Don’t use your back like a crane?
Remember the old saying: Don’t use your back like a crane? That might be exactly why your back injuries aren’t going away! You’ll remember it if you’ve been in health…
August is for AUTOMATIC – a.k.a. habit change.
Over the month of August, we’ll be diving deep into why habit change is the crucial, often-missing link in manual handling programmes – and how ignoring it has sabotaged even the most well-meaning training efforts.
But before we unpack how to create lasting, automatic safe movement habits, let’s zoom out and look at why has traditional manual handling training failed so badly in the first place?
Manual Handling Training: Why It’s Got a Bad Rap
If you’ve heard me speak before, you’ll know I’m not shy about this – traditional manual handling training has earned its poor reputation, and rightly so.
Most programmes have been ineffective because they’ve missed the mark in four big ways:
1. Incorrect Instruction
“Keep your back straight and bend your knees.”
Sound familiar? It’s one of the most common pieces of manual handling advice out there and one of the most biomechanically flawed.
It encourages bracing, not functional movement. It puts strain where it shouldn’t be and it’s simply not how human beings are designed to move.
Most manual handling training is a show-and-tell, theory-laden course. For instance, knowing how many vertebrae are in the spine doesn’t change how someone bends to pick up a load. Theory does not teach physical skills.
What people need is physical learning, not just information. They need movement experience, feedback, correction, and most importantly, the confidence to feel the difference in their own body between effective and ineffective movement.
3. Not Built for Real-World
Traditional training often focuses on simple instruction, such as how to lift and carry a box or how to bend but real work isn’t that simple.
People push, pull, twist, dig, grip, bend, carry, and reach – sometimes all in one task. Just knowing how to lift doesn’t help when you’re pushing a trolley through a tight space, using a knife in a meat works, or digging a trench.
Manual handling training needs to build physical intelligence – the ability to move well in all the ways people are physically challenged at work. That includes lifting, yes, but also pushing, pulling, twisting, carrying, gripping and more.
And let’s not forget, the human body doesn’t know if it’s earning money or not. Safe movement needs to carry over into DIY at home, family activities, weekend projects, and everyday life. One set of movement skills should serve you everywhere.
4. Zero focus on habit change
And here’s the big one – the one that August is for Automatic is all about.
Even if the technique is perfect…
Even if the teaching methodology is on point…
Even if the application is clear…
It won’t stick unless it becomes a habit.
Just knowing the right movement isn’t enough. People need repetition, feedback and reinforcement until that safe movement becomes their default setting – until it becomes automatic.
But most workplaces stop short. They tick the training box and when someone gets injured, they blame the worker for not following the advice. Then they wonder why injury rates don’t shift.
The Provention Approach: A Different Way Forward
We don’t follow the status quo – our First Move programme is built differently:
Because movement should never be something you “remember to do” – it should be something you just do. That’s what this August series is all about.
Next week: We tackle the myth that knowing equals doing and break down why information alone won’t drive change without repetition, reinforcement, and the right environmental cues.