Spine specialist Dr. Charla Fischer recommends keeping your bags at 3 pounds or under to prevent back pain and injuries, but for many in NYC the suggestion is too good to be true.
Armed with a scale, we caught up with six city dwellers and asked about everything that’s weighing them down.
Lee Dauria, 25, carries a backpack and a guitar case weighing a combined 19 pounds Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
“I’m loving music right now,” says Dauria, a Jersey City, NJ, resident who works in construction and fancies himself a bit of a Renaissance man. “I have a piccolo and a flute in the book bag, in addition to the guitar. I also have acrylic paints and a little canvas, too.” He often heads to Central Park to paint outside in the afternoons.
Though he’s lucky enough to not have back pain, he says he’d be down to ditch his flute in favor of the lighter piccolo. Still, he’s got one heave-ho faux pas: Sometimes he slings the heavy backpack over just one shoulder. “But it’s only if I’m in a hurry,” he says.
Jeremy Swanton, 23, carries a leather messenger bag weighing 12 pounds Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
Swanton, a musical theater performer, can’t live without his books, even it if means lugging them, plus play scripts and his laptop from his apartment on the Upper West Side down to the theater district each day for rehearsal.
“I do have a little bit of back pain up near my neck,” he says.
The self-proclaimed hoarder, who is toting softcovers of “Life of Pi,” “The Inner Game of Tennis” and “Scott Pilgrim,” says he’s not going to give up his mini-library any time soon because he needs to have options: “I don’t know what I’m going to want to read!”
Pierrette Ngoya, 40, carries a backpack and a tote bag weighing a combined 20 pounds Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
As a freelance massage therapist, Ngoya’s schedule changes every day, which is why she carries around the tools of her trade wherever she goes. In her two bags, she’s got “a diffuser, essential oils, creams and my uniform.”
“I can’t live without any of this,” says Ngoya of the relaxation gear for her clients, and concedes that her arsenal of makeup — “powders, foundation and lipstick” would be easiest to eliminate.
To offset the heavy weight, Ngoya says she makes sure to sit down and take breaks between appointments when she’s carrying the bags, and prefers to bear most of the brunt of the load on her back, rather than the tote. “I love the backpack, it gives me a sense of freedom even if it’s heavy.”
Angela Scekic, 25, carries a mini backpack weighing 3 pounds Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
Queens resident Scekic uses her backpack to hold a couple pieces of makeup, a phone charger and a small, stretchy dress that folds tightly to change into for her work as a bartender — that adds up to the recommended 3 pounds. “I’m trying to keep it as small as possible,” says Scekic, who keeps herself entertained during her subway commute by listening to music through her lightweight Airpods, rather than packing additional reading material.
Sasha Nelson, 50, carries a tote bag and a backpack weighing a combined 12 pounds Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
Nelson, an audit director for a pharmaceutical company says the commute from the Upper West Side to her midtown office is “not that bad.” But in that big backpack and extra bag, she hauls paperwork, hygiene products, sunglasses, nail polish, snacks, an extra jacket and more. “I can’t even bring a lunch to work, I have too much stuff,” she says.
All of that toting has taken a toll. “When I get manicures, I get massages, and I ask them to focus on my shoulders and forearms [which hurt] from carrying everything around,” says Nelson, who looks forward to date nights when she can shed the baggage.
“If I go out with my husband I just bring my iPhone, which has [a case with] pockets for my credit card and driver’s license.”
Maria Koruz, 68, carries a purse, a crossbody bag and a suitcase weighing a combined 16 pounds Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
When she’s not spending hours meticulously gluing feathers and jewels to bespoke fascinators in her Washington Heights apartment, milliner Koruz is traversing the city for trade shows, photo shoots and appointments carrying quirky essentials such as two mannequin heads, medications, sunglasses, chargers, notebooks and a mirror.
Koruz says she’s got a sneaky hack for lugging her pack: “Go slowly and look really helpless when you’re trying to climb the stairs when you have a roll-y bag. If you stand there by yourself, some man will always come along and bring it up for you.”
The hatmaker says that she has no pain at all due to her fitness routine. “I do ashtanga yoga,” which is said to improve posture by strengthening the abs, she says.
