Is Your Handbag Too Heavy?

Do you have a pesky headache that you just can’t explain? Do you have incessant back and/or neck and general body aches and pains? Before you pop painkillers for every one of these, pay a little attention to your wardrobe and you may find that the culprits are there. That you’re inviting ill health by just dressing up and picking your bag to go to work in the morning. Heavy handbags are among the many ways in which your personal choice of dressing and accessorizing could be causing you pain.

A handbag is something a majority of women carry every day so if it is heavy, that is excessive strain on muscles, tendons and ligaments on a daily basis. That is a sure prerequisite to not only temporary aches and muscle pains but also to serious health issues with time.

It is understandable that sometimes one will do impromptu shopping here and there and by end of day they’ll be unexpectedly lugging a heavy weight on your shoulders. But there are those of us who carry unnecessarily heavy bags throughout and here is where the danger lies. Supersize handbags have become fashionable and ladies have bought them by the thousands. These bags do not come with a health warning and over the years, women the world over are increasing the burden on their shoulders, with some carrying around over 5kg in their handbags alone. This is clearly not the best thing one can do for their joints and nerves, neck, back, lets and shoulders.

Shoulders – A handbag will ordinarily be on one shoulder. A constant heavy load on one shoulder will eventually cause imbalanced posture, severe shoulder strain, aches and pains and in extreme cases it can even aggravate arthritis.

Neck – With a handbag slung across the shoulder, the neck will naturally pull against the weight in order to support it. With an overly heavy handbag, that means tension on the side where the bag is and compression on the opposite side.

Nerves – Pinched nerves will result in headaches and numbness and general fatigue. A heavy bag and especially one without commensurate wide straps will sit on and pinch nerves and this can have far reaching effects on the body

Back – Carrying around an unnecessarily heavy bag could result to misalignment of posture, as well as spine problems. Soft tissue injuries cannot be ruled out either.

Legs – Handbags eventually end up supported at the hips and this partially transfers the effects of overly heavy bags down to the legs. Placing an unnatural force on the legs will force you to walk differently in order to counter the strain on the upper parts of the body.

Joints – A heavy handbag will cause the body to try to compensate in posture. Joints eventually support all the skeletal and muscular structures in the body and all the compensatory efforts of the neck, shoulders, legs and back will certainly exert undue pressure on joints.

Heavy bags cannot altogether be avoided. Lifestyles are changing, we’re traveling more, and for a lot of us, lugging a laptop everywhere we go has become a way of life. For some ladies a handbag and the paraphernalia they carry in them is a part of their psyche and they would feel naked without a huge bag as part of their overall look.

In the next post we look at a few things you can consider when shopping for handbags, so as to save your muscles, nerves and joints excessive strain.

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