Dr Andrew Harvey, Mayo Chiropractic Family Practice, Castlebar, is this week informing Mayo Advertiser readers about maintaining spinal health.
With the recent good sunshine we have been having people are hard at it to maintain the lawns, planting veggies, and weeding the flower beds. There are plenty of positives with respect to getting outside and working on your gardens; fresh air, UV light exposure to help your body convert proteins to important vitamin D, the physical exertion of working in the garden, you'll even save money and enjoy the brilliant taste of home grown vegetables.
Often the good weather, fast growing lawns and plants means we forget to allow our bodies to adapt to the sudden increase in repetitive movements or awkward sustained postures involved in garden work. Unfortunately and unnecessarily this sudden excessive change of physical stress on our body can result in muscle strain and spinal injury. Common garden injuries include repetitive strain injury of the forearm and shoulder, neck and lower back (lumbar spine ) injury. Injuries to the spine can cause interference to the nervous system between some of the 24 moving bones of the spinal column. A loss of normal motion or position of these bones can irritate or impair the function of the nervous system which controls every cell in your body.
Unfortunately, we tend to think of back pain as something to be treated when it happens, instead of something that can be cared for and prevented through healthy lifestyle decisions and maintaining our spinal health.
Below is a list of tips to maintain spinal health and keep you gardening safely to get you back out in the garden and not your back out this spring:
Take time to warm up before you jump straight into some gardening work.
Perform three to five minute stretch routine including gentle neck, mid and lower back movements, and stretches. A perfect example of this can be downloaded of free by clicking the Straighten up Ireland link on the Chiropractic Association of Ireland website www.chiropractic.ie Get close to the plants or place you are working with. For example when weeding you should position yourself so you can squat or kneel (on a gardening knee board or with knee pads ) and reach the plants you are removing from the soil without having to fully extend your elbows. If you are having to reach further than you can grasp with an extended elbow, reposition yourself closer.
Perhaps the most vital tip is take breaks! Every 10 to 15 minutes take a short break from the gardening activity you are working on and repeat some the neck, back, and trunk range of motion exercises, this will help to release muscle and joint tension and have you fresh back at it.
When pulling or lifting; the force generated should come from your major leg muscle groups and the trunk should be kept tense (tightening your deep stomach muscles ) as you do so to support a straight, strong, spine posture. Do not pull or lift with straight knees and bend from the hip.
When weeding or working with tools alternate sides to share the workload evenly through your body.
Use tools with long handles for reaching and cutting to let the handle length do the work for you rather than straining. Similarly where possible purchase ergonomically designed and lighter tools from your gardening store. When using your tools use slower deliberate actions rather than fast jerky actions.
Do not lift or pull heavy loads, instead break your loads into smaller more manageable amounts. When planning work in the garden set realistic goals so you are not pushing yourself excessively to complete a huge task. Working physically while fatigued will significantly increase the probability of injury.
For a general stretch routine to have you warmed up properly for gardening send a stamped self addressed envelope to: Mayo Chiropractic Family Practice, 48 Castle Grove East, Castlebar, 094 903 4855.
