%0 Journal Article
%T Modelling Crouch Technique to Lift Low-Lying Objects
%A A. C. Igboanugo
%A F. Ashiedu
%A M. K. Onifade
%J Journal of Innovative Research in Engineering and Sciences
%D 2010
%I Global Research Publishing
%X Lifting a leading cause of lower back pain (LBP) has several industrially hygienic technique of accomplishment. One of the named crouch technique has been modelled in this study and fitted into empirical data of Nigeria female adult working population. The study was motivated by the need to provide a guiding principle for industrial engineers involved in designing jobs that are ergonomically friendly, especially at workplaces in Sub-Sahara African countries where repetitive manual lifting is still prevalently practised, and thereby constitute health hazard. We found out that adopting acute postural angle (less than 300) while undertaking crouch-lifting poses a serious risk factor that may cause severe lower back disorder and that the magnitude of the muscle loading within the power zone and the attendant stresses at the hip are of the order of 30 of the body weight of the subject. It is therefore cautioned that bending the trunk considerably while undertaking crouch-lifting is an unsafe act.
%K power zone
%K muscle loading
%K postural angle
%K musculature
%U http://www.grpjournal.org/download/Modelling%20Crouch%20Technique%20to%20Lift%20Low-Lying%20Objects.aspx