7 Essential Steps to Getting Rid of Back Pain When Gardening

So many of you get great joy from gardening. Making it look beautiful, enjoying the fruits of your labour, and reaping the benefits gardening brings to your health and wellbeing. But for some, digging, planting, trimming, and moving can cause pain in the lower back, making them think twice about going and doing what they love.

Back pain caused by gardening doesn’t usually occur until later in the day, or the following day after gardening. It can be a niggling pain or stiffness, or it can cause severe discomfort possibly affecting the buttocks and the legs.

Using lawnmowers and other motorised tools such as hedge trimmers come with obvious risks of injury. Pulling up thorny weeds without gloves and using ladders can also cause harm if you’re not careful. But back pain is often deemed less of a ‘risk’ and is therefore often less well prepared for. Gardening involves such a variety of movement, lifting and shifting of various objects alongside getting into spaces such as under bushes your body needs to be able to perform all to a certain degree.

It's easy to believe “it's my age” or “nothing can be done” because that means you don't have to actively do anything to change your situation. Other common beliefs that limit your success in treating back pain is that your posture is bad, or you have a “weak core”. But there are steps you can take that will reduce the amount of back pain you suffer after gardening:

Warm up 

...before beginning work on your garden. You might think that because gardening isn’t a sport, you don’t need to warm up. But bending, digging, pulling, and lifting all require the muscles to be in full working order. The warmer the muscles, the less likely they’ll be to suffer injury. Try doing some gentle stretches before heading out. They’ll help to ease any discomfort you may have after gardening (If you have severe back pain it is best to seek advice from a physio before exercising).

Post gardening is when most back pain sets in. Gentle stretching to mobilise your spine, ribcage, hips and even your upper body will reduce stiffness as you start cool. Muscle soreness can occur after any strenuous exercise - it’s a sign that muscles have worked! It is not always a sign of damage - if you are not sure do not wait for things to get worse, see a professional for answers.

Learn to lift properly

Proper lifting is essential for protecting your back in any environment. Gardening often involves lifting heavy pots or bags of soil or sand, or machinery from the shed or up a ladder. Safe lifting involves careful planning, not rushing, keeping the feet stable and crucially, bending from the knees rather than the back. The best way of ensuring that you’re using all the correct muscles to lift, is to book in and see a professional who can help guide you and train you to lift correctly.

Match your tools to your job 

Long handled tools are perfect for reaching higher up branches without using a ladder. Do take care not to lose your balance when looking and reaching upwards. Keep your tools sharp and free from rust as this will make each job much easier and deduce the time it takes!

Raised planters

Raised planters are a long-term solution, having your plants and vegetables raised means less bending over to tend to them in the long run. They are also great for those that cannot stand for long, as a garden tool or chair can be positions to allow to work.

Take rest breaks

Taking regular breaks will give your back and ribcage a chance to stretch the other way. This will help to reduce the compression experienced by the spine when bending and lifting and can mean that you have less chance of experiencing a back injury. This is particularly important if your endurance is lacking, ask yourself how long you realistically can hold positions without discomfort.

Move differently

How do you move when you have back pain? DIFFERENTLY! You change how you move to avoid annoying the sore bit, often resulting in you bracing with little to no change. Your nervous system knows something is wrong, so it switches lots of muscles on to stop movement in that area. This can be a good idea…at the time! But this strategy can turn into a habit which is going to reduce your options for beautiful movement in the long term and often leads to pain elsewhere in the body due to those parts overcompensating. It is crucial to change positions over a long period of time. For example, if you are squatting for a few minutes, try switching to a half-kneeling position. If you are pulling something heavy out of the ground remember to use ALL OF YOUR MUSCLES, don’t just fold at the waist, and pull. Soften the knees, gently push your bottom back keeping the back relaxed and gently engaging while your tummy muscles as you shorten one group of muscles, lengthening the others to rotate.

Get Rid of pain for good

The one caveat to all this? These are measures you can take to stop exacerbating or setting off back pain, BUT the best way of preventing back pain is to find out what is CAUSING it in the first place and fixing the problem at its root. Although back pain during or after gardening is common, it is NOT normal and is a sign that something isn’t quite right. So, if you want to get rid of back pain for good, it’s best to seek help  - that’s where we come in.

Our job as a Physio is to reassure your brain and body that muscles and joints can stretch and can tolerate load. THEN, and this is the bit that CURES back pain, it’s about training you, over time to gradually increase the amount of load you can tolerate so you can do the things you want to do… AND MORE.

Knowing you have the strength and the endurance to safely move through the variety of gardening activities is the best long-term solution. Whilst tools like wheelbarrows can reduce tolerance on your body it isn’t a cure. And while a massage feels amazing for tight muscles, alone it won’t fix the problem. The truth is….

The long-term solution lies in you getting stronger and more mobile in lots of muscles, moving in lots of different directions in lots of different ways. Variety really is the spice that will keep you pain free!

People often stop coming to physio or other practitioners when their pain has gone. This is a big error because at this point, your nervous system is feeling more settled, but you won’t have fully re-activated your orchestra to play to the same tune, together, at the right volume! This is what the best Physios can do for you. Provide you the loading progressions that will enable you to work your body as it’s meant to spread load instead of overloading the sore bits.

"I thought my 20+ years old back injury was untreatable after such a long time – I was wrong! I feel more confident in my ability to do everyday things and I have a more positive approach to life"

- Graham (Read Graham's success story here)

So if you want to enquire about how we can help get rid of your back pain for good click here to enquire now.

Happy Gardening

With love,

Abbie

and the HealthHub Team

P.S. If you want to make sure that your body is in tip top condition, and prevent problems BEFORE they occur, and you want to ensure you’re actively living a lifestyle that promotes health, happiness and pain free movement, the best way of doing that is with our brand-new MOT service. This fab new subscription gives you:

• An annual MOT (much like you’d do on your car, but for you and your body instead!)
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So, if you want to make sure that you are doing the best you can to keep healthy, happy and active now and long into the future, click here to sign up to be the first to hear when we launch.