ABSTRACT
Load carrying with backpack, side packs, and front packs have been found to alter the gait, posture, trunk and lower limb biomechanics, and muscle activities of the human body (Cook and Neumann, 1987; Knapik et al., 1996; Motmans et al., 2006; Smith et al., 2006). Many studies indicate that the more drastic and perhaps the more injury prone method of load carriage is unilateral (side pack) carrying (DeVita et al., 1991; Fowler et al., 2006; Motmans et al., 2006). Sports such as golf, football, soccer, baseball and ice hockey all require the recreational athlete to carry his or her equipment to the field of play. The hockey bag, when full of equipment, is large in volume and weight. Its weight is considerably more than the bags of other sports. A recent survey, conducted by our research team, of 33 participants at the University of Ottawa’s Sports Complex arena showed that male and female university-aged students between 19 and 23 years (20.63 ± 1.53 years) carry a hockey bag of average 18.77 (± 5.13) per cent of body weight (BW) over one shoulder and walk distances of average 641.67 (± 687.67) m. In the same survey, the maximum weight of a hockey bag recorded was by a 21-year-old male goaltender, with a weight that equaled 33.29 per cent of his total body weight (Corrigan et al., 2010).
