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The BACKSAVING HANDLE™ is an ergonomic grip that can save your back muscles while doing many tasks. It allows you to place your hands in a number of different positions. The BACKSAVING HANDLE™ improves implement balance and resists twisting action. It is like having a third hand!
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The Backsaving Handle, product of a Sparks company called CareBorne, is little more than a piece of aluminum tubing bent into a cursive letter "u." But when it's attached to a tool, it changes that tool's relationship to the user. There's scientific evidence to support CareBorne president Bill Dickerson's claims of energy savings and reduced back strain, and a user test (see related story) supports him too. CareBorne got its start making orthopedic aids for the medical industry. Its best-known product, the Hope Crutch features another too-simple idea: An extension that curves behind the back of the user, so the crutch won't slip. Dickerson says three-fourths of major college athletic teams and nearly all pro basketball teams use them. The Backsaving Handle is CareBorne's first try at a true consumer item. In designing it, the company called on what it knew about orthopedics, then did a computer analysis of how our bodies work. In one typical test, sensors were attached to people doing common jobs-- shoveling, raking -- to measure when and how strongly their muscles "fired." There was already a line of bent-handled tools on the market, Dickerson said. But when CareBorne looked closely, "we found they did save energy, but they didn't do the full job." After some experimentation, bending tubing this way and that, CareBorne arrived at what it felt was a better design. The Backsaver, which can go on nearly any straight-handled tool, obviously reduces bending over a conventional handle. But it has other benefits not so easily seen. "In most tools, you have to grip with your palm," Dickerson said. "you have friction. We didn't want friction.: The Backsaver is padded, which pampers hands. But the real breakthrough is in its design. The hands don't have to slide along it, as they do on straight handles: no friction; no blisters. A hand on the Backsaver also suspends the tool in its position of use, so no energy is wasted bringing it to bear. The Backsaving Handle has been a success so far. Both California and Nevada are evaluating it for state work crews, Dickerson says. More than half of their workmen's compensation claims are for back injuries, which he claims the handle would greatly reduce. And when the handle was tested by U.S. Forest Service firefighters, "they took them home with them." A major tool company -- no names yet -- is considering adapting the design for new tools as well. For now, though, Dickerson is concentrating on the aftermarket. There are millions of tools out there, and at least hundreds of thousands of sore-backed users. With the Backsaving Handle, CareBorne seems to have a good start on solving their problems. |
If miracle gimmicks have one thing in common, it's that they
don't work. Usually not as well as advertised, and often not at all.
The Backsaving Handle is an exception.
Bill Dickerson, president of CareBorne, the Sparks company that makes the handle, recommends it particularly for snow shovels. A Gazette-Journal staffer who tried the device, though, got it before the snow fell. He put it first on a steel rake.
Installation was quick and easy. In use, the handle felt awkward for about a minute. After that, though, it was hard to imagine how rakes kept straight handles all these years.
The top hand (the right, for a right-handed user) takes its conventional place at the end of the handle. Rather than bending to put the left hand down the shaft, though, you grasp the Backsaver. Result: You work with your back almost straight, for less stress and better leverage.
The Handle isn't meant to be interchangeable, but in the interest of research we also tried it on a shovel. Again, after a few seconds of awkwardness it felt as though it should have been the plan all along. Scooping material from the ground took much less effort, and loading it into a pickup was easier, too. Dickerson advises using the left hand on the Backsaver as a fulcrum, then pushing down on the end of the original handle to raise the load, all but eliminating stooping and letting arms to the work.
For the sore-backed, the Backsaving Handle seems accurately named. It sells for about $10.00 in Scolari's and True Value stores.
