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Whether you grow a large vegetable garden, or just enjoy a variety or flowers in your yard, gardening is a popular hobby people of all ages can enjoy. Gardening can be an excellent activity to achieve both physical exercise and reduce stress. As the weather has finally begun to show signs of summer on its way, many of our patients have started to ask how they are going to manage their gardens this year with their current physical limitations. Gardening is a wonderful activity to help keep our joints flexible and maintain range of motion. There are many different ways all of the tasks involved with gardening can be modified to conserve energy, decrease stress on your joints, and prevent further injury. Here are a few simple suggestions to help you enjoy the short growing season we have here in New England.
1. Maintain proper body mechanics:
Try to position yourself as close as possible to your work area. This will prevent unnecessary reaching and strain on your back and shoulders. Avoid twisting to prevent back injury. A garden bench can be very helpful to avoid prolonged squatting or bending. Another option is kneeling on a knee pad on one knee, keeping the other knee bent up to also reduce stress to your back. Raised beds allow for successful planting with reduced bending and can be constructed to accommodate various heights.
When potting plants into pots stand at a table to work at waist height and avoid stooping or unnecessary forward bending. Divide soil, mulch, fertilizer into smaller portions before carrying to reduce the weight. If you must lift a bag or box, lift by bending through your legs instead of your back. A 2- wheel garden cart can be more stable than a wheelbarrow to move your soil or mulch about your yard.
2. Use Tools Wisely:
Gardening tools are now widely available with thick built-up handles which will reduce stress placed through the joints of your hands while gripping. You can also build up the handles of your existing tools, rakes, or shovels with foam tubing or grip tape. It is also important to be mindful of how tight you are gripping these tools even with built-up handles to reduce stress placed on the small joints of the hands and wrists. Lighter hand tools are also easier to manipulate if fatigue is an issue. Make sure your clipping shears are sharpened to ease pruning and trimming with less force on your hands and forearms. If weakness is a problem, choose pruners that have a spring loaded self opening feature.
3. Conserve Energy and Protect your Joints:
Plan to take rest breaks for 15 minutes every hour to avoid fatigue and change tasks often to avoid stress to one body part. For example, prolonged gripping on tools can stress finger joints. Alternate between sitting, kneeling, and standing tasks to avoid prolonged postures which can make your joints stiff.
Place your garden or plants close to the water supply so you don’t have to use energy maneuvering the hose or carrying a heavy watering can. If this is not possible utilize the garden cart mentioned earlier to wheel your watering can back and forth.
Plan to weed your gardens after it rains or your garden has been watered as weeds will pull out of wet soil with less resistance and stress to your finger joints
Keep all of your garden tools in one area close to your work space to minimize trips to and from the garage or shed. There are many gardening bags available commercially to organize your tools, or simply use a large bucket with a built up handle.
Use larger joints vs. smaller joints to get your work done safely. Any amount of stress is going to be better tolerated by larger joints and muscles than small ones. For example, use your palms to push and lift instead of your fingertips. This can be helpful when carrying trays of plants or flowers before planting. It is better to carry these across your forearms instead of grasping tightly with your fingertips.
4. Be mindful of your physical self:
Before you head out into the garden it is important to perform some light stretches. This will be helpful to prevent sore muscles after your work is completed. As mentioned earlier, plan to take rest breaks every hour, or sooner if you are feeling tired. Remember to have plenty of water available with you in the garden to stay hydrated. If a task is feeling too strenuous ask for help.
When planning your garden, consider how much maintenance it will need throughout the season. If you are currently in the middle of your rehabilitation process, or this is your first gardening season after your injury/illness start small and plan accordingly. You will achieve a greater sense of satisfaction with just a few productive plants compared to being overwhelmed trying to maintain a large garden space.
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