Posture

[Helen_W]

Is having to carry a heavy college bag (approx 9 kgs everyday) likely to affect my posture as a dancer?

[wuthering]

At least, try to use a backpack and wear the straps on both your shoulders. Also, 9 kgs is huge. If someone weighs 50 kgs, then he/she would carry one fifth of his/her weight.

Exercises for your back might be helpful to have your muscles hold your spinal cord straight, but the most important thing to do is decrease the weight you put on your shoulders.

[Helen_W]

At least, try to use a backpack and wear the straps on both your shoulders. Also, 9 kgs is huge. If someone weighs 50 kgs, then he/she would carry one fifth of his/her weight.

Exercises for your back might be helpful to have your muscles hold your spinal cord straight, but the most important thing to do is decrease the weight you put on your shoulders.

What kind of exercises? Can you give me any examples please? :D

I can't really decrease the weight because I have about 5 lessons a day, and every lesson needs a textbook and notes.

[Twilight_Elena]

Well, heavy schoolbags are a known problem in high school, and college doesn't make a difference at that. It's not going to be helpful for your posture, that's for sure. Not only that, but you might have problems with your spine in the future, such as scoliosis(sp?). You don't want to risk that, it's a real pain.
So you have to ease the burden of teh schoolback some way. If there are lockers in your college or if you could find a place where you could leave some of the books you don't need, it would help a lot. I don't know how this works, but perhaps you could leave some of your books in class? (unless you need them for homework :? ) You could, perhaps, work out a deal with a friend of yours so that you share your textbooks in class and alternate bringing them every other day. I do that with my schoolmate.
Try something like that out, and tell us how it goes,

Twilight Elena

[Ms_Sunlight]

Find ways to carry less. Do you really need to take all that stuff with you? I'm betting you can get away with leaving some of it at home.

If not, buy a proper backpack designed for walking/hiking, not a sports or fashion bag. That will distribute the weight in a way that will put less stress on you.

[wuthering]

I'd rather not explain the back exercises because I am not an expert in it and wouldn't want to teach you anything wrong. But swimming can help too.

Yes, try sharing textbooks and take notes in one notebook or on sheets of paper. I worked my way through most of highschool and college taking notes on sheets of paper. I had my own method of assembling them afterwards (according to the name of the teacher, date, etc).

[gte692h]

Is having to carry a heavy college bag (approx 9 kgs everyday) likely to affect my posture as a dancer?

You could counter the daily damage being done by the following:
- using lockers. I did that all through college. Our library had lockers, so I had all my textbooks in there, I did all my studying there as well. I never studied in the dorms/home. I'd spend all day at university, like a 9 to 7 job, studying in between classes. And then i'd just go back to the dorms and party.

- you could use one of those bags with wheels, the way the flight attendants do. I see a lot of law students here in my university who do the same - they wheel their books around in these little carry-on bags, same as the ones used for travelling.

Otherwise, you'll have to make sure that once you're done for the day with your book bag, that you take it off, go straight to a wall, and adjust your posture. It would be a way of correcting your posture daily, and make sure it stays that way.

[pianoman]

i'm currently studying in uni of melbourne in Australia

correct me if I'm wrong but where I study there are lockers practically EVERYWHERE... I have like 3 lockers in different sides of the campus and they're dirt cheap to hire like $15 US for a whole year!

And I absolutely refuse to believe that anyone absolutely has to carry 9 kgs of stuff for one day... i just can't comprehend that. Leave stuff at home, leave stuff at uni, or better still, just study less and dance more!

[Helen_W]

When I say "college" I mean 16-18 sixth form college (A levels) which I believe is equivalent to "high school" in America...


correct me if I'm wrong but where I study there are lockers practically EVERYWHERE... !

Ok, we have no lockers. Seriously. It's ridiculous.


And I absolutely refuse to believe that anyone absolutely has to carry 9 kgs of stuff for one day... i just can't comprehend that.
We do. E.g. 4 lessons a day ie maths, french, music, and psychology
We need notes, textbook and specialist stuff for some lessons ie grammar books for languages and my flute and music for music lessons.


just study less and dance more
Oh believe me I would love to.

Thanks for the useful suggestions. I have looked at reducing the load I have to carry. I think I'll just leave some notes at home anyway. And tomorrow I will try and negotiate a schedule with one of my friends regarding carrying that ridiculously heavy music textbook...!

[Medira]

Grab yourself a clipboard, fill it with three ring binder paper and take your notes on it during the day. When you get home, separate the notes into their respective class binders to keep the notes together as they should be. That eliminates the need for carrying notebooks all day long.

...and the rolly suitcases are fabulous. Just make sure, if you have a laptop that you need to take with you, that you have a padded area to store it in.

[Lita_rulez]

i'm currently studying in uni of melbourne in Australia

correct me if I'm wrong but where I study there are lockers practically EVERYWHERE... I have like 3 lockers in different sides of the campus and they're dirt cheap to hire like $15 US for a whole year!



Well, I'll correct you right here and there : lockers are a luxury you find in the US, Canada as I recall, and Australia. Other then that, students around the world do have to carry theire workload around.

I have water at my dispoasal everywhere I go (washrooms, bathrooms, coffe machine, water fountain) it does not mean that everyone everywhere has access to water...

[newbie]

i'm currently studying in uni of melbourne in Australia

correct me if I'm wrong but where I study there are lockers practically EVERYWHERE... I have like 3 lockers in different sides of the campus and they're dirt cheap to hire like $15 US for a whole year!

And I absolutely refuse to believe that anyone absolutely has to carry 9 kgs of stuff for one day... i just can't comprehend that. Leave stuff at home, leave stuff at uni, or better still, just study less and dance more!

No, never had or seen a locker in my life, except in North american serials we have on TV, where teens seem to spend their time opening or closing their locker.

[cocodrilo]

The Japanese are real big on lockers! Lockers at the workplace, at salsa clubs, at the train stations, and I even saw them outside the kabuki theater a couple weeks ago! :shock:

[Twilight_Elena]

We have lockers in high school, but my school is a private school. We pay big bucks. :?
I just love Medira's suggestion. Have you tried doing it? It saves lots of space and pounds!

Twilight Elena

[squirrel]

We don't have lockers in Romania either!

[wuthering]

The Japanese are real big on lockers! Lockers at the workplace, at salsa clubs, at the train stations, and I even saw them outside the kabuki theater a couple weeks ago! :shock:

I'd love to see a kabuki theater, with a locker outside or not :o

The only place I used a locker was at the swimming pool and the gym.

[delamusica]

I can't really decrease the weight because I have about 5 lessons a day, and every lesson needs a textbook and notes.

I decrease the weight of my school bag by using folders with brads in the middle instead of notebooks. They're like a regular pocket folder, but they have three brads going down the middle and you can put a little bit of paper in there to take notes on, then put them in a binder when you get home.

Also, it might help to keep your muscles balanced if you carry some of the textbooks in your arms in front of you.