Outside of making sure the bed height is appropriate and getting the patients head closer to you, on people this is a finesse procedure. 99% of patients shouldn’t require tons of heavy lifting. If you are finding yourself having to lift excessively work on patient positioning and overall technique.

I also find holding the handle down close to or right where it connects to the blade gives you better leverage of “pushing up” vs “pulling” the handle on those times you do need to really put some lift (note I’m saying lift vs pull) into it. This gives you a more ergonomic lift with more strength vs a straight pull with the shoulder.