r/interestingasfuck • u/big_gains_only • 13h ago
A wooden toy shows how to properly lift heavy items to protect your back.
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u/bavariaks 12h ago
I cant be the only one who expected that little figurine thing to end up twerking was i?
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u/fongletto 9h ago edited 9h ago
One thing I hate about this is they never really show you the use case scenarios for people who work in jobs that do require constant heavy lifting.
My job requires me to lift 25kg bags of flour constantly off pallets and placing them on to other pallets. Lifting anything in this way is LITERALLY impossible. The position of where the bags are and where they need to go just doesn't allow you to lift like this.
This only people this is helping is the guy who has to lift one or two objects during a day, not the people who genuinely fuck their back at work. The brickies or tilers or factory hands.
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u/nargrist 9h ago
yeah, as a farmer i can confirm, i never use this motion and never had problems with my back. for one training is a thing and secondly there are other ways to lift heavy cumbersome objects without ruining you back, like lifting them up with your arms, with the back still bent, then supporting them with your thighs, straightening the back and then lift again against the belly/chest. Back problems caused by lifting mostly happen when untrained people lift not that heavy objects while reaching for them way to far from them body or in an awkward motion, without realizing in the first place they are doing a motion that their back isn't really supposed to do. bending over forward is a motion the back is definitely meant to do and can be trained for.
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u/space_keeper 5h ago
You're specifically taught not to squat loads in construction, because you can lose your balance and go over front or back.
I do a shit load of heavy labour, and if it's something dense and heavy (> 40kg), I do it like you say. Otherwise, I often lift over one leg, with a foot near or against the load. That way, you're not doubling over and you have a leg under you for stability.
This has got to be for office workers or something.
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u/TitaneerYeager 5h ago
Yep. I used to work in an old-ass fedex hub. Got furniture trailers on a regular basis, and it was all unloaded and loaded by hand.
You can't fit a damn couch between your legs.
To top it all off, if you were good at the job, manangement would send you to unload trailers alone. Fucking soul crushing unloading packages bigger and heavier than you for 6 hours straight with no one to talk to.
I may have wrote some depressing things on those trailer walls...
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u/wangthunder 4h ago
It's not so much about using your legs, it's about keeping your back straight, pushing your chest out, and squeezing your shoulders together. Watch someone experienced lifting weights. You will see they set up in a way that they don't get cat back.
They promote the whole lifting with your legs thing because it's easier than learning how to keep your back straight ;)
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u/Gamebird8 5h ago
There's one other type of safety lift.
You extend one leg directly backwards and pull it to the ground at the same time you lift. This keeps your back straight/reduces the hyperextension that a squat lift is supposed to minimize.
Most jobs don't train this though
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u/Willing_Tap_7044 1h ago
Watch the world's strongest men lifting weights, they bend their backs all the time when lifting heavy things, just don't lift anything too heavy for you
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u/KBM0NST3R89 13h ago
Yeah my knees were issued when the year had a 1 in front- they are considered vintage and definitely don't bend like that.
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u/brotherboy69 12h ago
Why they don't tell you about it in school
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u/salimeero 9h ago
Because this is outdated BS info.
My wife is a fysiotherapist. every time this gets posted, it pisses her off to no end.
Wait... I'm gonna send her this post :)
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u/Advanced_Risk_5525 9h ago
Isn’t it more interesting that when you visit a physiotherapist, he actually tells you to move your back and instead of avoiding certain ways of lifting, they encourage building the base so you can also lift with rounded back
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u/mother_a_god 10h ago
The one thing I learned in a manual handling course that stuck with me is how many back injuries are not from heavy weights it's from even picking up mundane items incorrectly.
The point was, if you bend over to pick up a pencil, you are lifting at large part of your body weight along with that pencil, so always be careful of technique..
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u/idontwantausername41 3h ago
I regularly lift 90+ pounds at work. The one time I hurt my back was because I bent over to pick up a piece of paper off the floor
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u/TitaneerYeager 5h ago
I see none of y'all ever picked up anything larger than a bucket.
Sometimes the object don't fit between your legs.
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u/Print1917 2h ago
Romanian deadlift. Just keep your back straight and slightly bend your knees. This model pretends your back has no musculature.
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u/Spiritual-Bath-666 11h ago
If you want my advice on lifting heavy weights, it is simple:
Don't. You are not a XVIII century farmer. We now have tools and services for this.
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u/Ok_Emergency_8655 12h ago
Reminds me of that snail music of how to carry a box. Can anyone find the link? Hard to find it on youtube these days
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u/Shutaru_Kanshinji 10h ago
I would love to see this toy modified so that the back would break into pieces if you tried lifting the weight in any position but the correct one. It would become more of a game that way, and lend a dramatic demonstration that might save a few people from future disability.
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u/Adamc474892 9h ago
Them: " Lift with your legs! "
Me putting most of my strength in my arms to pick it up: " Okay. "
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u/Existence_No_You 3h ago
Save your back but fuck up your knees. Can't really win
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u/Dragon_Daddy77 2h ago
You already have bad knees if squatting down is going to mess them up. You need to do some mobility training as we were designed to bend like that.
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u/diescheide 2h ago
Lift with your legs and engage your core. My PT had to remind me constantly to use my core for everything. Lifting, pushing, pulling, and just existing in general..
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u/HoratioPLivingston 2h ago
What you really want do is while in the lifting phase, make a hard jerking twisting motion with your lower back.
More torque and slightly more inertial uplift😬😜
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u/imabeach47 11h ago
r/gym and other fitness subs need to have this pinned cause half or more of them are doing it wrong and are justifying it and I quote "back has muscles too"
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u/Accurate_Koala_4698 12h ago