Health Hero TIPS FOR BACKPACKING WITHOUT PAIN The glorious outdoors seems to attract more and more weekend hikers. It's a good way to enjoy clear skies, glorious mountain views, cold, sweet streams. But, ouch, it may bring ugly back problems. If one wants to use puns, you might say that hiking has come a long way, mountain-climbing is on the incline in-cline and backpacking carries car-ries a big responsibility. Your doctor of chiropractic, chiro-practic, who is a member of the health team who gives special attention to spinal mechanics and neurological, muscular and vascular relationships, rela-tionships, reminds ypu that even if you survive your backpacking trip without a cut, sprain or fall, you can still do serious damage to your back, neck and shoulders. One important thing you can do to protect your back is to own a good backpack. Those made of a "H" or "U" shaped aluminum frame are recommended. The best, most secure frames have either welded components, bolts or plastic couplings. Aluminum frames are lightweight, durable dura-ble and weather resistant. Whon selpctine vour back pack, be sure -the shoulder straps and back bands have plenty of lightweight padding. pad-ding. This will protect your skin and prevent rubbing. A relatively recent addition addi-tion to the backpack is the hip belt. This distributes some of the weight to the hips, taking some of the stress off the back. Experts say the best hip belts are the one-piece type that "float" with the body instead of harnessing the hips rigidly to the frame. Get a pack belt that has a quick release buckle. This is especially important if you're going to hike near water or ice. When picking your backpack, back-pack, be sure to carefully inspect the stitching that holds it together. The stitching stitch-ing should be uniformly small and tight. There should be double rows ol stitching at stress points which include the top and bottom corners, zipper ends and the places where the frame is attached. The way it is sewn determines support sup-port as well as strength and durability. Next, try the pack on. Place some test objects into the pack for weight. This should give you an idea of fit and indicate if the padding pad-ding on the shoulder pads and hip belt is sufficient. Packing your backpack is second only in importance to selecting the correct pack. Mostly, it takes common com-mon sense. Be sure to distribute dis-tribute the weight evenly throughout the pack-especially pack-especially side to side. Most packs have zippered side compartments so you can have the things you need most frequently at hand. Now let us assume you have picked out a well-constructed well-constructed backpack and it fits perfectly. What comes next? Probably the most important thing of all-conditioning. all-conditioning. Don't go on a long niKing irip unless yuu are physically in shape. The most accident prone individual individ-ual is the person who becomes be-comes careless because he cannot take the rigors of the activity. In addition, the American Chiropractic Assocation recommends periodic health check-ups. This should include in-clude a thorough examination examina-tion of the spine and nervous system, since the musculoskeletal system is intimately affected by an activity such as backpacking. Follow these 6 important tips for safe backpacking: 1. Pick the right pack. 2. Watch your footing. 3. Don't jump wide precipices. pre-cipices. 4. Be careful of undercurrents under-currents in water. 5. Take frequent rest breaks. 6. Protect your neck, back, and shoulders from strain and injury.