Your Backpack is Causing Your Back Issues
From pre-k to college graduation day, your backpack is an essential tool in your education. Without your backpack, you would not be able to carry your school supplies, notebooks, pens, pencils, or anything else you need to learn. Your backpack has the ability to carry and secure everything you need to excel. But, which great capabilities, comes great responsibility. Your backpack, however useful, can also cause damage to your posture and your back. Due to the weight of your pack, your back muscles can become strained and your posture can suffer by trying to support the weight.
In this blog, we will be discussing how to better organize your backpack and redistribute the weight you are carrying to-and-from school. We do this with the hope that you will learn the dangers of excessively heavy backpacks and change certain behaviors to improve your chiropractic health.
Backpacks Versus Purses
Backpacks are far better for your back than other portable bag options. For instance, in our last blog, we discussed how purses are terrible for your back, back muscles, and your posture. Why? Well, it all boils down to weight distribution. Purses, however fashionable, require all of the weight to hang on one shoulder. This makes your posture shift to the side where the purse is hanging. Of course, over time, using heavy purses on one shoulder can cause shoulder damage, pain, and even chiropractic issues.
But backpacks aren’t in the clear either. If you carry your backpack on one shoulder, you are still shifting all the weight of your bag to one shoulder. The best possible way to wear your backpack is on both shoulders.
When you wear your pack with both shoulders, you are evenly distributing the weight of your bag. Instead of favoring (punishing) one shoulder to carry the weight, it is best to have both shoulders work together. This can improve how you carry your bag and limit the amount of damage to one shoulder. It is important to remember, however, that if you are carrying a tremendously heavy bag, both of your shoulders and your postures can suffer.
How to Organize Your Backpack
Less is more. When it comes to your backpack, you should only pack exactly what you need. A terrible most people have is that they choose to carry more than they need, thus increasing the amount of weight they are carrying. If you can help it, try not to carry around your textbooks in your bag, or even in your hand. Books are heavy and can cause you to slouch, whether you are carrying a book in your hand or in your backpack.
You also don’t want to carry too much of one thing. This means that you don’t necessarily need a pencil bag full of items if you don’t need them. It is best to carry just a few pens, mechanical pencils, and maybe some whiteout. Other than that, there is really nothing essential in a large pencil bag.
Lastly, the best way to reduce the weight in your bag is to organize each of your classes in one singular notebook. So, instead of using separate notebooks for each of your classes, choose a notebook with built-in dividers. This way you can separate each of your courses and easily find work or notes.
Prospect Family Chiropractic Center
If you are suffering from back pain or bad posture, it may be due to how you carried your backpack. If you would like a consultation about our chiropractic services, contact us. We offer family chiropractic services to all members of your family. Call today!