Safe Lifting over Christmas

Christmas dinner anyone??

I love a juicy turkey with all the trimmings but if you’ve got a large group coming around for Christmas lunch that turkey can end up being pretty big.

The last thing you want on Christmas day when your chiropractor is at home enjoying their own Christmas dinner is to put your back out lifting the turkey into or out of the oven.

So here are some good lifting and bending tips to make sure lifting of that giant turkey doesn’t spoil your dinner!!

The first tip for bending is to bend in a way that we call the ‘hip hinge’ – this pattern of movement ensures that you don’t add extra stresses to your lower back, this is always a good way to bend especially when you are lifting anything heavy.

The 1^st picture shows how to practice doing the hip hinge correctly – if the pole stays against your head, mid back and bottom as you bend then you have the movement pattern right. The 2^nd picture shows a lower bend without the pole.

When you bend like this there is less stress through your lower back and then when you come back to standing you push up using your thighs and glutes (buttock) muscles so again not needing to add any extra load onto your spine.

This is a safe lifting technique that protects your spine and will strengthen your body.

To help your body get used to a different way of moving, it is important to practice the movement at other times so that when it is essential to protect your spine from heavy weights you are more accustomed to the movement.

A squat exercise is a good way to practice this movement pattern and strengthen your thighs and buttock muscles.

When you lift a heavy weight you also want to fix your shoulder blades onto your rib cage to ensure you use the big muscles in your back for their strength rather than the smaller muscles around the top of the shoulders.

I would like to wish you all a Happy Safe Christmas.

If you would like to find out more information about how Chiropractic could help you then please do give us a call: 07582907702