It’s late October, and a lot of people are going out to get humongous pumpkins. We want to help keep you from a back injury, so we’re going to give you some lifting tips for large, awkward items. These tips will, of course, apply to any significant and ungainly load, not just pumpkins.
5 Suggestions for Safer Lifting
There are five things that you can do to make any large, heavy, or awkward lift safer:
- Warm-up before lifting. You need to get your muscles ready for work by doing some dynamic stretches.
- Keep the load as close as possible to your body. The closer the load is to your body, the more you can use your hips and legs to help support the weight. As the weight moves further from your body, the pressure increases on your spine.
- Find someone to help you. This may not always be an option. But if it is, remember that two (and sometimes even more than that) are better than one when lifting heavy and awkward items.
- Keep your back straight. Leaning over the item or trying to lean backward to support it will place your vertebrae at angles that could lead to misalignments or damage. The spine can support the most weight when it is straight up and down.
- Lower your own center of mass. This is just a fancy way of saying lift with your knees and not with your back. If you curl your spine to bend over and pick something up, your back does all the work when you lift. If you get low by bending your knees, you can use your quadriceps to help you lift. These are strong muscles that are not as susceptible to injury when trying to hoist a heavy load.
Help When You’ve Strained Something in Fairfax, VA
Sometimes, you can tell that you made a mistake the second you lift something the wrong way. At other times, you may not think you did anything wrong, but the soreness creeps up on you over the next couple of days. Ward Chiropractic & Rehabilitation is here to help!
To schedule an appointment, call 703.672.1661, or you can request an appointment online. Whether you caused a misalignment that can be corrected with a chiropractic adjustment or you strained something that will require rehabilitative therapy, Ward Chiropractic & Rehabilitation is the solution for you!
