Home Treatment for Repetitive Stress Injury

A cloth tote bag with a shoulder strap is a good alternative to those plastic grocery bags, because it can help relieve the tension and stress on your arms. Using a tote with a shoulder will shift the weight of your purchases from the small muscles of your hands, to the larger muscles of your shoulders. If you have a lot of purchases, bring two bags, and make sure the clerk distributes the weight evenly, so you don’t hurt your shoulder!

Here’s a back story to illustrate my point. One of the defining moments of my hand injury, years ago, was a Friday evening in Trader Joe’s. I had been working late and purchased a full paper bag’s worth of groceries. As I was carrying them out the door, I lost my grip on the bag and it fell, cracking open the giant bottle of olive oil. All of my purchases were drowned in olive oil.

But Trader Joe’s staff were amazing. They came over, mopped up some of the mess, and brought me new items and new bags to carry them in, and helped me out to my car. I hadn’t realized my arms had been in pain, or had gotten so weak, until that night — but it made me think twice about what I was doing to myself. After that I started to be more careful about how I carried objects, and how I worked. And I gained a lot of love for TJ’s!

There are more benefits to using cloth bags than saving yourself some pain and embarrassment, as well. Of course, it’s great for the environment because it uses fewer resources from the manufacturing, distribution and recycling process of the plastic bag industry. More than that, it also frees up your hands to juggle through your pockets for keys, phone and other things, while you’re carrying your load.

It’s really the small things like this that can make a big difference. So, here’s to a pain-free, earth-friendly shopping trip.

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