Spring is around the corner and many of you are starting to dream about getting your hands dirty and growing beautiful or edible gardens.  Spring is also the time we do our heaviest gardening chores such as cleaning the garden beds, mulching, and planting.  These intensive chores are also the most likely to cause injury due to lack of proper-body-mechanics and possibly our winter-hibernation-inactivity.  Here are ten tips to help protect yourself from injury:

1) Warm-up first

Before undertaking any type of physical activity, it is important to warm the muscles up to keep the from injury.  Gentle movement such as pulling your knees into your chest, side-to-side spinal twists, squats shoulder, ankle and wrist circles are a great way to warm the muscles.  Even going for a quick 10 minute walk to get your heart rate up will also help.  These movements start the blood flowing to your muscles to help oxygenate the area.  Stretches are not to be used as a warm-up!  Stretching a cold muscle is more likely to increase the likelihood of injury. Instead, use stretching as a cool down after you have finished gardening for the day.

 2) Lift the right way
Anytime you’re doing any type of lifting, it is important to lift with your knees!  You should start in a squat position when lifting and think of your spinal column as one solid bone and keep your spine straight and vertical.  Do not forward bend when lifting anything with any type of weight (eg. man in picture wearing the red shirt on the right).

Instead, squat (eg. man wearing the white shirt in the picture on the right) and use your wagon, dollies to help move heavy items.  When lifting watering cans, it is much better to lift with both hands, or have half-filled cans in each hand to keep your spine balanced.  An even better way of watering would be by utilizing a hose you can drag around or by having an automatic watering system.  Minimizing any heavy lifting will help immensely.

When you have your spine loaded, or carrying anything heavy, do not twist your spine!  It is much safer to turn your entire body by shifting your feet.

4) Take breaks & hydrate

As satisfying as it is to complete a job quickly and efficiently, it is much better to rest frequently.  Once you are fatigued, you are more likely to fall into bad ergonomic habits. Bad habits equals increased risk for injury.

Use these frequent breaks to hydrate as well.  Your muscles are 80% water. Between the effort you are putting into your gardening tasks & the heat-of-the-day, you will sweat.  Drinking will help keep your muscles and your back healthy.  Adding a dose of electrolytes to your water will not only help you absorb your water, but also keep your electrolyte balance in check.

5) Use specialty tools

Having the right tools makes the job so much easier!  Certain tools that keep you from having to kneel or squat and keep you in a standing position is much easier on your spine.  These tools can be stand-up weeders for picking individual weeds or a straddle hoe if you have a larger area you need to weed.

Gardening stools, gardening scooters or kneeling pads can also help with if you move around or get closer to the ground.

6) Avoid twisting

As chiropractors, we are always advocating for a neutral spine.  Whether or not it is your neck or your back, it is crucial to try and maintain neutral posture.  That means standing or sitting up tall, shoulders back and chin parallel with floor.

When it comes to gardening, try and work with the patch in front of you rather than side-bending or twisting to reach something out-of-reach.

7) Vary your tasks

Rather than completing all your weeding or all your planting all at once, it is much better to switch from task-to-task.  Varying your tasks eases the strain on your body and can help prevent repetitive strain injuries from occurring.

8) Off-season care

We've all heard the term 'weekend warrior'.  These are the people who are sedentary or on lightly active during the weekdays but go all out with activities on the weekends.  Being sporadic in your activity also increases the likelihood of injuring the body as it isn't being conditioned to the level of activity it experiences during those weekend periods.  Extrapolate this scenario to those of you who only garden during the fairer seasons and do very little in the colder seasons.  See a reason for injury?

Being sedentary for 3 to 6 months of the year can result a weaker, less-conditioned body.  Gardening is not an easy activity.  It can be fairly intensive with not just movement but lifting and planting is it's own form of resistance training or weight training.  To prevent injury, it is strongly recommended to stay active in the winter not only by keeping active with walking or swimming or any other cardiovascular exercise, but to also include some form of resistance exercise.

Keep an eye out for "Gardening Tips to Protect Your Spine Volume 2" for more information.

9) Stretching

As mentioned before, stretching at the end of your gardening session will help stay limber and keep any discomfort at bay.  Focus on stretching your hands & wrists, shoulders, back, buttocks and legs.  

10) Spinal Health

Last but not least, the state of your spinal health can also dictate your risk of injury.  Think about it.  If you are crooked and leaning to one side then load your body up with a heavy water jug on the side you are leaning to, you're just made yourself more crooked!  The more crooked you are, the more gravity pulls on you and the more likely you are to injure yourself!

The best way to prevent this from snowballing is to maintain your spine on a regular basis.  That's where we come in.  At Straight Spine Upper Cervical Chiropractic we can help you keep your spine in a straight, and balanced position. While pain after a day of heavy activity is normal, extended pain for more than 3-4 days is not! This is a signal that your body is mis-aligned and it is time for a spinal check-up.

For more information, please feel free to contact us at (250) 334-2262 in our Courtenay clinic and at (250) 286-4929 in our Campbell River clinic. If you’ve never been to our clinic, take advantage of our new patient special: a consultation ($75 value) by donation with all proceeds going to the Comox Valley Community Foundation.*

*New patient special valid with either Dr. Lee or Dr. McGibney.