How do Physiotherapists pick stuff up off the floor?

[oneils]

Hello Coach, I hate for this to be my first question - but here goes.

How do physiotherapists pick stuff up off the floor?

I ask this because I've got advice, now, from two people who say their physiotherapist have told them to never deadlift as it is the worst exercise for your back.

I just reply with "how do you pick up stuff off the floor?" and get a blank stare.

Anyway, thanks for the books.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I assume they use their asscheeks. Of course, this limits the types of objects that can be safely handled. I'd rather just deadlift.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

How do physiotherapists pick stuff up off the floor?



Step 1.
Place an inflatable disc in front of object to be lifted

Step 2.
Stand on inflatable disc, on one foot, with your back to the object.

Step 3.
Attempt to reach around behind you to pick up the object, all the while keeping on one foot.

Note:
If you are unable to pick up the object in this fashion then it means you have inactive glutes which must be strengthened with 100 ass squeezes per day and it also means that you suck at working within the transverse plane. you must immediately add some sort of rotational element to every exercise you do.

[Brandon Oto]

In fairness, I generally pick up heavy crap with a posture that resembles a squat more than a deadlift -- because it lets you get closer and requires less finickyness with perfect spinal posture.

I suppose you could just call it a reverse-grip sumo, which would also be fairly accurate.

[Mark Rippetoe]

How does it let you get closer?

[George Noble]

I guess Brandon means a wider stance is necessary for picking up most things that aren't straight bars, than is used for conventional deadlifting.

[Mark Rippetoe]

He probably does.

[Phil Stevens]

If we want o get crazy technical all this very much depends on the individual, how they are constructed, limb length leverages, if one is more hip or quad dominant as well.

generally someone that's naturally quad dominant will bend at the knee more and squat to pick something up. Or someone wearing a dress :) LOL

Someone who is more hip dominant will stiff leg DL a small object off the floor. Neither is wrong. Its just how your constructed and have lived life.

But that's getting past the fact of what?s really wrong, That of not dead lifting or squatting in some fashion. The human race is on a fast track to major slug like evolution. Just massive amoeba like blobs that kind of just roll where ever they go, consume things, and bitch how bad they have it.

[lukeBW]

How do physiotherapists pick stuff up off the floor?


they ask their assistant to pick it up for them

[win]

Yes, picking awkward objects up from the ground can require a wider stance to get close enough to grab the item in question. F'rinstance, I was doing a bunch of Zercher squat cleans with a sandbag last weekend - for fun, of course - and it was pretty hard to grab the bag without taking a much wider than normal stance.

Maybe there's a better way, but it didn't occur to me at the time. Maybe I'll try the asscheeks method next time, but I don't see how that'll be very productive.

[Brandon Oto]

I guess Brandon means a wider stance is necessary for picking up most things that aren't straight bars, than is used for conventional deadlifting.

That, and the more vertical torso gets your head out of the way, assuming the damned thing's tall enough that you can't get over it.

[Tuesday]

They use these:

http://www.bellbrush.com/images/LIT010.jpg

[Charles Staley]

Interesting. The subject is worth exploring.

Of course, it depends on the shape, size, and weight of the object, as well as your individual characteristics as Phil mentioned. It would also depend on your current level of back health.

One technique I haven't seen mentioned yet is the so-called golfer's lift, which is leaning over while your opposite leg raises behind you as counter-balance (visualize how a golfer retrieves a ball from the cup).

It also helps to have long hamstrings: I'm personally able to lean over with straight legs and pick up an object from the floor with a neutral low back.

[Drewfasa]

I dropped a pound coin today while I was out but I couldn't get low enough without unlocking my lower back while at the same time keeping my scapulae over the pound coin. So I just left it.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Dammit Drew, where???

[Brandon Oto]

Yeah, that coin's worth like fifty bucks for us.


One technique I haven't seen mentioned yet is the so-called golfer's lift, which is leaning over while your opposite leg raises behind you as counter-balance (visualize how a golfer retrieves a ball from the cup).

AKA one-legged deadlift. Sure. But I'm not lifting my couch that way.

[highway61]

Some fitness magazines use the word "deadlift" to refer to stiff-legged deadlifts. Maybe these physiotherapists meant to be saying that stiff-legged deadlifts are bad for the back? That's wrong, but it's not as wrong as saying that deadlifts are bad for the back.

[howardw]

I figured they used the force....that's what I do.



howard