The ultimate goal of the Work Conditioning Program is to increase the injured worker's capacity to return to work as quickly as possible. The program should be tailored to the client's needs related to the injury, to the amount of time that work ability has been limited or impaired and to the skills and ability needed to return to a targeted job. In a work conditioning program, the client's work capacities are increased through intervention that combines flexibility exercises, a physical conditioning regimen, specific aerobic training, work simulation, and education.

As the program progresses, specific job simulation activities are introduced and progressed. These simulation tasks should be based on job descriptions for the injured worker's targeted job. If a job description is not available, the therapist can visit the worksite and evaluate the work activities and develop simulation activities based on measurements of the actual job as it is performed. This program should not focus on the client's pain and pain management, as this should have been addressed in previous rehabilitative care. Instead focus should be placed on the client's current abilities and capacities, the abilities and capacities that will be needed to return to the targeted job, and the action steps that must be taken to achieve that desired level. The therapist is continuously supervising the program, providing education in material handling and safety techniques and working to ensure that the client is safe with performance of all exercise activities.

An effective work conditioning program is dependent on the injured worker, the employer and the therapy team working together focusing on the abilities and capacities needed to return to a targeted job. Active involvement by all interested parties can assist the quick, safe and effective return to work of the injured worker.