Want a pain relief without a pill? Look no further than the bag on your shoulder, stuffed with everything from lipstick to lug nuts, as the source of your aching neck, shoulder and back. Big bags manage big loads and are seemingly perfect for a modern woman, who never knows what duties she might be called on to perform in the course of a day.
But all this, “you never know what you’ll need” practically comes with a price. Oversize bags carry serious potential for injury. The combination of the bag against muscles, tendons, nerves and ligaments- plus the compensating shift in posture you make to carry the load- can lead to back pain, shoulder pain, headaches and other body aches.
When You Carry A Heavy Purse…..
- Your natural gait is thrown off. Carrying your bag on one shoulder significantly interferes with the normal gait. The gait is the way your arms and legs swing when you walk naturally, and it’s an important way to keep your body balanced. You develop a problem because when you put a handbag on one side of the body, it means the arm on that side can’t swing properly and the other arm has to swing more.
- Your muscles are off balance. Most people tend to carry purses on their dominant side-if you’re right handed, you’ll hang it over your right shoulder. This causes the dominant shoulder, particularly the trapezius muscle, to become bigger. We see asymmetry in posture, one shoulder’s higher than the other. This asymmetric load also causes muscles in your spine to compensate for the weight. Therefore can cause the opposite side of the spine to go into spasm. This overcompensation affects your lower back.
- Your muscles become stiff. When the trapezius muscle goes into a spasm, it tightens along with the muscles that go from your shoulder to the base of your neck. This causes a lot of stiffness in the upper back, the shoulder area and the neck. It can also cause decreased curve in the neck, known as “military neck.” Some people develop arthritis in their lower neck. The delicate muscles that help you carry your purse also assist with turning the head, making that action painful.
- You can get headaches. You can develop tension headaches from the muscles being forced to do all this heavy lifting. When the muscles in your shoulder and neck area spasm, it can cause pain in the back of your skull that radiates around to the front.
- Increased risk of scoliosis (curvature of the spine towards the side).
- Numbness and tingling in the arm from nerve micro trauma.
What You Can Do To Prevent or Fix The Damage
- Reduce the weight of your bag. Your handbag should be proportionate to your body size. It should weigh an average of 1 kg.
- Opt for bags with wider straps. The wider the strap, the better, because it distributes the weight over a wider area. This protects the delicate structures in the shoulder where your nerves go from neck into the arm.
- Choose bags with alternative strap options. Bags with longer straps are better because you can cross it across your body helping to distribute the weight more evenly.
- Switch shoulders periodically. It’s recommended you switch your bag to the opposite shoulder every block or two when walking so that you can balance the way your body carries the weight and your muscles develop equally.
- Don’t text while carrying your purse. “Military neck” is not always caused by just a handbag. Sometimes it’s the double-duty of texting and looking down that causes the curve in your neck to get lost and get flat.
- Mind your footwear. Heels cause you to tilt your pelvis forward and predispose you to back pain. When you combine the high heels and heavy purse is a recipe for disaster, you have more chance for chronic pain and irritating injury.
- Consider switching to a back pack. The weight becomes easier to bear since it’s distributed on both shoulders instead of one.
- Get your exercise. Stretching, Yoga, Pilates, light weights can help strengthen your shoulders and keep them toned. It’s also helpful to simply try walking without a bag from time to time to restore the natural gait.
Physiotherapy
Checks on proper posture, by analyzing the structure of your body, such as how does your head sit on your shoulders and how the posture has brought about the biomechanical changes causing pains. Physiotherapists apply various strategies to reduce stiffness, pain, muscle spasm, and restore spinal and shoulder girdle mobility. These strategies include; manual techniques, deep tissue massage, stabilization exercises.
- Most importantly, don’t let style cloud your judgement. People really want to create a certain look, and handbags are a way to say a lot about you in a glance. But I think it’s important to prioritize your health above all else.
