Student Back Packs may not be causing student back pain
Schools are heading back into session and everyone is hitting the local stores to get their kid’s school supplies. A recent study done out of the University of Lisbon, showed that almost 60% of children experience some form of back pain related to their school environment. Believe it our not, they found little correlation between overweight backpacks and back pain. So what is causing students to have pain in the back. They found it was more related to poor static posture and related to their desk and studying environment. Here are some of the key factors that can contribute to student back pain.
- Lack of Activity – Prolonged static posture, good or bad is not good for body. Our bodies were designed to move to stay healthy. Many students will sit sedentary at school all day and then come home and sit either studying, watching TV, texting friends, or playing video games. It is recommended that a student gets at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day. This is a good idea whether you are a student or not!
- Desk not properly set up – This is a very difficult for the classroom to be able to accommodate so many different body types, but a student can definitely set up a good home study environment. Make sure the desk, chair, and computer are set up to encourage the best possible posture. For tips, see 5 tips to make sure your workstation is set-up properly.
- No break in class schedule – Creating a break in the class schedule encourages a change in posture. If PE is required in the student’s school, try to have it take place more middle of the class day to refresh the body and posture.
- Tablets and phones – Technology improvements have made many things in our life easier, but they are also encouraging extra stress on our bodies. Phone use as moved from talking to viewing, which encourages a lot of forward head posture. Tablets encourage the same thing. The forward head posture puts more stress and strain on the back.
Addressing this points can help the student avoid some of the main things that contribute to school being a pain in the back.