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#tips4life Do you even lift?
Welcome to – #tips4life the Fort Healthcare lifestyle health blog. Through our experiences treating at our clinics, we often come across similar injuries and health issues. The #tips4life blog aims to practically address these problems. We always welcome suggestions on topics you may want us to tackle. Find us on Facebook,Instagram, Google+ or visit us at forthealthcare.com.au.
I want to address something that I see commonly performed incorrectly everyday – lifting. I will see at least a few injuries every week due to incorrect lifting.
So whats the correct way of lifting a box off the floor?
1) Get as close as you can to the box
2) Brace the core
3) Engage the glutes like you are doing a deep squat
4) Hold on to the box
5) Use the legs and the glutes to drive your body up.
It’s that simple!
This example of lifting boxes is the one that is most commonly seen in every OHS and manual handling course, but it’s not just about lifting boxes!
Lifting anything places stress on our body. It’s just physics. More forces are placed on our body if the object is heavy, awkwardly shaped or unbalanced. You may not realise it but this squatting and lifting motion is performed numerous times every day. From picking up your child our pet off the ground, sitting to standing, work duties, household chores, getting something out of the car etc. We can not always control everything and sometimes accidents do happen. But by ensuring that we have the correct lifting mechanics we can ideally prevent an injury from occuring or at least reduce the severity of it.
Take the example of a mother lifting her child for instance. A child is not an inaminate object like a box and can move, flail or twist suddenly whilst you are carrying or lifting them. A sudden movement will increase the stress and strain on the lower back. If we are using the correct lifting mechanics:
1) Our core muscles should help the spine to absorb these forces
2) Our strong leg and glute muscles will be able to adjust to the sudden movements.
In this video, I will demonstrate the proper lifting biomechanics and show you what happens when you don’t lift properly.
