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Avoid excessive bone compression

Avoid excessive bone compression

Think about your school backpack.

There were days when you might have loaded it to the top with books, worn it on your back all day long, and felt back pain in the evening.

This daily experience can lead to posture problems, as the spine undergoes excessive compression and curvature.

Spine asymmetry in a 9-year-old boy caused by a backpack.
Image. Spine asymmetry in a 9-year-old boy caused by a backpack. On the left, the standing position without a load. On the right, a backpack weighing 20% of the child's weight, worn on the back with both straps. (Neuschwander et al., 2010).

It’s better to adhere to the following load restrictions:12

Age Additional weight relative to body weight
10–13 < 10%
14–18 < 15%

This applies to weightlifting workouts as well.

The ‘Hueter-Volkmann Law’ proposes that growth is retarded by increased mechanical compression, and accelerated by reduced loading in comparison with normal values.3

Animal studies confirm45 that when compression affects normal physiological processes, it results in a reduction in the height of growth zones and a decrease in the growth rate by 40% or more.

Bones need moderate loads to stimulate growth and mineral accumulation. Exercise with your body weight or with a small additional weight.

  1. Neuschwander, Timothy B.; Cutrone, John; Macias, Brandon R.; Cutrone, Samantha; Murthy, Gita; Chambers, Henry; Hargens, Alan R. (2010). The Effect of Backpacks on the Lumbar Spine in Children. Spine, 35(1), 83–88. doi:10.1097/brs.0b013e3181b21a5d ↩

  2. Chansirinukor W, Wilson D, Grimmer K, Dansie B. Effects of backpacks on students: measurement of cervical and shoulder posture. Aust J Physiother. 2001;47(2):110-116. doi:10.1016/s0004-9514(14)60302-0 ↩

  3. Stokes IA. Mechanical effects on skeletal growth. J Musculoskelet Neuronal Interact. 2002;2(3):277-280. ↩

  4. Ménard, Anne-Laure; Grimard, Guy; Valteau, Barthélémy; Londono, Irène; Moldovan, Florina; Villemure, Isabelle (2014). In vivo dynamic loading reduces bone growth without histomorphometric changes of the growth plate. Journal of Orthopaedic Research, 32(9), 1129–1136. doi:10.1002/jor.22664 ↩

  5. Mainda, M., & Wernstedt, P. (2018). Influence of loading on bone growth at the growth plates in immature rat metatarsals (Dissertation). Retrieved from https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-233542 ↩

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