It’s starting to happen. We’ve had a few nice spring days, people have been getting out in their gardens and as a result the phone has been ringing with people who have hurt themselves. After they tell me what hurts and that it began either during or soon after gardening, I ask them a few pointed questions. Did you stretch before and after gardening? Did you alternate sides when you raked? You know what the answers were… everyone has given me a sheepish NO.
Gardening is exercise! You don’t wake up and run a race (whether 5K or a marathon) without training. When you start training, you start slow and build up your endurance. To avoid injury you stretch before activity to warm-up and prepare your body for motion. After activity you stretch again to cool down.
As happy as we all are to finally get into the garden after prolonged winter, it is important to remember that gardening is exercise and involves using muscles in motion in patterns you have not performed for a long time. Please start your spring time gardening slowly. Warm up your muscles with stretching. Never bounce or stretch in pain. Stretch until you just begin to feel the tension. Over time your range of motion will improve.
Being symmetrical is also very important. Raking is not symmetrical. So every 5+ minutes switch sides. Yes, I know your habit side will for more comfortable, but that is because you have muscle memory to do it that way. The same goes for shoveling. Over time the opposite side will start feeling more comfortable to do.
Take breaks and/or change what you are doing every 20 minutes. If you are raking, after 20 minutes stop and bag it. 20 minutes later you can start raking again, or do some other activity (plant, turn soil, etc.).
The first few times you hit the garden, as difficult as it sounds- stop after an hour, then each time add another 15+ minutes. Within a few weeks, you’ll be able to spend as much time as you like.
If you do overdue it and wake up the next morning and feel like you used muscles that you haven’t used for a long time (which you haven’t), moist heat may be beneficial. The best way to use moist heat is 20 minutes on, 1 hour off and repeat. If you are not using moist heat, chances are you are only heating up your skin.
If you overdue it and feel pain during or within 24 hours after gardening, chances are you have injured yourself. If the pain is at or near a joint, or the spine you should start with ice! You can’t have pain without inflammation. The best and safest anti-inflammatory is ice. For the 1st 24 hours ice 15 minutes on and then 15 minutes off before repeating. After 24 post-injury, or awareness of pain, change ice protocol to 20 minutes on and 1 hour off before repeating. Just like with heat, ice needs to be moist, which means putting a thin damp cloth or paper-towel between the ice pack and skin.
So to avoid hurting yourself, start your gardening season slow, stretch before and after your time in the garden, and remember to be as symmetrically as possible. Know that the chiropractors at Performance Health Center are here if you need us on Monday!