Do You Know How to Lift Safely?
Everyone needs to know how to lift something off the ground to maintain strength and prevent injury.
We’ve all done it: gone to pick something up, felt a pop or a twinge and thought “Great, I just tweaked my back.” This is a common occurrence for many people, but I’d argue that it doesn’t have to be.
There is no getting around it, at some point, you will need to pick something up off of the ground. It might be shopping bags, a child, a dog, or anything - and you need to know how to do that safely.
We hear a lot of people talk about having “bad backs” or “lifting with their legs” when picking anything up, but what does that even mean? When you hear someone say “lift with your legs,” what they are encouraging is rather than bending over at your waist to pick something up, you bend your knees and use the muscles in your legs, not just your back.
While this will help, it really doesn’t encompass all that needs to happen. To prevent hurting your back, you need to have a rigid torso. To obtain a rigid torso, first think about standing as tall as possible with your chest up; think about really good posture. From here, take a big breath in, hold that breath, and tighten your belly. The big fancy word for what you’re doing is creating intra-abdominal pressure. All that means is you are creating pressure within your torso that’s going to make you very strong and injury resistant.
With a rigid torso and proper mechanics, you will be able to alleviate and prevent pain while lifting anything.
How do you do this while lifting a bag of groceries? Find your rigid spine position, stand tall with good posture, take a big breath in and tighten your belly. Then push your butt back and bend your knees — this will allow you to reach your bags safely with a nice flat back. Now you just need to stand tall while maintaining your back position. This sequence is the same for safely picking up a box, child, or pretty much anything else. Some objects are more awkward and provide a challenge, but you just need to remember your rigid spine position, push your butt back, and bend your knees.
A great coach will work on these mechanics with you to make sure you are strong and in a safe lifting position.
By working with a coach within the gym, you will engrain these positions so you won’t even need to think about them — it will just happen automatically because you use them so often. In addition to working on positions, a coach will lead you to gaining strength which will help keep you safe, reduce pain, and improve your life!
A lot of the back pain we see is often treatable and strength training can help prevent it. Our coaching staff has decades of experience and can confidently work on correct movement patterns that will both put you in a safe position and strengthen your body at the same time. Living with back pain or the fear of back pain doesn’t need to be a permanent situation, we can help you today!