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Crook of the
elbow
Many women carry bags in the crook of the elbow.
This is particularly bad for the health.
The elbow is not a weight bearing joint.
Hanging a bag from the elbow promotes a very high degree of physical
stress in the body.
Compensation
Poor use of the arms means that the body is under major duress. And for no real reason.
Since the elbow is not supposed to bear weight, the muscles of the arm,
shoulder, back and neck must compensate.
This is a fast track method for headache.
Hand luggage
Carrying too much in the hands is pretty much the same as using the crook of the
elbow.
Somewhere else has to compensate for the weight.
Across-the-shoulder bag
Across-the-shoulder bags are fine if you do not
put much in them, or if you are just hopping in and out of the car.
However, if you like walking, they are
not such a good idea.
Weight distribution
An across-the-shoulder bag does not balance the weight
and puts strain on just one side of the body; pulling in towards the
neck.
The weight does not drop down through the body via the shoulder joint.
It pulls across the body.
The more heavy the bag, the more notable this
gets.
Also, the position of the bag may impede the natural swing of the arm and this
affects gait.
Physical awareness
You may or may not notice the
strain yourself.
It all depends - not on strength - but on what you are used
to, along with physical
awareness and sensitivity.
If you have poor bodily awareness, then the chances are that much of what you do
day-to-day causes minor strain.
Tension in the upper back, neck and head is likely.
Ignorance is not bliss
Not noticing the problem indicates that your
awareness is poor.
It does not mean that the problem doesn't exist.
I have clicky shoulders from
taekwondo training in my teens and Sifu Waller encouraged me to be careful
with how I 'use' my body. I'm very cautious when using an across-the-body
bag. I keep it very lightweight - purse, sunglasses etc. If I'm shopping;
supermarket or town, or walking anywhere, I use a backpack.
(Rachel)
Discomfort
The solution is to wear a rucksack of some
sort.
A backpack or small rucksack will distribute the weight more evenly across
your shoulders, hanging down the body, rather
than cutting into the neck.
It is more balanced.
Rucksack
It is not all that difficult to carry quite a heavy rucksack with ease.
The key lies with design.
The functional, ergonomic design of a rucksack
enables the human body to lug a
reasonably heavy load with no adverse side-effects. Unless of course you over-do it...
Backpack
A backpack is essentially a mini-rucksack.
Less than 20 litres is ample for most purposes.
What about messenger bags?
The design suggests that it can do the same
job as a rucksack/backpack.
After all, a messenger bag has an equivalent capacity...
Yet, the design is flawed.
If you carry anything more than a threadbare amount of gear, it will harm
your body.
The bag is sold on the basis of convenient access. Unfortunately, this must
balanced against the risk of strain.
Capacity & design
When you buy an
across-the-shoulder/messenger/man bag, the capacity of the bag suggests that
the bag can be filled with quite a lot of gear.
Indeed, a messenger bag can be filled with a comparative amount of gear to a
backpack. So what? A messenger bag is an across-the-shoulder bag (see
above).
Vintage-style bags
Old-fashioned styling may look nice but it
brings an added complication: weight.
The heavyweight cotton is tough, durable and made to last.
It is also heavy relative to modern fabrics.
The bag itself is heavy... before you put anything inside it.
Aesthetics
The danger with aesthetics is that
practicality and functionality may be sacrificed in favour of appearance.
This occurs in all facets of art and design.
A pretty-looking bag may well be pleasing for you, but
arthritis caused by poor posture and bad body
use will affect you long-term.
From car seats to constrictive clothing, from chairs
to shoes that distort posture,
many features of modern life curtail our natural movement patterns.
(Liz Koch)
Practicality
Practicality is concerned with doing or
experiencing rather than theory.
Ideas are wonderful and can lead to all manner of creativity.
However, at some point thought is rendered in
physical form.
Ideation and actuality are two different things entirely.
Something may be theoretically feasible and sound in principle but prove
disastrous in reality.
Functionality
Examining the underlying character of
something is important in Taoism. What is its essence?
In nature, you seek to understand the purpose of things, but accept that
whatever you encounter may serve a function that escapes our comprehension.
From our perspective many things in the natural
world have no discernable function.
Purpose
When things are made by humans, they have a clear purpose.
Somebody thought it up. Somebody designed it. And somebody constructed it.
If you consider a bag...
A bag is only of value to the extent that it can fulfil its purpose.
What is the purpose of a bag?
A bag is supposed to:
Be comfortable
Free-up your hands
Keep your gear safe
Enable you to carry things
(Potentially) keep your stuff dry
Enable you to carry relatively heavy objects without discomfort or injury
Now, ask yourself: is this what your bag
does?
Choose wisely
Carrying things affects your health and
wellbeing, and should not be dismissed as
trivial.
Ask any walker about the value of a good, well-fitting, ergonomic rucksack.
This same consideration can be applied to all manner of things: your
footwear, your clothing, your chair, your working environment, and so on...
Chuang Tzu said: "When the belt fits, you no
longer realise that you're wearing it."
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Page created
18 April 1995
Last updated
04 May 2023
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