Twisting While Lifting Toolbox Talk: Turn With Your Feet

Lift a box, turn to drop it on a pallet behind you, repeat. It feels efficient, but every swivel with a load in your arms loads your spine in the way it handles worst. This twisting while lifting toolbox talk is for pickers, packers, palletisers, loaders and anyone who moves items from one spot to another. The crew will leave knowing how to turn safely and which layouts to flag.

Why does twisting while lifting matter?

HSE's manual handling brief guide lists twisting, stooping and reaching as task risks to look for. It also says any handling that involves torso twisting needs a more detailed assessment, because the simple weight guidelines no longer apply.

HSE's good handling technique is specific: avoid twisting your back or leaning sideways, especially while your back is bent. Keep your shoulders level and facing the same direction as your hips. Turning by moving your feet is better than twisting and lifting at the same time. CCOHS gives the same advice: avoid twisting and side bending while lifting.

Layout matters as much as technique. CCOHS advises leaving enough room to turn around so workers aren't forced to twist, bump into or trip over things.

Talking points for your twisting while lifting toolbox talk

• Nose over toes. Keep your nose, shoulders and hips pointing the same way as your feet. If your feet aren't moving and your shoulders are, you're twisting.
• Face the load before you lift. Square up to it with your feet apart and one slightly forward. Don't lift from the side.
• Turn with small steps. Once the load is up, step round in small movements. Don't pivot on one planted foot.
• Fix the layout first. If you have to turn every cycle, ask whether the pallet, conveyor or bench can be moved so pick-up and set-down are in front of you.
• Use turntables and rollers. A rotating pallet stand or roller table turns the load instead of your spine.
• Make room to step. Cramped spaces force twisting. Keep the area around the station clear so there's space to move your feet.
• Slow down when you're tired. Twisting creeps in late in the shift when people cut corners. Notice it and reset.

Example to share with the crew

For example, picture a worker unloading cartons from a conveyor onto a pallet. The conveyor ends to her left and the pallet sits directly behind her. To save time she plants her feet and swivels her upper body for every carton, hundreds of times a shift.

Moving the pallet to sit at a right angle in front of the conveyor end, with space between, changes everything. She lifts, takes two small steps and places, with no twist at all. The fix took a forklift two minutes.

Twisting while lifting checklist

• Pick-up and set-down points are in front of the worker, not behind
• There is clear floor space around each station to step and turn
• Pallets are on turntables or reachable from more than one side where needed
• Workers square up to the load before lifting
• Workers turn with their feet, keeping shoulders in line with hips
• Conveyor ends, benches and pallets are aligned to avoid repeated turning
• Layouts that force twisting have been reported and reviewed

Questions to ask the crew

1. Which task makes you twist with a load in your hands?
2. If you could move one pallet, bench or conveyor to stop the twist, which would it be?
3. Do you notice yourself twisting more late in the shift, and when?

Twisting shows up clearly in a posture score, so try the REBA calculator on a twisting task. The NIOSH lifting equation also penalises twisting through its asymmetry multiplier (how the NIOSH multipliers work), which you can test in the NIOSH lifting calculator.

How to close the talk

The habit to take from this twisting while lifting toolbox talk: turn with your feet, not your back, and fix layouts that make you swivel. If your station forces you to twist, tell your supervisor or report it through the site's hazard process. You'll find more safety topics for toolbox talks in the library.