We’re told to keep our back straight when lifting a heavy object—but having a more flexed back could cause less damage.
There’s no ‘wrong’ way to lift and a more individualized approach, which better suits the lifter, could reduce the risk of low back pain afterwards.
In fact, people who did suffer back problems were more likely to have adopted the ‘classic’ straight back approach, say researchers from Curtin University.
They asked a group of people to lift two boxes of different weights a hundred times. The participants were in occupations that involved lifting heavy objects, and those that were already suffering from low back pain “were more likely to lift with a slower, less flexed low back and a more squat-like technique,” said researcher Nic Saraceni.
The results were the opposite of what the researchers anticipated, who had expected that the classic straight back and squat position was likely to prevent back pain.
(Source: PLOS ONE, 2021; 16: e0254241)
