Problems from Improper Lifting Techniques

Lift with your legs, not your back. Everyone has heard this safety tip at some point, and it is still good advice. Even if you have gotten away with poor lifting techniques for a long time, chances are, if you continue to employ improper lifting techniques, then you will suffer a painful injury eventually. The particular injury you suffer will likely be one on the short list of possible lifting injuries.

Lifting and the Spine

• Most injuries from improper lifting fall into the category of back injuries. More specifically, these injuries occur in the structures of the spine or the muscles attaching to the spine. Even more specifically, most of these injuries occur in the lower back, or in the lumbosacral region between the upper hips and along the lower curve of the back above the buttocks. To avoid these injuries, when you are standing up, do not bend forward at the waist during the lift.

Muscles

• With improper lifting, you can stretch or tear muscles attached to the lumbosacral spine. Stretching the muscle beyond its capacity is called a strain. Strains are experienced as acute pain when the injury occurs, which can be worsened if the muscle responds to the injury by contracting in spasms. Hours and days after a muscle strain, inflammation can set in around the injury, which causes the pain to last longer and healing to slow down. Most people treat strains with rest, ice and anti-inflammatories. A muscle tear is called a sprain. A sprain has all the characteristics of a strain, but is more severe. The pain is greater, and the healing takes longer.

Joints

• The spine comprises individual bones called vertebrae, and these vertebrae are connected to one another with nonbony tissues that comprise joints between each vertebra. Each spinal joint has three ligaments. Improper lifting can damage any of these ligaments. Straining these structures can result in acute pain, followed by muscle spasms and inflammation. Strains require the same treatment as muscle strains -- rest, ice and anti-inflammatories. Because these injuries can scar and deform the tissues, they sometimes lead to reinjury or chronic inflammation.

Discs

• Between the vertebral joints is a cushion called the intervertebral fibrocartilage, or the disc. If the disc is displaced from its position by an improper lift, then this injury is referred to as a herniated, or slipped, disc. This injury is extremely painful and can lead to pain in other parts of the body. Disc injuries frequently require surgical correction.