Heavy handbags however fashionable or not will still feature in the lives of many. After my pilates lesson with Rachael from Pilates Training Solutions, yesterday I know realise it’s true big heavy bags can cause havoc with our posture as our bodies tend to compensate for the weight on one shoulder.
I saw for myself how readily we collapse our bodies by dropping one shoulder or resting and pushing out one hip. It’s no wonder we suffer from neck, shoulder or hip pain!
After an intensive Pilates session – I could see what we unwittingly do to ourselves – which left me with just one critical question:
“On behalf of all those who are planning on retaining their beloved big bags” I asked
“what can we do for pain free shopping trips”? Here are Rachael’s top tips:-
Top Tip No. 1:- STAND STRAIGHT & TALL
Correct body alignment safe guards us from back, shoulder and neck pain.
Take a look in the mirror at how you stand. Are your shoulders level? Do you collapse onto one hip more than the other? Is your head straight? Can you draw an imaginary plumb line from your ear down through your shoulder, through the hip and onto your heel?
This is critical to avoid contorting our body under the weight of a heavy bag to the detriment of our spine which influences the comfort of other bodily parts. Simple right!
Having spent a number of uncomfortably long minutes staring at my posture front view and side on, in a full length mirror, Rachael got me to do the same again, this time carrying my big handbag (complete with customary ‘must have’ contents). The ‘before and after’ was dramatic and not a pretty picture for body balance and alignment.
Top Tip No. 2: STABILITY, STABILITY, STABILITY!
Now that I knew how to assess my body alignment it was time to make the necessary tweaks and adjustments. I learnt that in order to hold our body correctly we need to engage our stabilisers! (I haven’t even seen my stabilisers since my father took them off the bicycle some 41 years ago)! Things were about to get tricky, and the lesson dived headlong into Latin and images of muscle groups including mobilizers, stabilisers and mobilizer/stabilizers! I began to feel a twinge of guilt for long suffering husbands guilty of not recognising a hobo from a tote!
After much giggling and muscle contracting (in places one doesn’t normally discuss) I can report that I did learn how to turn my pelvic floor into a belt or elevator and how to draw my shoulder blades back and down, as if sliding them into my back pockets. Both of which were essential steps in engaging pelvic and shoulder stabilisers! I think!
The point of all this?It is to ensure that we can help ourselves to ‘help ourselves’ to whichever size of bag we desire and have a pain free existence in the process.
Will it protect me from ‘anti-big-bag protestors’ flinging feathers and tar over me? Possibly not! Will it help me carry my bag with style (next time I check out my profile in a shop window) – you bet, and that is worth all the bags in Bond Street – well maybe!
My thanks to Rachael from Pilates Training Solution!
