Gardening Workout – Client Article

Now that we are well into the summer, our thoughts start turning to the garden. The grass is begging to be cut and the shrubs and bushes require that much needed attention that should have been done at the end of last summer. With the light in the evenings needed to venture out, and with sunny weekends we can maximise our time on gardening duties.

May I flag a “Warning” right now? As it is about this period that we start to get people into the clinic with gardening related injuries. Back pain, hamstring strains, sciatica and calf problems to name but a few.

Our thoughts are that gardening is exercise. In fact, most gardening sessions last for a lot longer than the average exercise session. This is why we must flag up the importance of looking after yourself in a preventative way so that you stay out of the clinic and in the garden, where your time is more needed.

We have two areas to address. Firstly, are you fit enough to garden? Secondly, the topic of stretching.

Fitness – for every activity that we do, we require specific fitness traits. With gardening we require mobility and flexibility to reach and bend, strength to lift, dig, pull or push and muscular endurance to keep on going for the duration of time spent on each excursion in to the garden.

Many of the movements that we do repeatedly in the garden come from either the squat or lunge patterns (or variations of these two). For both of these to be carried out effectively we must have good ‘functional’ movement. Here lies the potential problem. We must ask you the question – can you squat properly?

Try doing a squat: Place your feet hip to shoulder width apart
keeping your feet flat on the ground
descend into a squat (the lower you can go, the better)

 

  • How easy was it?
  • How low could you go?
  • How much of a forward lean did you have?
  • Did you ache anywhere?

With so many of us sitting for longer periods of time, our ability for the pelvis and low back to work properly is greatly effected. Squatting is done many times a day within our day-to-day tasks:

  • Getting in/out of bed
  • Sitting/standing from a chair
  • Getting in/out of a car
  • Getting on/off the toilet

If we are restricted in our movement, then the quality of these movements becomes compensatory.

If you squat well, it is easier to bend, reach, and lift…

Stretching

Muscles and fascia (connective tissue) can and do become adaptively shortened. This restriction causes the bodies movements to become compensatory.

If we were to adopt a regular mobility and flexibility programme to re-establish good flexibility, the negative effects that are experienced as a result of being inflexible would be greatly minimised.

Throughout your gardening session, take regular breaks and stretch out the muscles you have been using. At the end of your session, consider stretching the following:

 

 

 

If you are interested in working with back pain, consider our specialist level 4 courses.  For more information email, admin@drummondeducation.com