NIH Record - National Institutes of Health

Campus Contractor Celebrates Construction Safety Week with Yoga, Stress-Relief Activities

Several construction workers in safety helmets and vests pose at job site with a yoga instructor in front of company sign.
Hensel Phelps construction crew members celebrate Construction Safety Week with a yoga instructor (kneeling) at the site of NIA’s upcoming Center for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias facility—Bldg. T44.
Close up view of individual construction worker standing on one leg with the other leg and one arm stretched out.
Not the Hokey Pokey. Construction Safety Week aims to keep workers healthy on the job site.
Instructor gesturing toward group of construction crew members who are posing with arms outstretched.
Spa Flow instructor (l) leads crew in construction yoga, mindfulness meditation and breathing exercises.
Close up view of individual construction worker with knees bended and arms stretched out
Crew practices construction yoga, mindfulness meditation and breathing exercises.
Close up of hand holding an oblong-shaped stress ball with company name printed on it.
Stress balls in the shape of the human brain to align with the mission of the CARD building were also part of Safety Week events.
Overhead view of about a dozen construction workers spaced several feet apart in all directions, at an excavated site.
Construction crew members prepare to engage in “Daily Dynamic (active motion) stretch & flex.”
Construction workers in safety helmets and vests smile in front a food truck.
CB Acai Café food truck offers choice of a healthy smoothie or acai bowl.

Hensel Phelps, a construction contractor at NIH, celebrated Construction Safety Week (May 2-7) while working on the NIA Center for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias facility (CARD), Bldg. T44, on the Bethesda campus. CARD researchers will work across scientific domains and disease boundaries to bridge basic, preclinical and clinical research with the goal of accelerating translational research on these devastating diseases.

The focus of Construction Safety Week was Total Wellness including mental health and involved several events such as “construction yoga” and mindfulness meditation.

According to its website, the week began in 2014 when 40 national and global building firms joined forces to “inspire everyone in the industry to be leaders in safety.” 

In 2016, the effort became an annual campaign focused on the original mission, which includes “conducting onsite safety awareness activities to support education.”

The NIH Record

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