Healthy Gardening
Warming Up:
- Upper Body Twist: Stand with your hands on your hips. Slowly turn your upper body as far as comfortably possible to the left for a count of ten. Repeat to the right. Repeat five times each direction.
- Upper Back Stretch: Stand with your back straight and your arms at your sides. Stretch your arms straight out in front of you and hold for a count of ten. Return arms to your sides. Repeat five times.
- Hamstring Stretch: Stand with the heel of your right leg supported on a step with your right knee straight. Slightly bend the left knee with the left foot flat on the ground. Keep your back straight and slowly bend at the hips toward the right leg. Hold for a count of twenty. Repeat three times on each leg.
- Remember to stretch slowly and steadily-don’t bounce!
Gardening Tips:
- If you must kneel, stand up and stretch frequently to avoid stiffness. Use knee pads or a pillow to absorb the pressure on your knees.
- Make sure any objects you are lifting are not too heavy. Test its weight by lifting one corner. Roll or push, rather than carry, heavy loads.
- If you must pull an object, place your feet shoulder width apart, bend your knees, and lean away from the object. Pull by straightening your legs. Always face the object and keep your back straight.
- Gardening equipment should suit your size, build and physical capabilities. If you have arthritis in your hands, use garden tools with enlarged handles. Long handled garden tools ease the strain on an arthritic back.
If you experience pain or stiffness or have difficulty with a hobby such as gardening, walking or even sewing, therapy can help.
Goals of coming to Physical Therapy are to not only relieve your pain, but to also prevent further occurrences. After a thorough evaluation is performed, pain relieving modalities are administered to ease your pain followed by gentle exercises to stretch and strengthen your muscles. Education is also very important so that each person understands why they became injured and ways to prevent this in the future.
