A healthy back is as important for workplace productivity as it is for an
individual’s quality of life. Unfortunately, the sedentary lifestyle encouraged
by the social environment has taken its toll on our backs. Unhealthy eating habits and lack of physical exercise make
us more prone to having back injuries than previous generations, so knowing how
to life things properly has never been more important.
The weight that you are lifting can be an object as light as a ream of paper
or as heavy as a piece of furniture, but the resulting pain can be equally
severe. Most often, the cause is strained muscles and ligaments. The pain goes
away after a few days, but not before affecting your output. On an
organisational scale, a hurt back means missed deadlines, lost workdays, and
compromised organisational effectiveness. The National Health Service estimate
that approximately 7.6 million working days were lost due to work-related back
pain and other musculoskeletal disorders in 2010-11.
Tips for Lifting in the Workplace
Fortunately, there are a number of simple things that you can do around the
workplace to reduce back injuries caused by lifting, on- or off-work. The
following top lifting tips have demonstrated a marked improvement in workplace
health by sharply cutting down on the number of inured backs.
Talk about the Back (not behind the back)
People can avoid pain and stay healthy just by being conscious and informed
about the correct lifting techniques. Talk about them in your health and safety
meetings, but also remind people regularly whenever you see them lifting
thingsoffice. Share lifting tips on your company intranet or blog.
Rethink Workplace Design
Do people have to bend down frequently to lift stuff? Can you make the
workplace “lift-free” by placing things around at waist level? As someone who
has worked in the National Health Service, I know the value of minimizing the
number of unnecessary workplace lifts that people routinely need to carry
out.
Top Workplace Lifting Tips (that also work at home)
- Think and imagine the lift in your mind. This aligns your
muscles and makes your body ready for lifting whatever it is that you are going
to pick up. Lifting mindlessly catches the back by surprise, and you may in turn
be surprised by the resulting pain. - Hug the weight close to your waist. Bend your legs to
reduce the vertical distance between the weight and your waist. Do not stretch
your arms forward very much, as this puts strain on your shoulders, neck and
back. - Keep an upright Posture. Do not slouch forward while
lifting, or you might have to stay in that pose for a few days because of a
pulled back muscle. Keep your back upright and use your legs to help in lifting.
Stabilise your posture before you begin lifting. - Keep your head up and look up instead of looking at what you are
lifting. This reduces the amount of load on your back. - Do not twist your back while lifting, for obvious reasons.
Do not change your posture during the lift. - Keep a smooth motion throughout the lift. Jerks and
snatches can cause accidents apart from back injuries. - Be careful while placing the object down. Don’t bend down
too much, and don’t try to make precise adjustments to place the object
accurately. You can put it down and make the finer adjustments later. - Lastly, know your limits and do not try to lift an object if you are
unsure about whether you can lift it.
For managers of businesses in the warehouse and retail sectors, where
considerable manual handling is involved, it is well worth investing in
practical demonstrations of the above lifting tips. Staff will appreciate your
concern for the health of their backs and businesses will lose fewer days
through avoidable and unnecessary back injuries.
