Carrying Schoolbooks Is Not the Cause of Back Pain
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Healthline
A recent BBC news article echoed the common idea that children are getting back pain from carrying their books. However, carrying books is not the cause of the pain.
The article continued how children often require "physiotherapy" for their pain. Common programs in physical therapy involve strengthening. An important thing to understand is that carrying your own things would be more strengthening than lifting little weights that often weigh less than the books.
The article mentioned how one of the schools is trying to raise money for more lockers so that children will not have to carry their books between home and school. While physical educations programs are being increasingly cut, and children are getting less exercise, fewer physical skills, and are gaining weight, people still think it is too much exercise for children to carry books.
Heavy backpacks alone don't hurt the back. Carrying them with poor positioning causes pain, and deprives you of what could be built-in exercise and fitness. Carrying books, even heavy books, with good positioning would be healthy and good exercise, not a cause of pain. By contrast, pulling a rolling carrier or bag on wheels while bent over in unhealthy ways can cause the same kind of pain.
One common poor positioning when wearing a backpack is rounding the upper body forward or slouching to the side to offset the weight of the pack. These poor positions are the same that create pain when sitting poorly at a desk, which is another source of the children's pain. If you stop hunching forward or sideways when carrying a backpack or other loads, and stand straight, the pressure on the spine shifts from the spine to the core muscles. It is free exercise.
The second major pain producing bad habit when carrying a backpack is leaning or arching backward - allowing the lower back to increase the inward curve (overarch). Backpacks do not make you arch your back. It is you who allow yourself to be pulled backward by the weight. If you straighten yourself back to nautral spine, and not slouch backward, the compression on the lower back stops. The muscles that pull your spine forward to reduce the backward lean are your abdominal muscles. You would have a free abdominal muscle workout. The action of pulling yourself straight instead of arching backward is the same movement as described in Change Daily Reaching to Get Ab Exercise and Stop Back and Shoulder Pain.
- The answer is not to stop carrying books, then go to a gym or physical therapy center to lift weights.
- Children need to get stronger. Teaching them healthy carrying will benefit their health, confidence, bone density, and physical ability throughout their lives.
- It is fitness as a lifestyle to move and get healthy exercise from your daily life, including carrying your own things in healthy ways.
More Fitness Fixers to learn how to carry loads, books, and backpacks in healthy ways. Instead of compressing and hurting your back under the weight, you get free exercise that makes you stronger and healthier:
- Healthier Backpack Carrying to Get Better Exercise and Stop Back Pain
- Fast Fitness - How Abdominal Muscles Prevent Hyperlordosis When Carrying
- Prevent Neck Pain and Get Upper Back Exercise Carrying Backpacks
Photo by Sarvodaya, Creative Commons
Labels: abdominal muscles, disc, fix pain, lower back, myths, posture, upper back
7 Comments:
At Sunday, November 26, 2006 10:48:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
I think part of the complaint about carrying a number of books home is that one-strap bookpacks are popular. Those 2strap L. L. Bean ones are loosing their coolness. It's okay to be different from others but caring better for your body.
I wonder though about, with 2straps, where the top of the bag should sit: how much, if at all, to loosen those front straps to lower the bag.
At Monday, November 27, 2006 7:33:00 PM,
Healthline said…
The good news is that it doesn't matter whether you use a bag with one or two straps, carried on your back or on one shoulder, or whether high or low. The wonderful thing that prevents pain is that you hold the weight using healthy position instead of letting the book bag pull you into uncomfortable bent position. Easy. Free exercise.
Carrying loads close to your body weight for rescue and military applications can be helped with a little more engineering and padding, but for books, school supplies, musical instruments, groceries, and daily loads it is simple, with no special bags or straps needed.
At Wednesday, May 16, 2007 1:01:00 AM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Ada, for some reason, your question was only recently sent to me. Sorry for delayed reply. A heavy pack does challenge muscles more to stay in healthful position. For your question of "How heavy is too heavy," I guess, it is something heavier than you are strong. Working to hold healthful comfortable position strengthens, improving your ability to carry without pain. Just leaning against the load can be done differently from compressing the spine and straining. Can you e-mail some photos so I can see what you may be doing to cause such pain.
At Saturday, March 01, 2008 2:55:00 AM,
Anonymous said…
Isn't the whole point of the matter that children are damaged if they are made to carry bags that are heavier than they are strong?
Children are often generally not in a very good position to avoid carrying books, regardless of whether their bags end up being heavier than they can maintain good posture while carrying, so they carry the books with poor posture and are damaged thereby.
You're right that it's not the carrying of books in itself, but in a practical sense, recognising that children are often unable to control how heavy their bags are and that their book-load should be thought about by their caregivers is very valuable.
At Friday, March 07, 2008 3:51:00 PM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Anonymous, You have brought up the essential point that many children get so little exercise that they are too weak to carry books. Time to do the obvious - get them back to strengthening and moving in healthful ways. They need to be capable to carry more, not less. Use this column for good fun ideas and send in your own.
At Friday, April 18, 2008 1:49:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Dear Jolie,
I have been reading your blog for about 2 months. I am normally a skeptic, but I take your advice as it comes. I admire your straightforwardness, concern for others' well-being, and simplicity in explaining body positions and movements which is quite difficult to achieve in writing.
On the matter of this post and its follow-up comments, I am with you in pressing to have children develop as children should: strong, energetic, playful, and learning to take advantage of their new, nimble, and flexible bodies.
Yet I think the issue followed up by Ada and feb08-anonymous is still, "if the schoolbag is NOW TOO heavy, for the strength my child currently has, what should be done".
I think today, many kids are weaker (...than they should, of course) than the schoolbag they should be forced to carry. So, although your point is right, a roadmap might be useful.
At Tuesday, October 13, 2009 7:28:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Hey,
I personally think that teachers should not make kids carry their books to and from school as a punishment(that happened to my child.)Because that can make them a person that thinks that a punishment is the best thing to do when a kid does something wrong,or not the way an adult want's it.
Sincerely,
Anonymous...
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