It is one of life’s great hobbies and pastimes, but for many people, work in the garden is often followed by a painful back because they are not following some useful advice to avoid back pain in the first place.
Here at Muswell Hill Chiropractic Clinic we are more than happy to help people who are suffering with back pain but we are also keen to stress the general well-being that comes with Chiropractic care.
Ours is a holistic approach to improving your back pain and helping to prevent future occurrences.
So when it comes to gardening safely without causing yourself any back pain, here are some useful tips:
One of the biggest issues comes when weeding. There are several important points here: do not stay in the same position for too long, use long handed tools to do the job and do not stretch over parts of your garden to do any weeding or pruning. If necessary make your garden beds thinner or create raised flower beds to make them easier to get to.
Instead of kneeling on the ground, try sitting on a stool or upturned bucket. This way you are more likely to avoid knee, hip and back pain.
That brings us onto digging. There is a technique to shovelling dirt and you must try to minimise any strains to your muscles by using your weight to leverage the soil. Be careful when loosening dirt/soil by pushing the shovel forwards and back.
When you lift a full shovel of soil try to bend your knees when lifting from the ground – it’s easy to bend your back but you are creating a stress which may well cause problems. Don’t do any twists and turns either – try to keep your body properly aligned.
Lifting heavy bags of soil and plants can also cause problems. Here we would say that you should use common sense. If you cannot lift something easily then try breaking it down into smaller parts. Use buckets or a wheelbarrow to move the soil rather than straining to do the job in one go. You will avoid excessive stress on your back by doing so.
Finally, we’ve had clients before who think they do everything correctly for the lifting and digging aspects but when we ask them to demonstrate the way they empty their wheelbarrow, the potential for causing problems becomes apparent.
To avoid strains you need to lift a wheelbarrow from underneath and you will find that bending from the knees to lift is especially useful here because when you stand up, your back is straight and you have the necessary leverage to empty the wheelbarrow.
Remember, should you unfortunately suffer with back pain after gardening you should make an appointment to see a chiropractor.
Here at Muswell Hill Chiropractic Clinic the chiropractor, Dylan Paydar, can help resolve back issues and has been doing so since 1993.
You can contact us on 020 8442 0008 or visit our website at https://chiropractornorthlondon.co.uk/.
Dylan Paydar at Muswell Hill Chiropractic Clinic