<p style="font-size:16px; text-align:justify; line-height:125%;">
	In what is a <a href="http://www.socialcaretraining.ie/health-and-safety-matters-manual-handling-explained" style="font-size:16px; text-align:justify; line-height:125%;">Health and Safety matter; manual handling explained</a> hinges on three 3 curves that make up your back structure. They are the cervical curve, the thoracic curve, and the lumbar curve. Keeping your ears, shoulders and hips in a straight line, helps to <strong>keep a healthy curve balance</strong>. Additionally having strong flexible muscles assists a healthy back, particularly abdominal &amp; muscles for lower back support as the loads can be spread more easily through the sinews. Having flexible thighs, hips &amp; buttock muscles in good shape are sound a priori to t<strong>ransferring a social care residence or equipment</strong>. When lifting a social care patient, you need to understand &amp; develop good body mechanics that will enable you to keep your back balanced for what is manual handling prudence. A Social care worker needs to get in the habit of bending the knees instead of their back. <strong>Good body mechanics</strong> involves keeping the load close to your body &amp; spreading your feet optimally apart, reducing the body&rsquo;s centre of gravity to provide good stance stability. It&rsquo;s important when lifting objects or social care patients to <strong>turn the whole body</strong>, and not to simply twist your back. If you cannot turn the whole body, it&rsquo;s a good sign that your load weight is above your capacity to lift, and we don&rsquo;t want to injure ourselves <a href="http://www.socialcaretraining.ie/craning-our-necks" style="font-size:16px; text-align:justify; line-height:125%;">craning our necks</a> and incurring an unnecessary visit from the HSE.</p>
