often opposed to education, a happy and fulfilling life, and is not respected and honored? For me this is the state of affairs for a long time was a given. But, as often happens in my life, this question’s turn has come to be questioned and analyzed.

Starting from the last grades of school, I was no longer satisfied with answers like “Everyone lives like this,” “Everyone thinks like this,” “Everyone does this.” So today I will try to show you that in matters of physical labor the majority is wrong, that without it we will not be able to develop harmoniously, achieve success, live happily and fully.

Possible reasons for the wrong attitude

First, let's look at the reasons for the wrong attitude. First reason- laziness is as old as human nature itself. I don’t want to say that laziness is not a hindrance to intellectual work. Sometimes it’s even the opposite: I start doing hard physical labor just to avoid writing an article.

But if a person is offered a choice of any profession, then, most likely, his choice will be more related to intellectual work than to physical work. And what a person does not like, he often tries to present to himself and others as of little use or even unnecessary. This is where they come to the rescue Plato's ideas.

Plato taught that man has an immortal soul - a thinking and feeling entity associated with higher information and spiritual matters. The body for the soul is just a temporary shelter associated with everything low, earthly and unclean. This is where the excessive exaltation of intellectualism over physical labor begins.

By the time Christianity becomes the state religion of the Roman Empire, Plato's ideas are already firmly included in it, despite the fact that the main book of Christians - the Bible - says nothing about the immortal soul in Plato's understanding and denies the afterlife itself.

This attitude permeates all levels of society and the entire culture of Europe. In addition, to combat the Reformation, the Jesuit Order creates schools and universities throughout Europe, the system and philosophy of education of which have become the foundation in almost all educational institutions of the modern world.

Thus, in addition to natural laziness, a person from childhood receives the idea that intellectual work is associated with something sublime, spiritual and worthy of honor, and physical work is the lot of the plebeians.

AND third reason follows from the second and, in turn, strengthens it even more strongly in our consciousness. This happens in the following way: a child is lazy to work intellectually and does poorly at school (or he is discouraged from studying), as a result he grows up as a person incapable of intellectual work, self-learning and self-development. Low level of intelligence, small vocabulary, low culture - the only prospect remains unskilled or low-skilled physical labor.

Looking at such a person, people usually confuse cause and effect and become convinced that physical labor does not contribute to mental and moral development and, in general, to the growth of a person as an individual. Below we will see that in fact when the right approach it's just the opposite.

General benefits of physical activity

Today, scientists are increasingly saying that playing sports helps us.

Useful practical result

And, by the way, about usefulness. Bottom Line, which can be beneficial for you personally and for others, is another benefit of physical labor.

If the result of sports exercises is the health of the body and mind, then the results of physical labor can be added to vegetables and fruits from your own plot, a cozy and beautiful home environment, or even.

Solution: fall in love with physical labor

What to do now? Quit intellectual work and sports exercises? Of course not. To begin with, you can simply take advantage of every opportunity to physically work: from simply digging a ditch to creating masterpiece furniture from strong oak.

Well, and most importantly: if you work without a good attitude, without creative approach, then it will be impossible to squeeze out all the bonuses. Is it possible to love physical work? I know from personal experience, which is possible, although not soon and not easy. Think about the benefits it provides, and for free. Usually people pay a lot of money for various trainings, but here we get training for muscles, for the brain, for character, and even with a useful external result. Whatever you want, I rushed off to cultivate the vineyard.

Physical work

Physical labor is characterized primarily by an increased load on the musculoskeletal system and functional systems (cardiovascular, neuromuscular, respiratory, etc.) that support its activity. Physical labor, while developing the muscular system and stimulating metabolic processes, at the same time has a number of negative consequences. This is the social inefficiency of physical labor associated with its low productivity, the need for high physical exertion and the need for long-term rest - up to 50% of working time.

In modern work activity, purely physical labor does not play a significant role. In accordance with the existing physiological classification of labor activity, there are: forms of labor that require significant muscle activity; mechanized forms of labor; related to semi-automatic and automatic production; group forms of labor (conveyors); forms of labor associated with remote control, and forms of intellectual (mental) labor.

Physical severity of labor (energy consumption)

The level of energy consumption can serve as a criterion for the severity and intensity of the work performed, which is important for optimizing working conditions and its rational organization. The level of energy consumption is determined by the method of full gas analysis (the volume of oxygen consumption and emitted gas is taken into account). carbon dioxide). As the severity of work increases, oxygen consumption and the amount of energy consumed increase significantly.

The severity and intensity of work are characterized by the degree of functional tension of the body. It can be energetic, depending on the power of work - during physical labor, and emotional - during mental work, when there is information overload.

The physical severity of labor is the load on the body during work, requiring predominantly muscular effort and appropriate energy supply. Classification of work by severity is made according to the level of energy consumption, taking into account the type of load (static or dynamic) and the muscles being loaded.

Static work is associated with fixing tools and objects of labor in a stationary state, as well as giving a person a working posture. Thus, work that requires the worker to be in a static position 10...25% of the working time is characterized as moderate work (energy consumption 172...293 J/s); 50% or more – hard work (energy consumption over 293 J/s).

Dynamic work is the process of muscle contraction, leading to the movement of a load, as well as the human body itself or its parts in space. In this case, energy is spent both on maintaining a certain tension in the muscles and on the mechanical effect. If the maximum weight of manually lifted loads does not exceed 5 kg for women and 15 kg for men, the work is characterized as light (energy consumption up to 172 J/s); 5...10 kg for women and 15...30 kg for men - medium weight; over 10 kg for women or 30 kg for men – heavy.

Labor intensity is characterized by the emotional load on the body during work that requires primarily intensive brain work to receive and process information. In addition, when assessing the degree of tension, ergonomic indicators are taken into account: work shifts, posture, number of movements, etc. Thus, if the density of perceived signals does not exceed 75 per hour, then the work is characterized as easy; 75…175 – moderate severity; over 176 – hard work.

In accordance with the hygienic classification of labor (R.2.2.013-94), working conditions are divided into four classes: 1-optimal; 2-acceptable; 3-harmful; 4-dangerous (extreme).

1.Optimal working conditions ensure maximum labor productivity and minimal stress on the human body. Optimal standards have been established for microclimate parameters and factors labor process. For other factors, working conditions are conditionally applied in which the levels of unfavorable factors do not exceed those accepted as safe for the population (within background limits).

2. Acceptable working conditions are characterized by levels of environmental factors and the labor process that do not exceed the levels established by hygienic standards for workplaces. The functional state of the body should be restored during regulated rest or by the beginning of the next shift; changes in the levels of environmental factors and the work process should not have an adverse effect in the immediate and long-term period on the health of the worker and his offspring. The optimal and permissible classes of working conditions must correspond to safe working conditions.

3.Harmful conditions labor are characterized by levels of harmful production factors that exceed hygienic standards and have an adverse effect on the body of the worker and (or) his offspring.

4. Extreme working conditions are characterized by such levels of production factors, the impact of which during work shift(or its part) creates a threat to life, a high risk of severe forms of acute occupational injuries.

Harmful working conditions (class 3) are divided into four degrees of harmfulness. The first degree is characterized by such deviations from hygienic standards, which, as a rule, cause reversible functional changes and determine the risk of developing the disease. The second degree is determined by such levels of production factors that can cause persistent functional disorders, leading in most cases to an increase in morbidity, temporary loss of ability to work, an increase in the frequency of diseases, and the appearance of initial signs of occupational pathology.

At the third degree, the impact of levels harmful factors leads, as a rule, to the development of occupational pathology in mild forms, an increase in chronic general somatic pathology, including an increase in the level of morbidity with temporary disability. In working conditions of the fourth degree, pronounced forms of occupational diseases may arise; there has been a significant increase in chronic pathology and high levels morbidity with temporary disability.

The degree of hazard of class 3 according to the hygienic classification is established in points. The number of points for each factor x f i is entered in the working conditions map, taking into account the duration of its action during the shift: x f i =x st i T i, where x st i is the degree of harmfulness of the factor or severity of work according to the hygienic classification of labor; T i =τ f i /τ rs - the ratio of the time of action of factors τ f to the duration of the work shift τ rs, if τ f i > τ rs, then T i =1.0.

To determine the specific amounts of additional payments, working conditions are assessed by the sum of the values ​​of the actual degrees of harmfulness, severity and intensity of work X fact =X f1 + X f2 + ... + X f n = ∑ x f i.

Brainwork

Mental work combines work related to the reception and processing of information, which requires the primary tension of the sensory apparatus, attention, memory, as well as the activation of thinking processes and the emotional sphere. This type of work is characterized by hypokinesia, i.e. a significant decrease in a person’s motor activity, leading to a deterioration in the body’s reactivity and an increase in emotional stress. Hypokinesia is one of the conditions for the formation of cardiovascular pathology in people with mental work. Long-term mental stress has a depressing effect on mental activity: attention functions deteriorate (volume, concentration, switching), memory (short-term and long-term), perception (appears big number errors).

Forms of intellectual labor are divided into operator, managerial, creative, labor medical workers, the work of teachers, students, students. These types differ in the organization of the labor process, the uniformity of the load, and the degree of emotional stress.

The work of an operator is characterized by greater responsibility and high neuro-emotional stress. For example, the work of an air traffic controller is characterized by processing a large amount of information within a short time and increased neuro-emotional tension. The work of heads of institutions and enterprises (managerial work) is determined by an excessive amount of information, an increasing lack of time for its processing, and increased personal responsibility for decisions made, periodic occurrence of conflict situations.

The work of teachers and medical workers is characterized by constant contact with people, increased responsibility, and often a lack of time and information to make the right decision, which determines the degree of neuro-emotional stress. The work of pupils and students is characterized by tension in basic mental functions, such as memory, attention, perception; availability stressful situations(exams, tests).

The most complex form of labor activity, requiring a significant amount of memory, tension, and attention, is creative work. The work of scientists, designers, writers, composers, artists, architects leads to a significant increase in neuro-emotional stress. With such stress associated with mental activity, one can observe tachycardia, increased blood pressure, ECG changes, increased pulmonary ventilation and oxygen consumption, increased body temperature and other changes in autonomic functions.

A person’s energy expenditure depends on the intensity of muscular work, the information saturation of labor, the degree of emotional stress and other conditions (temperature, humidity, air speed, etc.). Daily energy expenditure for mental workers (engineers, doctors, teachers, etc.) is 10.5...11.7 MJ; for workers performing moderately heavy work (machine operators, miners, surgeons, foundry workers, agricultural workers, etc.) - 12.5...15.5 MJ; for workers performing heavy physical work (miners, metallurgists, lumberjacks, loaders), -16.3...18 MJ.

Energy expenditure varies depending on working posture. When working in a sitting position, energy expenditure exceeds the level of basal metabolic rate by 5-10%; in a standing working position - by 10...25%, in a forced uncomfortable position - by 40-50%. During intense intellectual work, the brain's need for energy is 15...20% of the total metabolism in the body (brain weight is 2% of body weight). The increase in total energy costs during mental work is determined by the degree of neuro-emotional tension. Thus, when reading aloud while sitting, energy consumption increases by 48%, when giving a public lecture - by 94%, for operators computers– by 60...100%.

Labor efficiency. (Efficiency, improvement of skills, location and completeness of the workplace, placement of controls, alternation of work and rest, unloading, relaxation)

The effectiveness of a person’s labor activity largely depends on the subject and tools of labor, the performance of the body, the organization of the workplace, and the hygienic factors of the working environment.

1. Efficiency is the value of the functional capabilities of the human body, characterized by the quantity and quality of work performed in a certain time. During work, the body's performance changes over time. There are three main phases of alternating human states in the process of work:

· phase of working in, or increasing efficiency; during this period, the level of performance gradually increases compared to the initial one; depending on the nature of the work and the individual characteristics of the person, this period lasts from several minutes to 1.5 hours, and with mental creative work - up to 2...2.5 hours;

· high stability phase; it is characterized by a combination of high performance indicators with relative stability or even some reduction in the intensity of physiological functions; the duration of this phase can be 2...2.5 hours or more, depending on the severity and intensity of the work;

· a phase of decreased performance, characterized by a decrease in the functionality of the main working human organs and accompanied by a feeling of fatigue.

2. One of the most important elements in increasing the efficiency of a person’s work activity is the improvement of skills and abilities as a result of labor training.

From a psychophysiological point of view, industrial training is a process of adaptation and corresponding changes in the physiological functions of the human body for the most effective performance of a specific job. As a result of training (training), muscle strength and endurance increases, the accuracy and speed of working movements increases, and physiological functions are restored faster after finishing work.

3. Correct location and layout of the workplace, ensuring comfortable posture and freedom labor movements, the use of equipment that meets the requirements of ergonomics and engineering psychology ensures the most efficient work process, reduces fatigue and prevents the risk of occupational diseases.

Optimal human posture during work ensures high performance and productivity. Incorrect body position in the workplace leads to the rapid occurrence of static fatigue and decrease. The quality and speed of work performed, as well as reducing the reaction to danger. A normal working posture should be considered a posture in which the worker does not need to lean forward more than 10...15˚; bending back and to the sides is undesirable; The main requirement for a working posture is straight posture.

4.The correct choice of type and placement of controls and control panels for machines and mechanisms has a significant impact on the operator’s performance. When arranging posts and control panels, you need to know that in the horizontal plane the viewing area without turning the head is 120˚, with turning - 225˚; The optimal horizontal viewing angle without turning the head is 30-40˚ (allowable 60˚), with a turn -130˚. The permissible viewing angle along the horizontal axis of vision is 130˚, the optimal -30˚ up and 40˚ down vertically.

Instrument panels should be positioned so that the planes of the indicator faces are perpendicular to the operator's line of sight, and the necessary controls are within reach. The most important controls should be located in front and to the right of the operator. Maximum dimensions reach zones right hand– 70...110 cm. The depth of the working panel should not exceed 80 cm. The height of the console intended for sitting and standing work should be 75-85 cm. The console panel can be tilted to the horizontal plane by 10...20˚, the backrest of the chair can be tilted when sitting position 0...10˚.

To better distinguish the controls, they should be different in shape and size, painted in different colors or have markings or appropriate inscriptions. When grouping several levers in one place, it is necessary that their handles have different shapes. This allows the operator to distinguish them by touch and switch levers without taking his eyes off the work.

5.High performance and vital activity of the body is supported by a rational alternation of periods of work, rest and sleep of a person. During the day, the body reacts differently to physical and neuropsychic stress. In accordance with the body's daily cycle, the highest performance is observed in the morning (from 8 to 12 o'clock) and afternoon (from 14 to 17 o'clock) hours. In the daytime, the lowest performance, as a rule, is observed between 12 and 14 o'clock, and at night - from 3 to 4 o'clock. Taking into account these patterns, the shifts of work of enterprises, the beginning and end of work in shifts, breaks for rest and sleep are determined .

The alternation of periods of work and rest during the week should be regulated taking into account the dynamics of performance. The highest performance occurs on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th days of work; on subsequent days of the week it decreases, falling to a minimum on the last day of work. On Monday, work capacity is relatively reduced due to overwork.

Elements of a rational work and rest regime are industrial gymnastics and a set of measures for psychophysiological unloading, including functional music.

6. To relieve neuropsychological tension, combat fatigue, and restore performance, relaxation rooms or psychological relief rooms have recently been successfully used. They are specially equipped rooms in which, at a designated time during the shift, sessions are conducted to relieve fatigue and neuropsychological stress.

The effect of psycho-emotional relief is achieved through aesthetic interior design, use comfortable furniture, which allows you to be in a comfortable, relaxed position, broadcast specially selected pieces of music, saturate the air with beneficial negative ions, take tonic drinks, imitate a natural environment indoors and reproduce the sounds of the forest, sea surf, etc. One of the elements of psychological relief is autogenic training , based on a complex of interrelated techniques of mental self-regulation and simple physical exercises with verbal self-suggestion. This method allows you to normalize mental activity, emotional sphere and autonomic functions. Experience shows that the presence of workers in psychological relaxation rooms helps to reduce fatigue, increase vigor, good mood and improve well-being.

Than at rest, metabolism: it consumes more oxygen and releases more carbonic acid. By assimilating significantly more nutritional material deposited in it in the form of organized protein, the muscle increases in volume, gets stronger with work and becomes more capable of work. Muscle hypertrophy is not caused by the multiplication of elements, but solely by an increase in their size. Morpurgo, having first kept the dog for a whole month in a closed room without moving, then forced it to run 3218 km in a circle for 80 days. during the study it turned out that the number of individual muscul fibers. sartorius of the dog remained the same, but the diameter of each fiber after movement increased 8 times. Due to the greater formation of carbonic acid in the active muscle compared to the one at rest, respiratory movements designed to introduce oxygen and remove carbonic acid become more frequent during physical activity, and the exchange of gases in the lungs increases in parallel with the intensity mechanical work. Simultaneously with breathing, blood circulation and cardiac activity are revived and the outflow of venous blood and lymph through large vessels is enhanced. The breakdown of substances during physical labor increases significantly. As has been known since the classic studies of Voith and Pettenkofer, labor forces are born from the chemical transformations of carbohydrates and fats in food. The amount of fat destroyed per hour during intense work, according to Voith, is 8.2 g more than during rest. As for proteins, their decomposition during work almost does not change in its intensity: according to the concurring observations of various researchers (Voit, Fick, Wislicenus, etc.), the amount of urea released remains the same both with possible rest and with increased F .work. A muscle, according to Fick, is thus a machine that, when working, consumes nitrogen-free food substances as fuel, converting the potential energy of the latter into living forces, while proteins serve only to compensate for the small losses of its protein material that are inevitable during friction of the machine. Due to the increased breakdown of substances and production heat during physical labor increases more or less strongly, but since at the same time, due to the evaporation of water that increases during work, the body’s heat transfer to the lungs and skin also increases, the temperature of the latter does not change significantly, especially in the absence of obstacles to heat transfer (low external temperature , Lightweight clothing) . At the end of work, heat production decreases, and the increased loss still continues for some time, which is why a person who is sweating after hard work must, in order to avoid a “cold,” refrain from carelessly exposing the body, cold drinks, or draft winds. Digestion with F. labor increases, appetite improves, especially if the work is done on outdoors. General tone nervous system increases, painful irritability and fatigue decreases. An inseparable companion of any work, its inevitable consequence, is fatigue(cm.). It appears the sharper and more distinctly, the greater the effort required by F. labor. After 50-60 lifts of a weight of 5 kg with intervals between each lift of 1 second, the strength of the muscles that flex the fingers is completely exhausted (Maggiora). The success of work when fatigue sets in gradually decreases; to perform the same work, a stronger volitional impulse is already required. Fatigue of some tense muscles spreads to other muscle groups: increased marching leads to fatigue and upper limbs . Due to the close connection between mental and physical fatigue, mental performance decreases simultaneously with the latter. The feeling of fatigue is a signal to stop work and to replace it with proper rest, which is necessary both to remove the waste products of the working organ and to replenish the losses incurred by it. If you continue to work despite fatigue, the muscle is severely depleted and its performance is only slowly restored. Labor that is intense, either in intensity or in duration, does not always pass completely without leaving a trace on the body, but is sometimes accompanied by serious and even irreparable consequences. In the muscles, when they are over-tensioned, pain, trembling, inflammation of the tendon sheaths are detected, and muscle ruptures and bone fractures, especially the collarbones, are also common. In persons who, by their profession, are forced to constantly strain the same group of muscles (compositors, carpenters, tanners, flower girls, etc.), contractures of the corresponding muscles, as well as inflammation of the tendon sheaths and joints, are very often found. prolonged performance of certain complex muscle movements leads to a disorder in their coordination (spasm of scribes, pianists, violinists, etc.). With increased muscular work, cardiac activity is upset, the pulse becomes uneven, small and very fast, strong palpitations and shortness of breath are detected, and if, despite the threatening symptoms, the work continues, then the result may be a rupture of a large blood vessel and heart valves, and under suitable conditions even instant death from cardiac paralysis. Tiring work that continues day after day can lead to emphysema, expansion of the heart cavities, hypertrophy, and then fatty degeneration of the heart muscle with its consequences. Excessive F. labor depletes strength and prematurely ages a person. In our age of widespread use of machines in various industries, labor, as far as its intensity rather than duration is concerned, is subject to significantly fewer demands than in previous times. Only in some countries with primitive civilization do the lower strata of the population continue to play the role of beasts of burden to this day. In China, Africa, etc., people carry various types of weights and often appear as drivers of public carriages. In cultivated countries, the cost of maintaining and feeding a person, even with the most modest requirements, is too great not to push him aside as a labor force, especially in purely mechanical production. But, on the other hand, the comparative ease of manipulation of factory work has today served as one of the reasons for the extreme length of the working day, unknown even during slavery, often reaching 18 hours a day, and it has also caused the exploitation of women’s and children’s labor. Complaints about excessive work are much less common on the part of those who have to work hard, but not for long (butchers, brewers, stone breakers, carpenters, etc.) than from those who do relatively light work for a long time (tailors working in dyeing shops, brush shops and etc.). Working ability during physical exercise it depends on the size of the cross-section of the muscles and on the effort of will with which the muscles are excited to activity. When a person is cheerful and cheerful, work, as they say, progresses; when a person is in a sad mood, movements are slow, sluggish and powerless. Skill is also essential. The more skillfully any work is performed, the less unnecessary side movements of muscle groups are performed during it, the easier the work is and the less fatigue it causes. Muscle strength appears to be different among people of different genders and ages. According to Quetelet's measurements, in males, manual strength (the strength of squeezing with hands) gradually increases by 3-4 kg per year until the age of 12, reaching an average of 33.6 kg at this age. from 12 to 18 years it increases annually by 6-9 kg, and from 18 to 25-30 years only by 1-2 kg per year. At this age, manual strength reaches its maximum (89 kg), after which it begins to gradually decrease. at 40 years old it is 87 kg, at 50 years old - 74 kg, at 60 years old - 56 kg. In females, manual strength, especially starting from 10 years old, is less than in males of the same age; at 17 years old it is 30 kg less, at 25 years old - by 38 kg, at 50 years old - by 27 kg. Deadlift strength (stretching strength with the entire body) reaches its maximum in men at 25-30 years old (155 kg), then in subsequent years it decreases faster than arm strength: at 40 years old it is 122 kg, at 50 years old - 101. In females, at the age of 17-25, the backstrength reaches only half of the value to which it reaches in men (77 kg versus 155 kg). In general, the same data were obtained by Prof. F. F. Erisman, Dr. Dementiev, Pogozhev and others, based on numerous measurements of the strength of Russian factory workers. In assessing a person's labor force, it is even more important to know the beneficial effect of working for a more or less long period of time. The daily work of a man with 8 hours of activity is considered equal to 288,000 kilograms, approx. 10 kgm per second (kilogrammeter is the work required to raise 1 kg per 1 m height). The work of a horse, estimated at 70-75 kgm, is 7 times stronger than a human. The amount of work produced by a person in various types of occupations is expressed, according to Rubner, as follows:

The individual races of man appear to present considerable differences in strength. Ozagi in North America can do 96 km a day for several days in a row, walkers in Peru - 134 km, Indians of New England - 128-160 km (Tschudi, Roger-Willims). Reasonable distribution time of work and rest is a necessary condition for maintaining health. The more intense the work, the more often and the longer the breaks should be. Individual fatigue is also important here. For people who get tired quickly when working, more frequent, although shorter, rest is more beneficial. With low fatigue, an employee, in the interests of labor productivity and gaining free time, more readily prefers a less frequent but longer break. Daytime work, especially in the morning, is less tiring than night work. The intense night service of soldiers in wartime (night marches, strengthening occupied areas, etc.) always greatly exhausts soldiers and predisposes them to illness. The length of the working day does not lend itself, from a sanitary point of view, to strict regulation, since it depends on numerous conditions (the comparative difficulty of a particular job, individual fatigue, etc.). Thousands of years of experience indicate, however, that it should not be more than 10-11 hours. In the West Europe and North America has been actively campaigning for decades in favor of 3 eights: 8 hours. for work, 8 for sleep and 8 for food, rest and entertainment. Sufficiently deep and long sleep most fully restores strength from

MENTAL AND PHYSICAL WORK are two interconnected aspects of human activity. Unlike the instinctive actions of animals, man builds his practical activities consciously, in accordance with a previously developed goal, program. In primitive society, mental and physical labor acted in direct unity. However, at low levels productive forces the possibility and necessity of their development could only be realized on the basis of the division of labor, the deepest expression of which is the separation of mental labor from physical labor. With the emergence of private property, classes and the state, mental labor becomes the privilege of the ruling class, and the entire burden of physical labor falls to the share of the oppressed masses. Thus, the opposition between mental and physical labor arises. In different socio-economic formations this opposition has a different character. In a slave-owning society, where all work was considered the lot of slaves, exploiters even tried to shift part of the functions of mental labor to them, preparing managers, doctors, and artists from them. In feudal society, the opposition between mental and physical labor basically coincides with class labor and is masked by class division. The peasantry is doomed to physical labor as the lower class, the “black bone,” and mental labor is the lot of the “noble classes” - the nobility and clergy. In the capitalist formation, mental labor becomes a professional activity of a special social group of people - the intelligentsia, used by capital as a means of domination over physical labor. The division of bourgeois society into mental and physical workers and its main class division do not coincide, since a significant part of the intelligentsia is among the hired workers and is closer in position to the working class and peasantry. In the conditions of the scientific and technological revolution, increasingly significant sections of the intelligentsia are beginning to participate in the direct production process, actually acting as white-collar workers. At the same time, the emergence of a new complex technology requires the formation of a new worker who combines mental and physical labor in his activities. Under socialism, the process of forming a new intelligentsia is underway, although there are still significant differences between workers in the nature of work and the level of cultural and technical development. At the same time, conditions are being created that promote the convergence of mental and physical labor, raising the educational level, and the spiritual development of workers. However, the final overcoming of these differences will be possible only on the basis of liberating a person from hard and monotonous physical labor, automating production, transferring algorithmized functions of mental labor to a machine and developing creative principles in work. It will not mean the elimination of the specificity of different types of activities, but it will be able to put an end to the lifelong attachment of various individuals to only one professional looking activities. Both types of labor will become elements of the holistic activity of a comprehensively developed person, for whom participation in the affairs of society is the first vital need.

Philosophical Dictionary. Ed. I.T. Frolova. M., 1991, p. 471-472.

It is assumed and proven by a number of scientific works that labor created man. The concept of “labor” includes its various types. Meanwhile, there are two main types of human labor activity - physical and mental labor and their intermediate combinations.

Physical work - this is a type of human activity, the characteristics of which are determined by a complex of factors that distinguish one type of activity from another, associated with the presence of any climatic, industrial, physical, information and similar factors. Performing physical work is always associated with a certain severity of labor, which is determined by the degree of involvement of skeletal muscles in the work and reflects the physiological cost of primarily physical activity.

According to the degree of severity, work is distinguished between physically light, moderate, hard and very hard work.

Criteria for assessing the severity of work are ergometric indicators (values external work, transported cargo, etc.) and physiological (levels of energy consumption, heart rate, other functional changes).

Brainwork - this is a person’s activity to transform the conceptual model of reality formed in his mind by creating new concepts, judgments, conclusions, and on their basis - hypotheses and theories. The result of mental work is scientific and spiritual values ​​or solutions that, through control actions on tools, are used to satisfy social or personal needs. Mental work appears in various forms, depending on the type of conceptual model and the goals that a person faces (these conditions determine the specifics of mental work). Non-specific features of mental work include the reception and processing of information, comparison of the received information with that stored in human memory, its transformation, determination problematic situation, ways to solve the problem and form the goal of mental work. Depending on the type and methods of converting information and developing solutions, reproductive and productive (creative) types of mental work are distinguished. In reproductive types of labor, previously known transformations with fixed action algorithms are used (for example, counting operations); in creative work, the algorithms are either completely unknown or given in an unclear form.

Brainwork

Sufficiently objective criteria have not been developed to characterize the intensity of mental work from a physiological point of view. It can be characterized by the volume of information to be memorized and (or) analyzed, as well as the speed of receipt of information and decision-making, the degree of responsibility for possible mistakes when making decisions, etc. This is typical for such professions as dispatchers, operators of central control panels of complex objects, and managers of work teams.

The essence of mental work is studied and characterized in various aspects: - physiologists and psychologists consider mental work as processes of higher nervous activity, realizing the functions and relationships of the brain with receptors and effectors; - psychologists and sociologists study the motives of mental activity, its structure, logic, as well as the behavior of workers, the moral and psychological climate; - cybernetics specialists consider mental work as a model of an information processing system.

Mental work covers a very wide range of activities that are different in nature and content. These include:- treatise– the work of scientists engaged in research work; - engineering work - the work of engineering and technical workers involved in design, engineering and technological work; - pedagogical work - the work of professors, teachers and teachers; - medical work; - managerial work - the work of managers and specialists involved in management labor collectives; - production labor - the labor of workers and specialists managing complex technological processes, equipment, automated and robotic systems; - auxiliary labor - the work of workers leading Accounting and etc.

The subject of mental work (regardless of the type) is information containing the state of practice and tasks for changing it.

Mental work consists of processing and analyzing a large amount of varied information, and as a consequence of this, the mobilization of memory and attention, and muscle loads are usually insignificant. This work is characterized by a significant decrease in motor activity (hypokinesia), which can lead to cardiovascular pathology; prolonged mental stress depresses the psyche, impairs the functions of attention and memory. The main indicator of mental work is tension, which reflects the load on the central nervous system.

The intensity of any labor is characterized by the amount of productive consumption of labor per unit of time. Labor costs in a physiological sense are the expenditure of a person’s functional capabilities, leading to a decrease in performance and the appearance of fatigue. Psychophysiological limiters during mental work are: - indicator of decreased performance; - an indicator of the reliability of human functioning in various systems; - magnitude and symptoms of subjectively felt fatigue; - indicators of mental and emotional state.

One of the most important indicators of employee performance in the “man-machine” system, as well as when performing the duties of a dispatcher, operator and other similar professions, is attention.

Physical work

As for physical labor, quite objective criteria for assessing severity have been defined for it - these are energy consumption.

All types of physical work are performed with the participation of muscles, which, when contracting, perform work in the physiological sense of the word. Replenishment of muscle energy occurs due to their consumption nutrients, constantly entering the bloodstream. The same blood flow carries away waste substances from the muscles - oxidation products. The main source of energy is the oxidation of glycogen by oxygen, also contained in the blood. Glycogen is a polysaccharide formed by glucose residues. It is deposited in the cytoplasm of liver and muscle cells. When there is a lack of glucose in the body, glycogen is broken down by enzymes (reaction accelerators) into glucose, which enters the blood.

Physical work is usually divided into three groups according to its severity. This division is based on oxygen consumption as one of the objective indicators of energy consumption available for measuring. In this regard, work is distinguished: light, medium and heavy.

TO light include work performed while sitting, standing or associated with walking, but without systematic stress, without lifting and carrying heavy objects. These are works in clothing production, precision instrument making and mechanical engineering, printing, communications, etc.

Go to category moderate severity include work associated with constant walking and carrying small (up to 10 kg) weights, and performed while standing. This is work in mechanical assembly shops, mechanized open-hearth, rolling, foundry, forging, thermal shops, etc.

Go to category heavy include work associated with systematic physical stress, as well as with constant movement and carrying of significant (more than 10 kg) weights. These are blacksmith works with hand forging, foundry works with manual filling and pouring of flasks, etc.

So, the main physiological reactions of the body to physical work are increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, increased breathing and increased pulmonary ventilation, changes in blood composition, and increased sweating. Changes gradually increase, reaching a certain level at which the increased work of organs and systems is balanced with the needs of the body.

After cessation of work, a recovery period begins when the altered functions gradually return to normal. But the duration of restoration of various functions is not the same: - pulse, pressure, respiratory rate and pulmonary ventilation are restored in 10-15 minutes; - blood composition, etc. – in 45-50 minutes.

This is due to the fact that during intensive work the body’s internal resources are mobilized, non-working tissues and organs are depleted of oxygen and nutrients, as well as the reserves of the muscle cells themselves are absorbed, which, due to these internal reserves, can work for some time without consuming oxygen (the so-called anaerobic phase of muscle work). To replenish these reserves during rest, the body continues to consume increased amounts of oxygen.

If, during prolonged hard work and with the mobilization of all the body’s resources, delivery required quantity oxygen and nutrients are not provided, muscle fatigue occurs.

Muscles work not only when a person moves weights, but also when he holds them in place, or holds the weight of his own body or its individual parts (torso, arms, head). In this regard, the main indicators of the severity of the labor process are: - physical dynamic load; - the mass of the load lifted and moved manually; - stereotypical labor movements; - static load; - working posture; - body tilts, movement in space.

A forced and even more uncomfortable body position, even in the case of light work, can lead to rapid fatigue, because static load on the same muscle groups is more tiring. The working posture can be free, uncomfortable, fixed or forced. Free poses include comfortable sitting postures, with the possibility of changing the working position of the body or its parts. Fixed working posture is the impossibility of changing the relative position of various parts of the body relative to each other. Similar postures are encountered when performing work related to the need to distinguish small objects during work. The most rigidly fixed working postures are for representatives of those professions who have to perform their main production operations using optical magnifying devices - magnifiers and microscopes. Uncomfortable working postures include postures with a large bend or turn of the torso, with arms raised above shoulder level, and with inconvenient placement of the lower extremities. Forced postures include working postures lying down, kneeling, squatting, etc.

Fatigue and recovery during physical and mental work (definition, symptoms of fatigue, types of fatigue, phases of fatigue, what recovery depends on, scheme of the recovery process, recovery criteria).

Fatigue is a functional state that temporarily arises under the influence of prolonged and intense work and leads to a decrease in its effectiveness.

Fatigue manifests itself in the fact that muscle strength and endurance decreases, coordination of movements worsens, energy costs increase when performing work of the same nature, the speed of information processing slows down, memory deteriorates, and the process of concentrating and switching attention and mastering theoretical material becomes more difficult.

Fatigue is associated with a feeling of tiredness, and at the same time it serves as a natural signal of possible exhaustion of the body and a safety biological mechanism that protects it from overexertion. Fatigue that occurs during exercise is also a stimulant, mobilizing both the reserves of the body, its organs and systems, and recovery processes.

Fatigue occurs during physical and mental activity. It can be acute, i.e. manifest itself in a short period of time, and chronic, i.e. be of a long-term nature (up to several months); general, i.e. characterizing changes in the functions of the body as a whole, and local, affecting any limited muscle group, organ, analyzer.

There are two phases of fatigue:

· compensated (when there is no obvious decrease in performance due to the fact that the body’s reserve capabilities are activated);

· uncompensated (when the body’s reserve capacities are exhausted and performance is clearly reduced).

Systematic performance of work against the background of under-recovery, ill-conceived work organization, excessive mental and physical stress can lead to overwork, and therefore to overvoltage nervous system, exacerbations of cardiovascular diseases, hypertension and peptic ulcers, decreased protective properties body.

It is possible to eliminate fatigue by increasing the level of general and specialized training of the body, optimizing its physical, mental and emotional activity.

The prevention and removal of mental fatigue is facilitated by the mobilization of those aspects of mental activity and motor activity that are associated with those that led to fatigue. It is necessary to actively rest, switch to other activities, and use an arsenal of recovery tools.

Recovery- a process occurring in the body after cessation of work and consisting in a gradual transition of physiological and biochemical functions to the original state.

The time during which the physiological status is restored after performing a certain job is called recovery period.

It should be remembered that in the body, both during work and in pre-work and post-work rest, at all levels of its vital activity, interconnected processes of consumption and restoration of functional, structural and regulatory reserves continuously occur. During work, the processes of dissimilation prevail over assimilation, and the more, the greater the intensity of the work and the less readiness of the body to perform it. During the recovery period, assimilation processes predominate, and recovery energy resources occurs above the initial level (over-recovery, or super-compensation)(illustration). It has great value to increase the fitness of the body and its physiological systems, ensuring increased performance.

Distinguish early and late recovery phase. The early phase ends a few minutes after light work, after heavy work - after a few hours. Late recovery phases can last up to several days.

Fatigue is accompanied by a phase of decreased performance, and after some time it can be replaced by a phase of increased performance. The duration of these phases depends on the degree of training of the body, as well as on the work performed.

A rational combination of stress and rest is necessary in order to maintain and develop the activity of recovery processes. Additional recovery tools there may be factors of hygiene, nutrition, massage, biological active substances(vitamins).

Main criterion positive dynamics of recovery processes is readiness for repeated activity, and the most objective indicator of restoration of working capacity is the maximum volume of repeated work.

Particular care must be taken into account the nuances of recovery processes when organizing physical exercises and planning training loads.

It is advisable to perform repeated loads in the phase of increased performance. Too long rest intervals reduce the effectiveness of the training process.

To speed up the recovery process, active rest is used in sports practice, i.e. switching to another type of activity.

11. Indicators of fitness of the human body (list and characterize, give examples).

Fitness of the human body is the ability to perform heavy physical activity, usually observed in people whose lifestyle or profession is associated with intense muscle activity. A trained body, adapted to physical activity, is able not only to carry out intense muscular work, but also turns out to be more resistant to situations that cause illness, to emotional stress, and environmental influences.

Thus, indicators of fitness at rest include:
1) changes in the state of the central nervous system, increased mobility of nervous processes, shortening of the latent period of motor reactions;
2) changes in the musculoskeletal system;
3) changes in the function of the respiratory organs, blood circulation, blood composition, etc.

that trained individuals relax their muscles better than untrained individuals. Additional muscle tension is always associated with additional energy costs. In addition, trained people have a slightly lower excitability of the nervous system at rest compared to untrained people. Along with this, they have a good balance between the processes of excitation and inhibition. All these changes indicate that a trained body spends energy very economically at rest; in the process of deep rest, a restructuring of its functions takes place, and energy is accumulated for the upcoming intense activity.

Reactions to standard (testing) loads in trained individuals are characterized by the following features: 1) all performance indicators functional systems at the beginning of work (during the period of practice) they are higher than those of the untrained; 2) during work, the level of physiological changes is less high; 3) the recovery period is significantly shorter.
Two conclusions can be drawn regarding the impact of training. The first is that a trained body performs standard work more economically than untrained. Training causes such adaptive changes in the body that cause economization of all physiological functions. The body's violent reaction to work in an untrained person is manifested in wasteful expenditure of strength and energy, excessive functioning of various physiological systems, and their poor mutual regulation. In the process of training, the body acquires the ability to react to the same work more moderately, its physiological systems begin to act more consistently and coordinatedly, and energy is spent more economically. The second conclusion is that the same work becomes less tiring as training develops. For an untrained person, standard work may be relatively difficult, performed with the tension characteristic of heavy work, and causes fatigue, while for a trained person the same load will be relatively easy, require less stress and will not cause much fatigue.

Thus, the human body, systematically engaged in active motor activity, is able to perform work that is more significant in volume and intensity than the human body that does not engage in it. This is due to the systematic activation of the physiological and functional systems of the body, the involvement and increase of their reserve capabilities, a kind of training in the processes of their use and replenishment.