Lifting capacity of workers.

In order to establish a valid criteria on which to establish lifting guidelines, lifting capacity determination must be made. This has been attempted using several approaches mainly psychophysical, physiological, and biomechanical methodologies. Although the data obtained from these approaches yield information about lifting capacity, some conflict in these data can be found. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the three different approaches, the data obtained from these approaches, and some data on the lifting capacity for males and females in the industrial workforce. In addition, the conflicts in these data are also presented.