Lift with your legs

I had my first practical session in my EMT class. We learned how to carry each other up and down the stairs on stretchers, scoop up fellow class mates from confined spaces, and load the wheeled-stretcher onto the ambulance. All this was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Even skinny-scrawny-scraggly people are really heavy.

It’s especially difficult to get the stretcher and patient off the ground in the first place. The instructor offered hints on how to lift properly -“with your legs!” - and what techniques to use from these very low positions.

“Sit the way you would when you’re catching a baseball,” he said as I struggled to raise the stretcher. “But I never caught a baseball,” I replied. An awkward silence followed and I felt a sudden strong urge to tell him that I can throw a football really well. “Like this,” he continued, kneeling on one knee and sort of squatting with the other leg.

I need to start lifting weights again. And maybe watch a ball game or two.