how to plan a manual handling task
The main point of the Manual Handling Regulations is to stop workers picking up heavy weights without thinking about what they are doing. How many of us actually stop and think in everyday life before moving something?
Young children don't act in this way. Although they may appear not to think about it, when, for example, picking a toy off the floor, they usually bend their legs not their backs. That's because we are born with the inherent instinct to do it correctly but unfortunately we soon unlearn it.
The planned lift as described in the regulations, requires workers to thing about what they are doing. It might seem quite a task when you look at this picture but in practice it becomes almost instinctive after a time. We should all:
- Assess the task ahead
- Plan how we are going to do it
- Prepare to do it
- Perform the manual handling task
The following slides explain this in more detail.