Spring is a sprightly time in the garden as it flourishes with flowers, veggies, weeds & grass. Laura and I have a 1.5-acre property and know all about the dramatic increase in time and energy needed to keep things under control. It’s a blessing and a responsibility all joyfully mixed into one.
Unsurprisingly, Spring is a time in which we as osteopaths start to see an increase in cases of low back, hip, knee & shoulder pain coinciding with gardening activities. Often over winter we do less strenuous work and our tissues become less tolerant to physical stress.
After our winter hibernation, we’re often like a bull at a gate, and have the tendency to jump back into the garden with vigour. As such, there is risk of an injury if the physical load exceeds our tissues capacity to cope.
We have some tips to help avoid injury when gardening:
Avoid doing a sudden, dramatic increase in activity or load.
Swap between activities involving different parts of the body, such as weeding & pruning to change the type of strain through the body.
Swap sides for activities that are one-sided dominant, such as digging. Swapping sides changes the load on your body, prevents asymmetry and challenges the brain (it’s a common recommendation for dementia prevention).
Besides the amount of gardening that we do, the second major contributing factor to injuries when gardening is how we garden; our technique for bending, pushing, pulling & lifting things. We see a big trend in elderly people with low back pain who avoid bending their knees in the garden.
We have a few notable tips on technique:
Do a sumo squat! If you have to reach the floor, take a wide stance, bend your knees and rest one elbow on your thigh. This will alleviate the pressure on your low back.
Gees don’t forget your knees! Kneel on the ground using a pad or sit on a stool. Have a chair next to you for stability if you struggle to rise from the floor. There are special kneeling pads that have handles on the side and double as a stool to sit on.
Get hippy! For twisting activities such as whipper snipping try to keep your trunk stable and instead create the rotation movement through your hips and legs.
The third most common contributing factor to gardening injuries is that someone's body is quite stiff or restricted. Excessive restriction places more strain through joints, connective tissue & muscles and increases the likelihood of experiencing pain or injury. In our opinion, manual therapy is often the best way to ease restrictions.
Commonly as osteopaths, we assist people who are avid gardeners with all kinds of ailments including joint replacements and arthritis. If you feel as though your body is letting you down in the garden and you need help with pain or ability, then please call us as there is often so much that can be achieved.