Stop telling your employees to lift with their legs! Instead, do this...

Some of the most misleading advice managers and safety professionals can fall prey to, is telling employees to “lift with your legs.”?The 2 most misleading problem with this platitude is:

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1. lifting and material handling is a full body movement, in which the legs are a component.?With any movement, muscle groups come together to produce and stabilize (control) force. Telling someone to “lift with your legs,” is about as effective as telling someone to, “not be complacent and keep your head in the game.” Movement is a complex acquired skill.?Telling someone to improve movement, typically is not a situation where skill transfer of knowledge will occur (apples to oranges).?????

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1. People may not have the capability to get into a good position (relative to themselves) to correctly handle the load of an object.?Picking up or setting objects down requires ankle flexion, trunk /hip stabilization, shoulder stability, etc.?if workers have even minor movement dysfunctions they will always be moving at a mechanical disadvantage, despite the demand and will to lift correctly. Typically, workers are not being negligent in their movement/lifting techniques, they physically cannot correctly do what you are asking them to do.?Even in a team lift situation!?Workers may have the strength, but from a technique and body awareness perspective, they pose great risk!

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The good news is, lifting and material handling does not have to be doom and gloom.?Good lifting techniques can be taught, modified, and become second nature! Three points we strongly suggest to improve workers' movement efficiency.

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1. Engineering controls

Obviously, whenever possible, attempt to engineer out a problem.?I will not expand on this because it is not new information.

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2. Stop telling workers how to lift and start training & teaching them how to lift.

Athletes do not only learn by just watching other athletes.?A majority of the knowledge is gained by doing.?Every person’s body structure is different and should be treated as such.?Safe, hands-on workshops are a proven method to instill the skill transfer necessary to mitigate lifting/material handling injuries.?To properly pick something up, put something down, or travel with an object, people must learn skills such as foot placement typical to their hip structure, how to harness energy from the ground, and how to engage the posterior chain.

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3.?????Repetition

In order for people to get good at something, they must practice it until it is second nature.?Practice proper squatting, deadlifting, body mechanics will lead to people resorting to good habits and techniques when they need it the most.

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The best strategy to ensuring proper lifting/material handling techniques is to put them into a pre-task muscle engagement warm up routine.?For further information on how to implement the above information into your workgroup, message me!