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As a chiropractor and avid gardener, I understand that gardening can take a toll on your low back. Spending hours bent over and digging can lead to severe low back pain. In this post, I will provide you with some tips on how to prevent low back pain when gardening, so you can enjoy your passion without any discomfort.
Move more and sit less to prevent low back pain
Digging, lifting, and bending over for long periods of time are something you likely aren’t doing on a regular basis throughout winter. By the time spring comes along you may not be in good enough shape for gardening. The extra stress in your spine, muscles and nerves will eventually cause an injury to your low back. So one of the key solutions to prevent low back pain when gardening is to be more active and sit less.
One of the key solutions to prevent low back pain when gardening is to be more active and sit less.
So my advice is to pick an activity you would enjoy doing and start doing it regularly. Some samples could be walking, running, weight training, yoga, hockey, racket sports, dancing, biking, etc. In saying that, here are four key exercises you can do to help you prepare for the gardening season:
- Squats
- Push-ups
- Planks
- Pull-ups
If you search on the internet for ‘primal blueprint fitness book’ (Mark’s Daily Apple) you can download a free e-book regarding how to progress with these exercises safely. These exercises take 10-30 minutes to do twice per week. The e-book also recommends regular slow moving exercise, play, and sprinting.
As well, sitting for prolonged periods of time at work is a major cause of low back pain. To help counteract the negative effects of prolonged sitting you will have to stand up more and move around. Below are a couple of articles I wrote on this subject matter:
Standing Desk to Improve Your Posture
Help Solve Extreme Fatigue by Standing and Moving at Work
Regular chiropractic care helps prevent low back pain when gardening
Because most of us are sedentary and are overwhelmed with mental stress, it’s no wonder our nerves and muscles get tense. Our brain’s become wired and adapt to maintain this stress. So more tension builds up in our nerves and muscles around our spine. Bones in the spine become misaligned. Our posture changes and becomes misaligned. Eventually, the tension in our nerves and muscles build up so much we reach a breaking point and we get acute low back pain.
Getting your spine checked for misalignments before you get acute low back pain is a key strategy to help prevent low back pain when gardening. Correcting the misalignments in your spine with chiropractic adjustments helps rewire your brain and nervous system so you’re not in a stuck state of tension and stress. It’s like rebooting your computer so it runs better.
A good study, done in 2018, showed regular chiropractic care can help prevent low back pain. (1)
Getting your spine checked for misalignments before you get acute low back pain is a key strategy to help prevent low back pain when gardening.
You can read more about the importance of regular spinal check-ups and chiropractic care here.
Being body aware and changing tasks to prevent low back pain when gardening
One strategy to prevent low back pain when gardening is being aware of your body and changing tasks frequently. For instance, if you’re stooped over weeding for a long time and feel that your low back is getting tense, switch to a different activity such as pruning. This change in positions will help relieve the stress in your lower back.
What to do if you get low back pain
Getting lost in the zone while gardening is common, and sometimes low back pain is unavoidable. If you do experience low back pain, try some light stretching exercises such as child’s pose or hamstring stretches. Here are some more light stretching exercises you can use as a resource:
Ultimately, finding the underlying cause of low back pain is key to long-term relief versus masking your symptoms with drugs. The most common cause of low back pain come from the pain-sensitive nerve structures of the spine. Chiropractors are specialists in identifying the root cause of low back pain related to the muscles, nerves, joints, and discs. In fact, chiropractic care for acute low back pain shows superior improvement in pain and function when compared to physical modalities, medication, education, or exercise. (2, 3, 4, 5). So if you get low back pain while gardening make sure you book an appointment with your chiropractor as soon as possible.
Summary
Life is short and where I live so is the gardening season. Don’t let your gardening season get ruined because of low back pain. Be proactive. Be more active and sit less, change positions frequently while gardening, and go see your chiropractor on a regular basis so you can keep playing in the dirt!
To learn more about how chiropractic care can help you and your family read our ultimate guide to chiropractic care: Chiropractic Care for Everyone
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