Back to school is just around the corner, and with all those new school supplies is often the most forgotten but most important part of a childs back to school wardrobe, their backpack.

Students these days are provided with more and more materials they need to bring on a regular basis. College and university students are often carrying laptops in addition to their daily school books.

Tips for packing light and wearing right

All this is a recipe for pain, but a few simple steps may provide for worry free carrying.

1.  A properly fitted pack should include;

• well padded shoulder straps – The shoulder straps should be at least 2 inches wide and should not fit too snugly around the arms, straining muscles and affecting nerves.
• a significant waist strap – a hip strap or waist belt can take as much as 50-70% of the weight off the shoulders and spine. The waist belt will equalize the strain on the bones, joints and muscles.
• compression straps to keep the pack tight together – on the side of the pack they help to keep a less full pack from shifting weight backwards and away from the body.
• sized to fit the torso of the person or child wearing it – The top of the backpack should not extend higher than the top of the shoulder and the bottom should not fall below the top of the hipbone.

2. Properly weighted pack should be;

• packed so heavy items are close to the body
• no more than 15% of body weight for teens & adults and 10% for children
• filled with lots of compartments to keep contents from moving around while walking

3. Properly worn a pack should;

• have heavy items close to the body helps keep the weight close to the body’s center of gravity
• be worn with BOTH shoulder straps – slinging a pack on one side causes strain and a lean to the child wearing the pack
• be put on with the pack on a table or desk – helps from straining the low back twisting to put on the pack

How much is too much?

To help you figure out what is overloading a pack, we have the following chart.

Shoes	1kg/2lbs
wet towel	1kg/2lbs
6 text books	2.7kg/6lbs
2 binders	1.5kg/3lbs
20 CDs	.5kg/1lbs
Game Boy	.25kg/.5lbs
water bottle	.25kg/.5lbs
sports gear	4.5kg/10lbs
lunch/snacks	1kg/2lbs
laptop computer	2.7kg/6lbs

To determine the maximum weight you should carry

If you weigh	Only carry
23 kg/50 lbs	2.2 kg/5 lbs
32 kg/70 lbs	3 kg/7 lbs
40 kg/90 lbs	6 kg/14 lbs
50 kg/110 lbs	7 kg/16 lbs
59 kg/130 lbs	9 kg/19 lbs
68 kg/150 lbs	10 kg/22 lbs
77 kg/170 lbs	11 kg/25 lbs
86 kg/190 lbs	13 kg/28 lbs

Download this backpack_handout for additional help with backpack safety.

So what does this mean in the store?

While this information may help give guidelines for your Childs backpack, real life searches can be a bit more challenging.

To help save you some time we have stopped by a few local locations for back to school supplies to find the best options.

Walmart
While having the biggest selection, the choices for quality packs is thin. Of the many boxes of packs only one had curved shoulder straps, compression straps and well divided compartments.

• Watch for thin straps with weak stitching to the main pack. Zippers should be coarse with metal preferred.
• Seams should be wrapped with edging.
• Theme bags may be a hit with kids but a theme lunch cooler in a better pack is your best choice.

Staples
Another large selection of packs. Obus Forme is the brand of choice with the selection available. If your son or daughter is heading to university with a laptop, Targus makes a few solid packs with laptop sleeves. Watch for a few packs which are very large but not very well designed with weak materials, poor straps and stitching that probably can’t handle the weight which would fill the available space.

Canadian Tire

Suprising enough, our local Canadian Tire store had a great selection of quality packs with two Obus Forme models and another from Outbound which all provided great features for a reasonable price.

Other local stores

Other retailers in town have a selection of packs. From Dakine to Quicksilver, these branded packs may be missing the compression straps and waist belt, so be careful to look thoroughly at the available models.

For more information and to check if your childs pack is suitable, please give Dr. Wilson a call at 250-336-8683 or find a nearby chiropractor at www.bcchiro.com

Information provided courtesy of the BC Chiropractic Association. For more handouts and to have backpack safety information for your school follow this link to the association site.

Warm-up. Before beginning any snow removal, warm-up for five to ten minutes to get the joints moving and increase blood circulation. Follow this with some gentle stretches for the back, arms, shoulders, and legs.

Push, don’t throw. Push the snow to one side and avoid throwing it. If you must throw it, avoid twisting and turning – position yourself to throw straight at the snow pile.

Bend your knees. Use your knees, leg and arm muscles to do the pushing and lifting while keeping your back straight.

Watch the ice. Be careful on icy walkways and slippery surfaces. Coarse sand, ice salt, ice melter, or even kitty litter can help give sidewalks and driveways more traction, reducing the chance of a slip or fall.

Take a break. If you feel tired or short of breath, stop and take a rest. Make it a habit to rest for a moment or two for every 10 or 15 minutes of shoveling.

Most Important! Stop shovelling immediately if you feel chest or back pain, feel dizzy, are short of breath or if your heartbeat is rapid. Seek medical attention right away.

Chiropractic can help prevent backpack problems by teaching you how to spare your back when shoveling. Should you suffer an injury from shoveling, chiropractic can also provide relief for your pain.

For more information please contact Dr. Wilson at 250-336-8683

“After every holiday, people visit their family chiropractic doctor with physical complaints that are usually the result of the holiday,” says Dr. Don Nixdorf, executive director of the BC Chiropractic Association.

Here are some tips to make your holiday weekend enjoyable, and pain free:

If you have to drive more than two hours to visit friends and relatives, take a break; get out of your vehicle and stretch. This temporarily restores normal posture, which will help prevent a recurrence of neck or low back conditions.

• When loading your vehicle for the trip, organize your luggage and packages into smaller loads, as opposed to one large suitcase, cardboard box or carrying case.
• Wear your seatbelt. Adjust vehicle headrests so that they are no more than two inches behind the centre of the back of the head. Many of the estimated 20 million car accident victims suffering whiplash injuries in North America could have prevented much of the injury had their vehicle seat headrests been adjusted properly.
• It’s OK to be a couch potato this weekend, but don’t slouch on the sofa and don’t fall asleep on the recliner, as two or three vertebrae in the spine can assume a sharp angle. When you sit up, the normal movement isn’t restored. “We often see people walking into our offices with their heads sideways, because by slouching, the position of the joints irritates the nerves and blood vessels, causing muscle spasm,” says Dr. Nixdorf.
• Avoid bending directly over the oven door to lift out the turkey. Crouch down, pull out the oven shelf, and use your legs for better balance. Avoid putting all the leverage on the lower spine. This helps reduce the sharp leverage on the lower spine.

With these few simple tips, the Chiropractic Doctors of BC wish everyone a healthy, happy holiday.

I recently read a very informative article by Claudia Arnig, D.C. called Sports-Related Injuries in Children: What Parents Need to Know. In this article Dr. Arnig gave some very interesting numbers that I believe all parents should know. It is estimated that 3.5 million children under the age of 14 receive some form of medical treatment for sports injuries each year. Also, the Institute for Preventative Sports Medicine estimates that each year close to 212 million school days are missed by students who have sustained a musculoskeletal injury vastly attributed to sports-related incidents.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 300, 000 children and adolescents suffer from sports-related concussions each year. Concussion symptoms range from memory loss, chronic headaches, difficulty with concentrations to depression. These symptoms can manifest for months, even years following a severe concussion. Some parents even reported abrupt personality changes following a serious sports-related head injury.

Repetitive stress injuries to children’s developing spine and extremities can also develop in children who play sports that require the child to move one arm or leg repetitively over long periods of time like baseball, golf, and tennis for example. If their sport leans toward asymmetrical movements, children should be taught how to properly warm up and cool down through symmetrical activities to balance the body and minimize repetitive strain injuries.

Childen should also be taught the concept of pain and its importance as a warning signal from the body that something is wrong and needs to be checked out. Taking pain medication or OTC pain relievers will simply mask the problem and act as a band aid instead of getting to the root cause of the problem.

Children benefit greatly from regular spinal and extremity check-ups with their chiropractor. Rather than waiting for an injury to occur, chiropractic care can help children practice practical prevention strategies and develop better overall stability.

ref: Dynamic Chiropractic, August 26, 2009

For example, aerobic exercise improves cardiovascular function.1, 2 As a result, during periods of rest the heart rate is slowed and the ability of the lungs to take in air (vital capacity) is increased. A slower heart rate means the heart is working more efficiently. Likewise, increased vital capacity means the lungs are working more efficiently. Fewer heart beats per minute and fewer breaths per minute result in reduced “wear and tear” on these critical systems. Aerobic exercise makes us healthier.

When we have stress, our muscles get tight. Sometimes this tightness is prolonged, and the normal mobility of our bones and joints is compromised. Reduced mobility of the spinal column creates a spiraling effect of tight muscles, tight ligaments, and further loss of mobility in the neck, middle back, and lower back. We experience pain in these areas as a result.3

These patterns may persist. We all know people who have frequent neck pain or lower back pain. These patterns of pain and limited mobility may result in changes to the normal curves of the spine. Normal curves may become flattened, and these changes result in further discomfort, muscular tension, and pain.

Importantly, loss of the normal spinal curvature in the neck and middle back may place additional stress on the heart and lungs. The actual, physical space in which these organs function may then become reduced. Maximum function may be compromised and efficiency is lost. Brisk walking used to be easy. Climbing stairs used to be no problem. Now these normal daily activities may leave you out-of-breath. You’re huffing-and-puffing and don’t know what’s happened.

You begin doing aerobic exercises to try to improve cardiovascular function. But the potential benefits are limited by these underlying muscle, ligament, and joint problems. You spend a lot of time exercising but don’t seem to be making any improvements.

Chiropractic health care may be able to restore more normal functioning. Chiropractic treatment restores mobility to spinal joints. The gentle treatment relieves stress on the spinal muscles and ligaments, which in turn improves spinal range of motion. Muscle tightness eases, pain and stiffness are reduced, and you become more flexible.

In addition, this improved flexibility allows your chest and rib cage to expand much more fully when you breathe. Your heart and lungs have more room to function, and you can now actually begin to receive the full benefits of your aerobic exercise. This in turn, leads to improved “Stroke Volume.”

Stroke volume is not about improving your golf scoreat least, not directly! Physiologically, stroke volume is the amount of blood your heart pumps every time it beats. The more blood pumped per heartbeat, the less times your heart has to contract to provide the needed amount of blood.

Our heart’s efficiency is directly related to stroke volume. Increased stroke volume means less work for the heart.

As you do more and better aerobic exercise, you are training your heart to be more efficient. Stroke volume increases over time as a result of this exercise, and you notice a number of things. First, it’s much easier to walk up hills and other inclines. Stair climbing requires no extra effort. If you’re a swimmer, you can go longer between breaths and you can stay underwater longer. If you play hockey,

And, you notice your heart rate goes down. A good resting pulse is 60 beats or less per minute. Most people who aren’t exercising have resting heart rates of 70 or greater, even 80 or greater. Less heartbeats per minute means less work for your heart.

Aerobic exercise, done correctly, makes a person much healthier overall, positively impacting many body systems. Chiropractic care helps you get fit and stay fit!

1Pivarnik JM, et al. Effects of maternal aerobic fitness on cardiovascular responses to exercise. Med Sci sports Exerc 25(9):993-998, 1993. 2Jackson EM, Dishman RK. Hemodynamic responses to stress among black women: fitness and parental hypertension. Med Sci Sports Exerc 34)7):1097-1104, 2002 3Petrella RJ, et al. Can primary care doctors prescribe exercise to improve fitness? Am J Prev Med 24(4):316-322, 2003