4 Back to School Tips For a Healthy Spine
Here are 4 tips on how to keep your kids from suffering from postural issues due to bad habits with carrying their backpacks.
- Carry your bag on both shoulders! The weight needs to be distributed evenly on both sides of the body to avoid compensating.
- How heavy should the backpack be? Our recommendation for children up to the age of 13 is between 10%-15% of their body weight. Overloading their backpacks may put a lot of stress on their spine and cause extreme tension on the back, shoulders, and neck muscles. This can result in pain, discomfort, and an accumulation of injuries.
- The most expensive backpack may not always be the best. There are plenty of choices and most of them are sufficient. The basic specifications to look for are: The backpack has to have a medium-hard support along the back and adjustable straps for the length. The backpack will be perfectly adapted to contour the back without pulling backwards.
- What about the “ERGONOMIC” backpacks? Typically, this is a marketing gimmick. One design doesn’t necessarily fit all kids, so the best thing to do is to keep it simple. If you see a backpack at the store with all the “bells and whistles”, you will most likely pay a premium price for a product that may not be necessary.
