INTRODUCTION

As college students, we are often burdened with heavy backpacks and want to see if these loads affect the posture of one gender more than the other. We are looking at gait and posture differences between males and females while carrying a relatively heavy backpack on a level plane. We will be looking at the knee, hip and shoulder joints as well as the trunk section to see if any differences between the genders exist. It has been shown in a previous study that amount of load affects abduction of the hip (Neumann et al., 1992).

The purpose of our study is to compare any differences between genders while carrying a backpack. We will be viewing the motion of walking in the sagittal plane and observing the knee, hip and shoulder joints, and the trunk segment. We are also going to be looking to see if any differences in neck angles exist.