Why does instinct not tell us how to pick a load up?

Question

Faced with picking up a load from the ground, someone who doesn't know better will bend over to it and risk straining the back. Bending the knees has to be taught - it doesn't take much teaching, I admit, but why does it take any? Shouldn't instinct tell us to do such a simple thing?

Answer 1

We were not built to walk upright. Perhaps that is the reason why so many people have back problems.
By the way, we weren't built to eat meat either. Carnivores have very short intestines.

Answer 2

Thats a truely good question. The body doesnt always know what is best. Somethings have to be learned by generations of expirence, then taught. Sometimes, the human body does not know what is best for the survival of life, consider a body going into shock, or becoming Hypothermic, it will begin to shut down functions to do what it views as best, to keep certain ones functioning, but this is not the best move towards the survival of the person.

I'm sorry for posting without offering up a reasonable explination, but i felt the need to point out this is a very good question, and I believe we are a long way off from having a true and exact answer to it.

Answer 3

we have to learn things by doing or observing. in this case it's trial in error and we learn to lift with our legs and not our backs. VERY quickly once we hear/feel that first 'pop'

we tend to think of the arms as being our strength so we instinctively lift with them, not realizing how the body works and that the real stress will be on the back.. so we DO it instinctively at first.. to bad our instincts aren't always right!!

Answer 4

instinct in general fails to tell us many things about posture. perhaps it is that evolution cares very little about people who have reached an age that allows reproduction. evolution's solution to the problem apparently was to make kids largely impervious to back strain and repetitive stress injury, at least in man's natural environment. even when injured, children and young adults heal very quickly. once they reach an age which allows reproduction, they are obsolete and in some ways detrimental to the survival of their own genes. thus they are allowed to weaken and die.

Answer 5

Perhaps we have dampened down some instincts through evolution. After all a mommoth is not something we need to pick up these days.......

Answer 6

Oddly, instinct tells us to do things that are not necessarily good for us. Thus, better to teach than take chances on something so simple.

--That Cheeky Lad