Ditch Your Handbag!

Even for well people, this situation is not good. For many people with a chronic condition (perhaps a musculoskeletal condition), it is even worse. It is vital we pay attention to our posture and our body balance. By body balance I don’t mean standing on one foot (although that IS a very good exercise) I mean ensuring our muscle strength and length on each side of our body is balanced, that our chest and upper back muscles are balanced. For every push exercise, we balance with a pull exercise. Rock hard quads are great, but don’t ignore the hamstrings!

What has that to do with handbags? Look at the photo. If I walk around too often like the middle image, what do you think might, over time, happen to my shoulders? The muscles on one side will be over worked and I may develop a postural abnormality. This can lead to pain and most of us do not want that.

If you rarely use a handbag, fantastic. However if you are travelling to and from work on public transport five days a week, then walking around town (getting incidental exercise) at lunch time, the hours add up.

Even if you do not yet have a condition to manage, this handbag on one shoulder habit is still not a good thing. Slinging a backpack on one shoulder is exactly the same effect. Not a good thing. Because we are creatures of habit, we do tend to use the same shoulder each time. If we swapped it around evenly, it might not be so bad.

You may keep a pretty handbag for social events. Or a businesslike one for job interviews. Other than that, ditch the handbag and invest in a backpack. Or several. There are a wide variety around these days and many look remarkably like handbags or can be disguised as one quickly if necessary.

There are even ones that can be brought around to the front for access without taking them off – very nifty.

If you do not have the shoulder mobility to use a backpack and you carry a handbag, remember to share the load between arms.

Short and sweet, just my tip of the day!