Tips to keep your backpack from becoming a backbreaker

Every day in 10th-grade English class, there was a new stack of photocopied handouts to put in our three-ring binders. Four pages; five pages; once even an 80-page packet.

By the end of the year, it all weighed 6 pounds. On any given day, I usually carried three or four textbooks, which weigh perhaps 4 pounds each. Add in notebooks and other papers, and I was easily shouldering 15 to 20 pounds on my walk to and from school, nearly a half-mile each way.

Was it damaging my back? It sure felt that way. Physical and occupational therapists have been warning about the risks of heavy backpacks for decades, recommending that children carry no more than 10 percent to 15 percent of their body weight to reduce the risk of injury, numbness, pain, and tingling.

Yet a 2002 Simmons College study found that 55 percent of students exceeded the 15 percent threshold. Mona Dunlap, a physical therapist at Doylestown Health, said the problem seems just as bad today.

She said she has seen an increase in adolescents with back pain during her 14 years of practice, partly due to heavy backpacks and also because of weak "core" muscles - a trend she attributes to the overuse of electronic devices and a sedentary lifestyle.

Dunlap gave me a hands-on lesson in proper backpack technique last month, just in time for my senior year at Jenkintown High School. In addition to limiting the weight of backpacks, wearers should follow a simple method for putting them on, Dunlap said:

Dunlap also showed me what could go wrong with the spine by holding up a life-size model of one.

If a backpack is worn only on one shoulder, for example, the spine curves to the side at the top, causing rounded shoulders and leaning to one side, she said.

And failure to tighten straps can lead to poor posture, spinal compression, and improper alignment, ultimately hampering proper function of the disks between the vertebrae that provide shock absorption, she said.

Officials in some school districts also have taken steps to address the problem. That is especially important in the square mile of hilly suburbia that I call home. There are no school buses, so most kids walk to school carrying their backpacks.

"We do offer extra sets of books to students upon request if students experience back issues," said Tom Roller, principal of Jenkintown Middle/High School. "And many of our textbooks now do have an online version accessible for students."

And in some cases, such as math class last year, we were allowed to leave our heavy textbooks at home.

All good ideas, said Doylestown's Dunlap.

Choosing a good backpack helps, too. The American Physical Therapy Association recommends packs with a padded back, a waist belt to transfer some of the load to the pelvis, and compression straps on the sides or bottom to help stabilize the load.

They all help students maintain proper posture, thereby avoiding injury that may someday lead to chronic pain, Dunlap said.

"Our bodies are meant to be upright to distribute weight properly through the spine," she said.

I was aware that backpacks could contribute to poor posture, but I had no idea I might be making myself more susceptible to back problems later in life.

My mother, also a physical therapist, constantly urges me to straighten my back and stand tall. But after a long day at school carrying around my backpack, meeting that simple request does not seem possible.

With Dunlap's tips in mind as I start school this week, I will be looking at my heavy backpack with newfound caution.

Jillian Condran spent a week of her summer vacation shadowing Inquirer reporters.