By Natasha Sabey
For some students, being forced to read thick, bulky textbooks cover-to-cover is not the hardest part of owning them. Instead, carrying textbooks around on their backs day after day is what causes students some real problems.
The plight of having an overweight backpack is one that has plagued students for years, and in many cases, the trend is continuing to get worse.
Alisa Wright, a sophomore from Salt Lake City, said she carries about 30 pounds on her back each day, consisting of several textbooks, notebooks and a packed lunch. Wright said the weight she carries often causes pain and problems with her posture.
'It''s really heavy,' she said. 'It hurts my shoulders and my back. I slouch a lot more, too.'
Wright lives in Wyview Park, located northwest of LaVell Edwards Stadium. She said she usually chooses to ride the bus to and from the main section of campus in order to avoid carrying her backpack such a long distance.
'I usually try not to walk with it a lot,' she said. 'I miss out on good exercise, but I don''t want to carry this stupid backpack that far.'
One thing Wright said has helped her considerably is renting a locker in the Eyring Science Center, which allows her to store some of her books there during the day. Although it costs $5 per semester to do so, she said it is well worth it.
'I think a locker is a really, really good idea,' she said.
According to the BYU Key Office, there are currently 7,341 lockers located throughout several different buildings on campus. Therefore, it is possible for a more than one-fourth of the current student population to have an on-campus locker.
Although this is not a large percentage of the student population, nearly 1,200 of these lockers are still available for rental, so more students could take advantage of this resource to lighten their loads.
Students often do not realize many of the problems caused by carrying a heavy backpack can be corrected fairly easily. Although overweight backpacks can result in back problems, they generally do not cause any long-term damage, said Dr. Richard P. Jackson, an orthopedic surgeon and consultant with offices in Provo, Orem and Payson.
'They''re usually just muscle strain injuries that don''t have any permanence,' he said.
Jackson said if students change the way they carry their backpacks and are more careful when swinging it to and from their shoulders, it can alleviate a lot of the pain.
'Most of the time when we see injuries from this, it''s when they''re not cautious in the way they put their backpacks on and off,' he said. 'It is a twisting-type of high-energy injury that happens, instead of the injuries that come from just carrying it for long periods of time.'
Jackson said students can also reduce back pain by being more conservative in what they take with them in their backpacks each day.
'Sometimes they carry things that aren''t necessary,' he said. 'They should plan better so they don''t have to carry quite such a big load.'
Maggie Jensen, an open-major sophomore from Sandy, said she has decreased the weight of her backpack by leaving as many things as she can at her apartment. She used to carry a heavy laptop computer with her each day, but this additional weight persuaded her to purchase a different model.
'Now I have a lighter ,' she said. 'It''s lighter than most of my books'
For some students, reducing the amount in their backpacks has made a big difference.
'I used to carry a heavy backpack, but I don''t anymore,' said Jenni Matthews, a sophomore from Sandy majoring in nursing.
Matthews said she usually tries to return to her apartment in between classes to rotate the contents of her backpack, but that is not always possible. Sometimes she has had to sacrifice bringing things she may need in her classes in order to reduce the weight on her back.
'If you have five classes in a row, that''s like a million books,' she said. 'You can''t carry that much.'
In addition to carrying backpacks more carefully and reducing their weight, the American Chiropractic Association offers some additional tips to students who want to reduce backpack-related pain.
According to the ACA Web site, www.amerchiro.org, students should aim to have backpacks that weigh no more than 10 percent of their body weight.
They also recommend that a backpack should never hang more than 4 inches below the waistline, in order to avoid an excessive amount of pressure on the shoulders. Both shoulder straps should also be worn at all times.
Although some students have considered wheeled backpacks as an alternative, the ACA says they only suggest this option in extreme cases in which a student is physically unable to carry a backpack because rolling backpacks can clutter walkways and cause other potential hazards.
The ACA says back pain is becoming more common in children and young adults, and carrying overweight backpacks is a large factor in this trend. However, new developments and an increase in precautions taken by students can help curb this problem in the future.