Prevent back aches by putting wheels on your heavy bags
Back trouble is a serious problem in the United States. It interferes with happiness and costs money in medical payments and missed work. You may think that back injuries are caused only by the trauma of an accident, but that is not always true. Back pain can occur over time when little stresses build up. The most obvious source of these little stresses is the carrying of heavy objects every day. Often times, grown-ups tote heavy laptops, brief cases and shopping bags. Many children carry book bags back and forth to school. There is one obvious fix for this problem. This solution was invented thousands of years ago: the wheel. We are better off when we put our heavy loads on wheels. Many varieties of Hand Carts are available to ease the load on your shoulders. A collapsible Hand Cart makes it easy to get your heavy loads where it needs to go.
One of the heaviest load that we have to schlep is the suitcase. Suitcases were given wheels about twenty to thirty years ago. The first question is, “Why did it take so long for manufacturers to put wheels on suitcases?” Remember the days before wheels. A full suitcase can be very heavy, and carrying this weight can cause a hard pull on the bones and muscles of the shoulders and upper back. The only way to handle luggage in a safe manner was to pay a porter or, later, a skycap to put the luggage on a push cart along with the luggage of other people to get it where it needed to go. These tips increased the cost of travel.
The next heavy load to be given wheels was the laptop. For years after laptops became a common tool of the business person, they were carried on the shoulder. A weighty bag puts stress on the shoulder and the upper back muscles. While laptops are getting smaller and lighter, wheels on the computer bag get the weight off the shoulder on the ground to be pulled behind. These new wheeled computer bags are large enough to contain everything that the business person might need during a busy day, such as binders, notepads, the phone, and other needed office supplies, or even a change of underwear.
Thirty or more years ago, young students began to stow their schoolbooks in backpacks. But these book bags hold more than just books such as notebooks, binders, pens and pencils, a calculator, keys and, of course, lunch. Textbooks are heavy, and school kids are small. The best way to carry a backpack is with both straps on the shoulders. However, most kids find it more convenient and “cool” to use only one strap. A properly worn backpack puts a lot of stress on the small bodies of the students, but a single strap is even more harmful. These growing muscles should have the protection of a backpack on wheels.
If we look back, though, we can see that wheels are not a recent addition to all carry-alls. The wheeled grocery cart has been seen back to the first half of the Twentieth Century. Women without cars knew it was impossible to carry the groceries for the week without some type of cart.
