Life skills I ought to have learned earlier

[luzula]

Poll #33879 Proper lifting technique

This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 43

Did you, or did you not, learn the proper technique for how to lift heavy objects with minimal injury/strain in school?

View Answers

Yes
10 (23.8%)

No
32 (76.2%)

When in life did you learn this?

View Answers

0-20 years old
20 (46.5%)

20-40 years old
12 (27.9%)

40-60 years old
0 (0.0%)

60-80 years old
0 (0.0%)

80-100 years old
0 (0.0%)

I still don't know it
4 (9.3%)

I might know it, but I'm not sure if I'm doing it right?
10 (23.3%)

I did not learn it in school. When I check the current PE curriculum, it sure looks like it's included. So either 1) it was not in the curriculum when I was in school, or 2) it was in the curriculum but my teacher did not cover it, or 3) they covered it but I did not learn it. I've known for a long time that you should not lift by bending your back and done my best to avoid this, but I only learned now that this is not all there is to it! You should not lift with your knees. You should lift by keeping your back and stomach braced and your spine straight (but hinged forward) and lift mainly with your butt (your knees can also bend if they need to, but the main bending should be at your hips). I am practicing it now, but it takes time to ingrain something like that.

I also did not learn, and am only beginning to learn now at the age of 47, the proper position/technique for doing common workout things like pushups, squats, etc. *facepalm* How can you go so long without learning such things, and without realizing that there is indeed a hole in your knowledge??

Comments

[sanguinity]

Here, proper lifting technique is mostly taught by workplaces, and most specifically ones that have had a history of back injuries among their employees. So a large proportion of physically active jobs, but also desk jobs that see the occasional banker box or box of copy paper.

And yup, people have to be taught the proper postures for calisthenics or weight lifting. Sometimes that's taught in school (or I assume the military), but a lot of people learn it as adults at the gym from trainers/instructors, or sometimes books/videos.

:: How can you go so long without learning such things, and without realizing that there is indeed a hole in your knowledge?? ::

The second answers the first, and the second is one of the hard epistemological problems. How much easier our lives would be, if we had a comprehensive list of what we didn't know, and an accurate estimate of each item's utility! There's things you can do to make it easier to discover (some) things you don't know, but honestly? We're just all scrabbling around in the dark here.

I hope this line of questioning wasn't triggered by a back injury? That's what I assumed when I saw the poll.

[luzula]

I never learnt it on the job, either. My first workplace (a restaurant) would have done well to teach it, but didn't. And then I've mostly had non-physical jobs. Or wait, that's not true, I've also had a physical university job (field work).

Another example of this sort of thing is that the teaching program at my university does not teach proper voice technique! You'd think they could have at least one lecture by a speech therapist, but nothing.

A hard epistemological problem, indeed! : / In general I have been learning so much I didn't know (including some things that I didn't know that I didn't know) since I got my farm! But I'm sure I still have many unknown gaps of things that I would have appreciated knowing, if I knew it was there to know. At least I will make sure my nieces learn how to lift.

No back injury as such, no. But I have had some other wake-up calls, various minor strains and injuries which are currently making me stiff, and which have made me realize that I need to learn better technique, be more mindful of what I do, and work more purposefully in order to gain strength and mobility (or at least try to lose less of them as I age).

[sanguinity]

Boo on the injuries, but I'm glad none of them are major. Yes, better to learn technique now, before any of that gets worse!

[mific]

Well, TIL how to lift things properly. Actually I think that's how I do do it, having vague notions of "don't use your back" but also having knees that are wonkier than my hips!

[luzula]

Probably most people's hips are stronger than their knees! Which I guess is the reason for how you're supposed to do it.

[jjhunter]

I learned it from crew! So at school, but not during gym proper.

[luzula]

What is crew? *curious* Good for crew, anyway. : )

[jjhunter]

Crew is a type of rowing (sport); the version I did involved sweep rowing in an eight boat (eight rowers plus the coxswain who called the strokes and kept us steered in the right direction).

We would carry the big rowing shell around as a group; proper technique for lifting it together and raising it up to rest on our shoulders got a lot of close attention and practice.

It's a wonderful sport, and one that is very team-focused (no stand-out single stars! If the boat is unbalanced, you end up going in circles, not winning races - matching each other and raising the level of performance together was everything). I miss it.

[seascribble]

I learned in my first job in uni, I think. They did training modules on stuff like that. I'm still a little confused about butt vs knees tbh, but I also don't have to do much lifting.

[luzula]

Good for your first job! And you better brush up on it, because you'll hopefully soon have something which needs lifting, which will grow heavier year by year... Seriously though, kids are heavy, and I have parents in my life who complain about back strain.

[seascribble]

You make a compelling argument.

[falkner]

It was definitely explained to me sometime in elementary school (ages 6-10) for the first time, and I distinctly remember thinking how silly it was, because it didn't seem to be making a difference to me. Oh, to have a young body again... :D I don't remember for sure the circumstances, but it's likely it came up in PE when we did exercises with medicine/weighted balls.

[luzula]

Oh, to have a young body again... :D
Indeed! Good for your school that they taught it, anyway.

[vatine]

I had it through four separate sources, between the ages of 7 and 19.

First was when I was doing youth wrestling (age estimated at 6 years old), where "lift with your legs, not your back" is part and parcel of proper throw techniques.

Then, in fifth grade (prepping for the sixth grade customary (for that teacher) 50 km hike along Sörmlandsleden), we did the same in PE, as we were expecting to carry a week's worth of stuff to eat, as well as tents, sleeping bags and the like.

Also, around that time, I started practicing ju jutsu, so again as part and parcel of proper throw technique.

Then, around age 15-16, I was taught it for a fourth time, as part of "this is how you lift and carry a stretcher" (let's go with "weird first aid training", carrying stretchers through terrain is normal, isn't it?).

If it had not been for hobbies that involved heavy lifting and a middle stage teacher with a penchant for outdoors life, I doubt I would have learned how to lift things properly in school, sadly.

[luzula]

Well, it's good that you came across it in so many contexts! But as you say, it shouldn't depend on having the right hobbies or the right teacher.

[dolorosa_12]

I did not learn it in school. I learnt it as part of mandatory training when I worked in a weekend job as a supermarket checkout cashier when I was 18. (Unfortunately I had already worked for three years during high school in a weekend job at a bakery that involved a lot of heavy lifting — think carrying trays of just-baked bread/pastries from the bakery along a back alley into the bakery shopfront for the first half-hour or so of the Saturday morning shift — without being taught this crucial skill.)

It's part of the mandatory training we have to do in the university library where I work, for obvious reasons.

[luzula]

Yeah, I also had a restaurant job where I lifted heavy trays of dishes, etc, without learning this. : ( Glad you came across it relatively early, though.

[brithistorian]

I took PE in 9th grade and we devoted one nine-weeks to weight training, which started with the proper way to lift without injuring ourselves.