5 Tips to Prevent Back Pain When Gardening
Most gardening injuries occur gradually over time due to repetitive tasks, such as bending, lifting, squatting, and kneeling.
The low back can be particularly susceptible to injury during gardening as bending, lifting, and squatting can cause you to twist your body into awkward positions or to overstretch, leading to muscle strains or sprains or persistent lower back pain.
Here are 5 tips to prevent back pain when gardening this spring:
Always warm up before gardening with dynamic exercises, such as lunges and squats and a brisk walk, to activate and warm up lower body muscles and increase blood flow and flexibility in your legs and hips. Focus on stretching the lower back, hamstring, and hip muscles to minimize the risk of a muscle strain.
Use proper lifting technique. When lifting a heavy object like a pot or bag of soil, squat, bending at your knees and hips while keeping your back straight. Let the leg and arm muscles do the heavy lifting instead of relying on your back. Keep the object close to your body and your feet shoulder-width apart.
Pivot, don’t twist. To pivot means to move your feet and hips in the same direction as your upper body instead of keeping them planted and twisting at the spine. Twisting can harm your lower back, overstretching ligaments or muscles and causing low back pain.
Take breaks and change positions often. Start your gardening season with shorter work sessions, such as 20–30-minute intervals, and gradually increase the duration as your stamina improves. This reduces the risk of overworking and fatigue, which can increase the risk of injury. Change positions often, as staying in one position doing a repetitive task for an extended period of time can increase your risk of injury. Alternate between different gardening activities to distribute the workload across muscle groups.
Use ergonomic tools. Choose tools with long handles, which allow you to maintain a more upright position as you work and require less bending and reaching. Use a wheelbarrow or cart rather than doing heavy lifting.
