Posted By andy bee I was taught to keep the back in its natural position.

Posted By steve e ashton Tom: Its NOT NEW!. The 'back straight, knees bent' mantra came from an ill-informed study of still photographs of people moving stuff - specifically munitions during WWII. The truth is that those people who were doing it properly (and you need to speak with Doug Payne at RoSPA if he's still around) are looking at 'kinetics' - i.e. its a movement - and anyone moving anything goes through a variety of postures - including, at some point, having a 'relatively' straight back BUT that is not the key to safe MOVEMENT. Human Kinetic is far more involved than simply reciting the mantra of knees bent back straight chin in..... Is the glass half full or half empty? It depend where it is.... In my mouth its half empty. Under the optic its half full. E Mail off line if you would like further detail. Steve

Posted By Kevin Drum I am currently a ROSPA manual handling trainer and assesor and the general advice id to bend the knees and keep the back in its natural s curve as you lift. One of the resons you raise your head slightly prior to lifting as this helps put back into it's natural curve. Hope this helps

Posted By TomP Thanks for all the help everyone.Useful document suggested which i haven't seen before (RR097). Good bed time reading. In my initial post I mentioned keep the back straight but I do suggest some flexion in my training and focus around the neutral curves in the spine and maintaining the lordotic (theres a big word) nature of the lumbar spine but my concern is the same as Chis G in the previous post. The candidate was told to 'bend' their back. When they showed me the extent I was horified.