Joshua Galyon
It can be tempting to fill all the space in your bag with everything you might need for the day, but it can be really important to your physical health to only pack the essentials each time you wear your bag.
Back pain is a leading cause of disability worldwide—and your bag may be contributing to your own pain.
Carrying around a heavy backpack or purse all day is more harmful to your health than you may have thought. Over time, the strain caused by a heavy bag can lead to serious problems with the spine. The damage can be even worse for children and adolescents who have less awareness and coordination, making it even easier for them to fall into bad postural habits. You may need to consult an expert physio for back pain treatment for the lower back issues.
Effects
The effects of wearing a heavy bag can result in a number of issues throughout the body and the effect is not reversed even if you exercise and eat healthily. These adverse effects can significantly increase your risk of injury.
Posture
As soon as you hoist a heavy bag over your shoulders it’s easy to see how much your posture changes as your body tries to compensate for all that additional weight.
Consistently carrying around a heavy backpack compresses the spine in an unnatural way and throws your body off balance, making it easy to fall and injure yourself.
Throwing your spine out of alignment can even speed up the normal age-related degeneration of your spine.
Carrying a heavy bag over one shoulder can be even more damaging, causing muscle imbalances not only in the shoulders and spine but throughout the chain of muscles in your body.
Joints
Carrying excessive weight in your backpack or shoulder bag can cause wear and tear on the weight bearing joints, ligaments and muscles across your back and in your hips.
These body parts will work to compensate for the extra weight, but this is not sustainable for an extended period of time and so they will begin to degenerate. This can cause stiffness, pain and may even affect your range of motion.
Muscles
Your abs and back muscles can also be affected by a heavy bag as you tend to compensate by leaning forward when carrying one, not only throwing your spine out of alignment but also fatiguing the muscles that would usually keep you standing properly. This can result in back pain as your abs and back muscles weaken.
This can also throw off your usual gait, affecting the muscles you use for walking in an adverse way.
Headaches
A heavy backpack that is worn too low on the back will start to strain the overworked neck muscles, radiating pain in the neck down the arms and causing headaches.
If you experience daily headaches, numbness or tingling, your bag is too heavy and you should reduce the weight to avoid chronic discomfort and injury.
How to fix the damage
The biggest way to avoid damaging your body with a bag is by reducing the weight of it. It is important to pack only what is necessary each time you wear your bag.
Your bag should not exceed 10-20 percent of your body weight. Ultimately the lighter your bag, the better it is for your health. If you need to pack heavier items in a backpack, try to pack them close to the centre of the back. The pressure from the straps of your bag should never cause numbness, tingling or circulation loss in your shoulders, as this is a sign of an excessively heavy bag.
Some other ways to help fix the damage that bags can cause are:
- Paying attention to maintaining proper posture—observe your posture while you’re wearing your bag, if you’re leaning forward the bag is too heavy for your body
- Lifting your bag from the ground by bending your knees
- Wearing and tightening both of the straps of a backpack to distribute the weight evenly—also using the waist or chest strap if your bag has one
- Picking bags with wider straps
- If you carry a purse or shoulder bag, make sure you switch shoulders periodically—if you can, consider switching to a backpack to distribute the weight more evenly
- Using lockers or other available storage spaces to avoid carrying everything, all the time
Long-term prevention for back pain can also be helped by a few key lifestyle elements, including:
- Regular exercise appropriate for your physical condition
- Improving flexibility
- Physiotherapy Como Perth—a physio can show you safe and gentle ways to exercise your body to build up strength and reduce pain
- Quit smoking—smoking can increase your risk of lower back pain
If you are experiencing persistent back pain, you should consult with your doctor. They can help to determine the cause of your pain and can help you find suitable treatment. There is a range of treatments out there and you don’t have to live in pain.
