The sun has started peaking out which means that lots of you will be getting out into your garden to start tidying it ready for summer. Before you grab your trowel, have a read of this.
Believe it or not, jumping straight back into gardening can be a cause of many emergency visits to my clinic. Over the spring and summer many people go straight into the garden and spend their whole day gardening. The repetitive motion that your body undergoes during gardening can cause mechanical problems within the body.
Gardening is a great whole-body workout with all that bending, twisting, lifting and pulling. You must treat gardening as a form of exercise; you need to warm up at the start and cool down afterwards. The back, upper legs, shoulders, and wrists are all used a lot when you are gardening. These are good areas to focus on when you warm up and cool down.
A warm up is important to stretch your muscles before you start to use them for manual labour. You can start with the lighter jobs before moving onto the heavier jobs. Alternatively, you can do a more formal warm up like we would do before any exercise:
- Side bends
- Shoulder circles
- Wrist circles
- Hamstring stretches
- Stretch to the sky
Don’t throw yourself into a whole day gardening without many breaks. Ease your body in gently and build up to spending longer in the garden. As you become more accustomed to the movement and exercise, it will become easier and less sore!
At the end of your gardening session, it is a good idea to do gentle stretching again to cool down. These can be the same stretches as the ones mentioned earlier. This can also be a good opportunity to slowly walk around your garden and water the plants, which will help you to slowly cool down. Hard exercise and then just stopping and staying still can leave you feeling stiff and achy.
Tips for Safe, Happy Gardening
- Use easy grip garden tools. These prevent you from putting excess strain on your hands, wrists, and arms.
- Don’t just yank those weeds out of the ground – dig them out. This can help prevent a sudden jarring of your back or shoulder when the weed finally gives.
- Kneel – don’t bend (use a kneeling pad).
- Alternate your stance and movements as often as possible to keep your muscles and body balanced
- Vary your activity every 20-30 minutes as well as taking regular breaks.
If you have done your gardening and experience pain afterwards then place an ice pack over the area. This helps reduce inflammation around the sore area and reduces the pain. Keep mobile and don’t stay in one position for too long. This will allow your muscles to stiffen which will increase any discomfort you feel when you get up to move.
If you do find that you have overdone it and need an appointment, get in touch at www.360chiropractic.co.uk.
Happy Gardening!
