To those who chose to stay indoors during the whiteout: You’re already too late.
“[People] ought to get out there and not save it all,” said Dr. David Walls-Kaufman with the Capitol Hill Chiropractic Center.
Alas. But for the rest of those digging out, here are some snow removal tips that your back will appreciate.
First, Walls-Kaufman dismissed the time-honored tip to lift with your legs, not your back. Rather, it is more important to maintain the proper curve in your lower back, he said, by sticking your sternum out “like you’ve got a big pot belly,” sticking out your behind and maintaining the curve “at all costs.”
Most injuries occur when lifting and rotating the spine, he added. The solution?
“Never, never twist,” he said. “You don’t want to twist the spine or the lower back.”
Think of your shoulders and hips as four corners of a popsicle, he continued. Move with your legs, and “keep [the] integrity of that popsicle. You don’t twist the popsicle.”
Indeed, you really don’t want to twist the popsicle. In 2008, more than 70,000 people were treated for injuries for shoveling or removing snow or ice, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
And snowblowers, while easier on the lumbar, do not exempt people from potential catastrophe — more than 14,000 were injured using snowblowers in 2008.
“If operating a snowblower, people should keep their hands and feet away from the undersurface of the blower and parents should exercise caution in allowing children to use this robust machine,” said Dr. Michael F. Schafer, an academy spokesman.
Other tips from the academy: Push the snow, don’t lift it, and don’t throw the snow over your shoulder or to the side. And do not, under any circumstances, stick your hands or feet in the snowblower.
