Take care of your back!

[Turntablist]

I've read a lot of peoples stories about how they've hurt their backs and I thought I'd help you guys out to strengthen your back and/or just perform a safe lift.
I also thought I'd teach you other guys how to lift something off the floor without risking to hurt your back and also how to strengthen your back.

I feel that the importance of this has been generally overlooked.

These pictures show how a proper lift should be performed.


Throughout the lift you should keep your hips low, upper back high and your arms and back straight. Your knees should point in the same direction as your feet throughout movement. Keep the weight close to your body to improve mechanical leverage.

I will soon be an internationally licenced personal trainer and if you've got any questions feel free to ask!

[bzb]

Guess you have to be a chick to lift like this

I actually threw out my back (after injuring it playing basketball) lifting my rack improperly last year. That was one of the biggest reasons I started building these speakers - to reduce the weight of all my equipment.

Just goes to show you that even a gym rat like me can really screw up your back when lifting heavy loads like you're still 20 years old. Good warning to those youngins who think they're invincible. Everything really does go downhill after 30

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

I'd rather take care of her rack.

[Gregory East]

To pick up a big box I have to split mylegs so my knees aren't in the way. That's the best I can do aside from getting a hand. Strangely I find it more hazardous to share carrying something heavy as the other person will often take off on me.

Even just walking with a onehanded load is unbalanced and sets me up for another twist in the facet joints.

[Turntablist]

To pick up a big box I have to split mylegs so my knees aren't in the way.

That's also a very good way of carrying something. If the object is not wide you can increase mechanical leverage by doing so.

...sets me up for another twist in the facet joints.

The facet joints are slipping joints, twisting is what they do. Have you rubbed the surfaces down?

[Gregory East]

It was 15 years ago. I was portering heavy suitcases upstairs one in each hand one in front and one behind with a twist on as the stairs were too narrow to have at my sides. Snagged the rear bag on the step and popped something the physio said was a facet joint. He advised me not to abuse myself like that. Always to have the shoulders "together" and use the muscles, not relying on tendons in overstretch mode.

Dunno what you mean by rubbing down but I had a bunch of massages from the physio to settle it down at the time. Since then I have managed to tweek it in a minor way a couple of times carrying said heavy bass bin with a helper who has managed to get me to let loose a shoulder.

[kynetx]

I'd rather take care of her rack.

If she's the woman I think she is, she's the poster-child for people that say (and I agree) that women should lift weights and as long as they're not taking steroids they won't get bulky. I believe she's one of the current record-holders in the squat. She'd snap you like a twig. Doesn't sound like a bad way to go though.

One thing that has helped me in recently (5 strains and 3 crushed discs is what it took to figure this out) is to determine where the heavy end of something is. This is especially handy for old CRT TVs and monitors and applies to amp racks as well.
Find the heavy end - for CRTs its the end you watch. For amp racks, it's probably the fronts since most of the time a manufacturer is going to make them front-heavy so a customer has the option of using a single mounting point. That's probably where the transformer sits.
Pick up the item with the heavy end pulled in tight to your abdomen. Having the weight close to your body puts less leverage on your back and makes it easier to balance since the majority of the weight will be closer to your center of mass.

My opinion - since I'm no doctor, not even on TV - is that it's easier to carry two heavy things (one in each hand) than it is to carry one in two hands in front of my body or in one hand. Balance the load, right?

In the end, we replaced some heavy-ass Behringer EP amps with a single Peavy IPR. I looked our rig over and it dawned on me that we really only needed one amp anyway. The two mains are on one channel and the four 16-ohm hot spot monitors are on the other. We went from a 20-space rack that weighed probably 125 pounds to a 4-space that can't weigh more than 30.

[bzb]

30 lb racks for the win!

PA equipment too!

Totally agree, it's easier to have the load on the sides than in the front. Seems like less stress on my shoulder that way, too. Yet another sports injury... sigh.

Which now begs the question for Bill: did you intentionally design these cabinets for old farts, or was the resulting lower weight of these cabs just a bonus advantage of the braced design?

[pwfirst]

I am a doctor of over thirty years and have taken care of many back strains and injuries, and I have arthritis with a compresion fx of L3 wich is way down in the low back. Lifting correctly is very important but I find that most of the injuries I see come from not lifting in front of you. Lifting to the side is very common and can put the back in spasm with lifting very small weights. If you are lucky it can even go down your leg or into your groin. Young bodies are forgiving, old duffers like me can become injuried very easily. But if I had some one like her to excercise with the pain would be worth it.
Phil

[kynetx]

Hey Phil, do you find that those side-lifting injuries come from lifting with one hand or is there no correlation?