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Dunedin scaffolders are swapping hefting steel for deep stretching to prepare for a demanding workload.
Staff at Bramwell Scaffolding have been taking part in daily warm-up routines at 7.30am in their Burns St warehouse.
The initiative aims to reduce injuries and boost team morale before crews disperse to jobs across the region.
Bramwell Scaffolding office manager Ronnie Donaldson introduced the programme after noticing staff arriving in the cold and immediately undertaking strenuous physical labour.
"Just to look after the boys, you know?" Ms Donaldson said.
The scheme had been running for about a month and already she had noticed a difference.
"It is actually really good now because we used to get them and drag them out — ‘come on, let’s do it’.
"But now they are actually waiting for us, so they are like really pumped for it."
NRG South Dunedin gym manager and trainer Henry King leads the sessions twice a week and has trained some of the scaffolders to run the sessions when he is not there.
The strain on scaffolders was immense.
"Somebody working in construction doing a 40-hour work week has the same physical output as a professional athlete," Mr King said.
"You just need to think about how much help a professional athlete gets in terms of nutritionists, massage therapists, sports psychologists ... and then you think about how much help these guys get."
He had observed the warm-ups put the staff in a good mood.
"Once they get the heart rate up a little bit, just for a little warm-up, they have got a smile on their face and they are laughing and having fun."
That fed into how they felt for the rest of the day.
"They just attack the day with a better attitude," Mr King said.
Scaffolder Solly Rickerby often leads the group stretches when Mr King is absent, and said the warm-ups made a tangible difference to the highly demanding job.
"It has been pretty good, actually," Mr Rickerby said.
"I do stretches at home as it is, but it is good to come into work, sort of warm the body up a bit."
Not only was it valuable to "loosen up a bit" at the start of the day, it was beneficial to gather as a team before heading out on the job.
"You can all have a laugh at the same time as you are doing it, so there is a bit of banter going around while you do it," Mr Rickerby said.
Bramwell Scaffolding general manager Will Clarkson said it was particularly useful in the winter to help the scaffolders who were "getting a heap of little niggly things".
"The summer is no problem, but in the winter you get these young guys that come in and it is cold, they go straight out there ... they just go straight into lifting weights basically," Mr Clarkson said.
"So it was like ‘hey, let’s get the guys warm before they go out and start doing weights, essentially."