Applied Research

Eliminating Lower Back Injuries to Instructors by Using Self-Loaded Adaptive Ski Equipment

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Abstract

The revised 1994 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) Lifting Equation (NLE) is widely used to assess the risk of injury to the spine by providing estimates of the Recommended Weight Limits (RWL) for people conducting a manual lift.  This adaptive snow-sports (skiing/snowboard) study uses the predictive equations to identify lifting situations that put adaptive instructors at risk (>2.0 LI) for lower back injuries during a routine lift of a sit-ski onto a chairlift.  Using NIOSH lifting equation calculations, along with predictive equations of spinal loads using the trunk and pelvic flexion, have identified that under the RWL’s calculated during these lifting activities, spinal loads exceed the recommended safe compression and shear force levels (Arjmand et al, 2015).  Elimination of manual lift/loads by using self-loaded adaptive sit-ski equipment would reduce any risk to adaptive instructors.

Keywords: Adaptive Snow-Sports Manual Lift of Sit-Ski Equipment, Twisting Posture During Lifting, Lower Back Injuries, and Manual Material Handling, Manual Material Handling, Twisted Posture during lifting, lower back injury, adaptive skiing, sit-ski injuries, Manual lifts of people

How to Cite:

ONeill, E. A., McDade, K. T. & Fuzak, T. D., (2025) “Eliminating Lower Back Injuries to Instructors by Using Self-Loaded Adaptive Ski Equipment”, The Journal of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering 2(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/jtmae.16235