Autumn garden tidy up resulted in an injury

This Autumn has been pretty warm, so gardening has been carrying on. The last lawn to be mowed, weeds pulled, plants watered, patio jet washed…

Some of you may tend to your garden all year round. You may spend just a few hours each week, pottering about and keeping on top of those little tasks so that your lawn always looks healthy. Your shrubs are always well tended. Your borders are always neat.

However, many of us pretend that our gardens don’t exist for at least six months out of the year. We hope that our plants will survive the winter by doing a bit autumn tidy up – spending entire weekends mowing, planting, digging, weeding and watering.

Gardening is great exercise. It’s fun, it’s healthy, it’s active and you can do it at any age. However, if you overdo the gardening, particularly if the rest of your week is spent in a sedentary job, expecting your body to suddenly perform strenuous physical exercise is asking for trouble.

Choosing the right tools is important; the wrong ones will likely stress your muscles. But approximately 75% of the pain we suffer is down to bad postural habits and the wrong attitude. Do a little gardening often – an hour here and there each day – and the garden may take a little while to get ready for winter. However, spend all weekend trying to transform your overgrown garden into a tranquil paradise and you could spend the next week in excruciating pain!

Preventing back injuries

Heavy lifting is usually the reason for any back injury. Avoid lifting any heavy objects alone. Ask someone to help and if you are having to transport it any sort of distance, use a wheelbarrow to get it from A to B. If you do have to carry it yourself, keep the item as close to your body as possible whilst lifting. Carry it in front of you and keep your spine as straight as possible. Or if you can, roll the object instead.

Repetitive strain injuries

Gardening can often result in a repetitive strain injury (RSI). The most important rule is ‘never work through pain’. If you already have a bad back it’s not a good idea to suddenly spend hours bending over, pulling out weeds in the garden.

Listen to your body. Stop if it hurts. RSI often returns; if it is not managed and if you push yourself beyond your body’s limits you could end up in chronic pain.

Prevention is better than cure

Make sure you practice healthy habits, use the correct tools and if you are concerned about an injury you have suffered through gardening, or believe that you have a repetitive strain injury, please get in touch. Taking pain killers is not the answer; an osteopath can correct problems if caught early enough.