Lifting even moderately heavy objects the wrong way can injure you, this is a well known fact. You may perform the lift well but then you may trip or twist when you are carrying your load and the result will be the same- pain, inconvenience and the fear that you might have done yourself serious damage.

Work place safety is taken seriously by responsible employers because they have a stake in you not hurting yourself, lost productivity and increased compensation insurance premiums are costs they like to avoid. So think about how you lift things when you are not at work and  how much it might end up costing you.

Sometimes a weight that you have easily lifted a thousand times before (that isn’t that heavy at all), can give you a sudden shock of pain one day. Momentarily you stop you in your tracks and wonder what just happened. This is usually due to poor lifting (and carrying) technique but may also be a repetitive strain injury too. Some small loads can be very hard to hang onto to like a squirmy toddler or a dog trying to avoid his bath. Lifting and carrying injuries can be very unpredictable.

Then there are lighter things that we lift and carry everyday like  laptops, handbags and brief cases. How we carry these things can have an undesirable effect on our spines too but in a more gradual less noticeable way. The constant carrying of even light objects over a long period of time, always on the same side of your body can change it’s balance and distort the shape of your spine. The shape of our bones over a long period of time can change because of uneven posture.

I wish I had a backpack when I was a school kid, they are so much better for your back than our hand carried cases and even better if you use the chest strap. If you wear a pack always the carry the load as high as you can and evenly.

If a backpack makes your business suit look too casual or it doesn’t match your beautiful dress please be conscious of frequently and evenly swapping your purse or case from hand to hand to share the load. Handbags can make women’s shoulder suffer just as surely as her high heels can cause her back pain, fashion has it’s price.

You don’t have to carry anything at all to be lop sided, poor general posture can do it to you too.

We are very lucky to have so many labour saving devices available to us it is ridiculous to risk our spinal health by not using them. The next time you see an African woman carrying a big water jug on her head it is because posturally it is the safest and most efficient way of carrying it over a medium to long distance without the aid of a vehicle or a trolley.

In a way we have become a little spoiled by our labour saving devices, when we do not have them at our finger tips we can be a liitle useless at lifting and carrying.