Oh my glob, I cannot believe how much busier I am with this new job, and I am only TRAINING, which means I’m only doing two hours here, one hour there, doctor appointment here, form-filling-out there, reading-employee-manual here, watching video there. Well. I will just trust that I will get used to it, and that New Thing stress is part of what makes it FEEL busy. And the good news is, I now NEVER sit at home in my house thinking, “It is stupid to be bored like this. Anyone else would make good use of this time.”
I do my first real, just-me, not-training shift in a few days, and I am kind of nervous, kind of excited. Sixty-forty, probably. My guess is that as we approach the actual day, the nervousness will take over a larger portion.
Also! Guess what! I have NEVER known what “Lift with your legs, not your back” meant! NEVER. It’s like “Steer into the skid”: it seems to make sense to the person saying it, but it never makes sense to me. I’m NOT lifting “with my back”! I am using my hands and arms! Except apparently I AM lifting with my back, and now I’m going around the house practicing not doing that. It’s surprisingly hard to remember, and surprisingly hard to do. Also, I feel like I’m sticking my butt WAY out, which makes me feel self-conscious.
New Thing Stress is so overwhelming, isn’t it? I bet part of the adjustment will be everyone else in the family (and you) learning that you are busier and that they may need to do things that before naturally fell to you. I bet that if you verbalize what you’re thinking (the stress but also just the logistical stuff) it will be so helpful for your kids in helping them when they eventually get jobs. Though now that I think about it, given how you write on this blog, I bet you do that already. What a gift for your kids!
Actually, you use your core muscles to lift. Bending the legs protects the back, but if you don’t activate the core, you are still going to hurt yourself. The real problem comes in if you don’t have any core muscles to activate. Ask me how I know.
My yoga teacher tells us that sticking out your butt is the best way to lift, and a healthy back is more important than what people think if you are sticking your butt out. It will get more natural for you as time goes by.
I can relate to this stress. Remember that it will get better and will soon become routine for you. It will probably take less time than you think. Good luck!
I vividly remember the exact time that the “lift with your legs” thing made sense to me. I was like “uh, dudes, my hands are on my arms, not my legs, kinda hard to lift with them.” But my dad was watching me pick something up one time, freaked out and was all WHAT HAVE I ALWAYS TOLD YOU LIFT WITH YOUR LEGS and I was like I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS THOSE WORDS DON’T MAKE SENSE but then.. oh.. yeah. OK I see. They do make sense. Gotcha. Happily I was in my early 20s so my back was all spry and stuff back then, so all the years of lifting with it didn’t ruin me for life. I shudder to think of doing that with heavy objects now.
I like to think having three little kids has given me some pretty great legs! I always lift them with my legs, which means a lot of sqatting :) I’m not sure I’m up for lifting adults, though! That’s always seemed like the hardest part of nursing home work to me.
Oh I am excited for you and I can’t wait to see how this all works out. I am starting in August and every once in a while I fall into a full-tilt panic, thinking how in the hell is everyone going to get picked up, what about this laundry that I do every day? How will I keep doing this laundry when I am 20 miles away? I feel like it will work out but man. The waiting is indeed the hardest part. Also, I can’t help but think of the sign that says Bridge Freezes Before Road Surface. I have NO Idea what that means. I know what all the words mean but in that order? NOTHING.
I’ve always assumed it mean that the bridge gets icy before the rest of the road, because the rest of the road is attached to the ground, which stays warm longer.
Because the ground retains more warmth than the air does, if it’s right around freezing temperatures and the road is wet, bridges (that have no ground under them) will ice over quicker than the rest of the road. Be extra careful when driving over them.
Yay! It’s starting! I’m so excited to hear how the first big on-your-own day goes. Also, Torsten is big into the lifting with your legs thing and by now it’s second nature for me! Bend my knees before I pick up one of my enormous children! Yes, I can do that!
haha, yes, I was always confused by that until the summer I worked as a CNA on a geriatric unit. I lifted the right way very quickly (You will also be stronger and able to lift more that way), and I still went home with back pain allllll the time because I was just weak overall. That got better.
I didn’t understand the whole “lift with your legs, not with your back” thing until I worked at FedEx, had to watch their training video, and realized that what you want to do is bend your knees, get a comfortable grip on the item, hug it into your body, and then stand up *as though you were just standing up normally* – using leg muscles for standing and core/arm muscles for holding the item close to your body.
It totally changed how I lift things, and now when I see people lifting with their back muscles I am torn between being THAT person who lectures on the proper way to lift things, and not being THAT person, but knowing they might end up with back pain.
Good luck with the work-home balance! It is challenging to start but I bet you are going to really like it. The people you are working with are so lucky to have you!
And I want to say while I am thinking of it, how much I enjoy your blog. How enormously I enjoy the fact that you write the way I think. And that you write about your kids who are not preschoolers anymore. And that you have such a great sense of humor. You are very helpful to me.
Thanks!
I teach BodyPump and even though everyone in my class does an entire squat track, they still bend way over to pick up and put down their weights. My latest cue to try to prevent that is, “make sure your head stays the highest part of the body when picking up and putting down weights. If I see butts or backs in the air, I know you’re not lifting safely.”
This visual is more helpful when talking about lifting from floor level though, because you can incline your back to lift something that’s at waist level and your head will still be the highest part of you, even while lifting with your back.
Every time I start something new I think “This is too much, I can’t possibly do this.” But it very quickly becomes habit, and you think nothing of it in a matter of a few weeks. This is of course zero help when the panic strikes, because the panic is inevitable, but it seems to help me settle in faster if I can remember that I felt just like this last time, too, and it went away very quickly.
I’m excited for you! And for the people you will be helping. They will enjoy your wit and smarts, just like we all do.