My Top 9 Tips For Gardening...Without Pain!

I love being outdoors working in my yard or my garden this time of year!  Now I’ll admit I don’t particularly love pulling weeds, but I do love how everything looks when I’m done!

Fresh air, dirt, sunshine, exercise…there is just something about being in nature! 
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As much as I enjoy it, yard work and gardening can also be hard work and can lead to new or worsening aches and pains for many.  The good news is there are a lot of things you can do to prevent or minimize pain from gardening. 

Today I’m going to talk about several tips and tools that can help…but keep in mind the most important tool is you!  If you’re in pain you’re certainly not going to enjoy yourself.  So these tips are just as much about taking care of yourself and your health, as they are about enjoying your garden and the bounty it will bring when both you and your garden are properly cared for!
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Here are 9 of my best tips:

1. Stay Close To Your Work –When you reach out too far from your body to perform a task it makes that task much more difficult.  For example, reaching to pull a weed at the back of your garden bed instead of stepping in closer or lifting a bag of potting soil stuffed away in the corner of the garage instead of moving the things that got piled up in front of it through the winter.  This causes your body to work harder than necessary. Little things like this can add up and lead to more soreness at the end of the day…or even worse could result in a back or shoulder injury.  By staying close to your work you’ll accomplish more with less pain.
2. Keep Your Back Straight – Now I know this can be a tough one to follow when gardening, but prolonged or repetitive bending is probably one of the most common causes of back pain and stiffness…not just from gardening, but across all activities.  In fact, most of the back pain I treat in my clinic is from repetitive stress or strain to the back muscles…NOT from a specific injury or trauma.  Our body will endure a repetitive stress for a while, eventually reaches a “breaking point”.  Instead try squatting down or hinging at your hips to “bend” forward instead of rounding your back.  Keep your core tight to protect your back and squeeze your butt to stand back up instead of using your back muscles.  Your back muscles are simply not designed to support the weight of your trunk in these bent positions, especially for extended periods of time or when done repetitively.  So, work to keep your back as straight as possible…your back will thank you!
3. Modify Your Garden To Suit You – Consider building raised planters to prevent the need to bend over.  My Mom’s garden planters are built at waist level.  Use a potting bench or table when planting in pots can help minimize repetitive or prolonged bending as well.  Hanging baskets?  Window planters?  What other ideas have you tried?      
4. Know Your Lifting Limits – We all have physical limitations based on a variety of factors including gender, age, fitness level, etc.  Even the strongest man has a limit to how much he can lift safely.  Knowing and respecting your lifting limits will help prevent pain or injury.  There’s no rule that says you HAVE TO lift that 40-pound bag of potting soil.  Ask for help, divide the soil into more manageable amounts or use a wagon or wheelbarrow, but don’t risk your safety by lifting more than you can safely lift by yourself.  
5. Lift With Your Legs – I’m sure you’ve heard this one before, most people have.  Unfortunately, few actually do it!  If you’re not squatting down and lifting with your legs, your only other option to is to bend over and ultimately use your back muscles to lift.  Again, your back muscles are not designed for this.  Your large leg muscles are…so be mindful and use those strong legs for lifting!
6. Take Breaks – Depending on what needs to be done, some days I can spend 2-3 hours (or more) in my yard/garden.  Taking frequent breaks to stretch, change the position your working in and hydrate is an important strategy to prevent pain. 
7. Change Positions – Gardening can be done in a variety of positions from standing, squatting, hinging at the hips like we discussed, kneeling, sitting on the ground or using a bucket as a stool.  Whatever your task requires, switch it up occasionally.  If you’ve been kneeling for a while, do something in standing for a bit, then go back to kneeling if you need to.  Not staying in any one position for too long will help minimize prolonged stress to any one part of your body and help prevent pain at the end of the day.
8. Use The Right Tools – Think knee pads, buckets, wagons, wheelbarrows, long handed tools or even another human helper!  Finding and using the right tools for the job will make each task easier and more efficient and will go a long way toward avoiding unnecessary aches and pains.
9. Build Up Slowly – This is important especially early in the season when your body may not be used to the movements and tasks gardening requires.  Rome wasn’t built in a day…and you probably won’t have your garden and yard in tip top shape in a day either!  Start with shorter times spent in the yard and work up to longer duration as your body becomes more accustomed to the “new” activity.  It’s normal to expect some soreness when you start a new activity or so something you haven’t done in a while.  Just don’t overdo it!

While our goal should always be to prevent pain, we will all experience pain from time to time.  The real problem usually comes when that pain lingers for too long or prevents us from enjoying our favorite activities.  If we don’t take of those lingering aches and pains, it usually just gets worse in time and can start to impact our health in other ways. 
  
If you have pain that has lasted for more than a few weeks it may be time to get some help, so you can get back to living the life you want.  Even if your situation feels hopeless or you have been suffering for years…there is almost always something that can be done. 

​If you’re unsure if something like Physical Therapy can help you, I’d be happy to talk to you on the phone for a few minutes first or have you come in for a Free Discovery Visit.  This gives us the opportunity to discuss your problem, find out what’s wrong and what it might take to fix it.

Just give us a call at 503-744-0046 or HIT REPLY to this email and let us know.