The 3 basic lifts that everyone should learn
Strength is an important aspect for a healthy body. Unless we have a 24/7 butler at our service, our average daily activities would include carrying of external load. This load can come in the form of your laptop bag, your school bag, or your ever growing toddler who wants to be carried. Such loads may often exceed 15kg and hence, if we are not strong enough to even manage that weight, we would be at risk of injury. The solution is simple: get strong. As long as our strength capacity is higher than our task, the risk of injury can be greatly minimised.
We need to understand that the human body is resilient and is able to adapt and overcome obstacles when we train.
Deadlift- the first lift
This first lift is the deadlift. This movement is essentially picking an object from ground level to the waist height. It begins with lowering the body to the level of the object, holding on to the object and standing up. Good technique will include maintenance of neutral spine throughout the entire movement, with the object travelling vertically. Poor technique includes having the object too far from the body and inability to maintain a neutral spine. If the load is beyond what your body can manage, you would either not be able to pick the load up, or result in poor technique. As long as technique is maintained, risk of injury would be very much minimised. We use the deadlift movement often in daily activities. Parents and those working with young children can draw parallels between the deadlift movement and lifting a child up. If we are not strong enough to lift a child, should we tell the child “Sorry, Daddy can't carry you. Can you climb on top of the table so I can carry you?” The other common scenario is lifting luggages from the conveyor belt which is a very common way in which people injure their backs. Mastering the deadlift, we are able to build stronger and more resilient bodies to meet the demands of our daily activities.
2. Squat- the second lift
The squat is the second lift. This movement involves having the object in contact with the body while the load is being lowered and eventually returned to the original position. Similar to the deadlift, the neutral spine has to be maintained throughout the movement. In the squat, it differs from the deadlift in its starting position which begins in the fully extended position of the hip and knee, and also there would be anterior translation of the knee compared to the deadlift. The similarity between the squat and the deadlift would be the object should be moving only vertically up/down should stay close to the body at all times. In our daily lives, the use of the squat can be to lift / carry objects and placing them at different heights. This compound movement is also very useful to build strength in multiple lower limb muscles.
3. Press - the third lift
The press or known to some by shoulder press is the third musketeer of lifts that everyone should learn. The movement begins with the object carried at shoulder height and ends with the shoulders and elbows fully straightened and object overhead. You would need a strong enough grip so that you would not drop the object, you would also require mobility and stability at the wrist and shoulder joint. This movement is essential for lifting and lowering objects overhead. For travellers, lifting your carry-on luggage which sometimes can weigh more than 7kg would be how this movement is used in real life scenarios. For putting objects in overhead cupboards, the press is also used. Learning this movement and eventually adding more strength to the movement would increase the threshold before we get injured.
Word of caution
Even though I strongly advocate that everyone should learn these 3 lifts, it doesn't mean that you should just jump right into it and pick something heavy to lift. It can be very dangerous if you do not have the proper lifting technique or if the weight is beyond your strength capacity.
Where do we go from here?
In order to lift safely, it is strongly advised that you have proper guidance in the form of a personal trainer, strength and conditioning coach or physiotherapist. Once you’ve learnt the proper technique, the other thing to consider is the programming. With proper programming, your coach/ physiotherapist can ensure that you are lifting with enough load to stimulate strength gains, yet low enough to avoid injury. Lifting can be done in a safe and controlled manner with very little risk of injury.
What about the elderly? Should they lift too?
The World Health Organisation recommends strengthening exercises at least 2x/week for adults aged 18-64 and 3x/week for adults 65 and above. One reason why this is so is the strong evidence that strengthening can prevent falls in the elderly. In a systematic review conducted by Ishigaki et al 2014, they found mounting evidence that lower limb strengthening correlated to reduced falls which is important to prevent especially in our geriatric population.
The naysayers
There still exists even within the healthcare community, professionals who believe that lifting is dangerous and certain lifts should be avoided at all costs for life. Such views demonstrate a lack of understanding of basic human movement and shows poor comprehension that strengthening can be done in a safe manner. A statement commonly heard in this camp would be this "many of my patients get injured doing this lift, hence ALL my patients should avoid it." "We are how we train" - this is the principle of specific adaptations to imposed demands. Once we begin avoiding certain movements, our bodies will adapt accordingly and overtime, we become accustomed not to be able to do that movement. There are many qualified doctors and healthcare professionals out there that not only understand the importance of strength training but also lift themselves. Choosing the right health professional to work with may bring out huge positive changes to your life, so choose wisely.
This blog’s aim is not to teach you the right technique for lifting but to provide a case why these 3 basic lifts should be incorporated into your strengthening program. Selecting a good coach and working with the right healthcare professionals that understands strength training and can guide you to do so in a safe and effective manner will make the difference to get you stronger and healthier. For anyone who is keen to learn these lifts, I am available to teach.
References
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity#:~:text=Adults%20aged%2018%E2%80%9364%20years&text=should%20also%20do%20muscle%2Dstrengthening,these%20provide%20additional%20health%20benefits.
Ishigaki EY, Ramos LG, Carvalho ES, Lunardi AC. Effectiveness of muscle strengthening and description of protocols for preventing falls in the elderly: a systematic review. Braz J Phys Ther. 2014 Mar-Apr;18(2):111-8. doi: 10.1590/s1413-35552012005000148. Epub 2014 Apr 22. PMID: 24760166; PMCID: PMC4183251.
