Love Gardening? Save Your Back and get a Garden Aid!
If you suffer from back problems and love to work in your garden, you will know that gardening jobs are hard on your back. Approach garden tasks correctly and making sure you have some handy tools or a garden aid (like this one) can save your back. To avoid back injury, and watching the weeds grow past the window, you might consider these back saving tips for working in your garden.
- The easiest way to save your back when gardening is to warm up before you start. Some gentle stretches or starting with a few of the less physical tasks in your garden can avoid strained muscles.
- Keeping warm in the garden will save your back from strains so make sure that you have suitable clothing. Working in the garden often involves a lot of bending, so don’t forget to wear something that does not expose your lower back when you bend down.
- Try to avoid putting tools etc. down on the ground . A useful garden aid is some kind of trolley that enables you to pick things up from waist level, much easier on your back. Have a look at the B-tidy Garden Workstation
, a useful garden bin that holds small tools too.
- Do your potting on a table, with your back straight and keep everything you need, including compost bags, on it.
- Working at ground level, use a kneeling mat or pad rather than crouching. This useful gardening aid will help keep your back straight and give you more core stability.
- Make sure you get help with some of your garden jobs. Even a job that seems quite easy, on your own, can stress your back.
- Try not to work in one position for too long. If you are doing a repetitive job in your garden like clipping a long hedge, breaking up the task with others can help you keep moving and aid your back.
- Raised beds in a garden can save your back and enable older people to still enjoy their gardening.
- Don’t reach too far away from your body as this puts extra strain on your back. Using a ladder and/or a gardening aid like tools with long handles, will help. Your body is strongest when you are using your arms close to your torso. Pruning shears with extendable handles and a multi-purpose garden aid such as the
Grab-O-Saurus will save you a lot reaching and bending.
- Take it easy. A the first sign of trouble, save your back and take a break. If your body is not used to manual work all week, your back won’t thank you for doing eight hours in the garden on Sunday.
