Make Gardening Back Pain a Thing of the Past

Do you experience lower back pain when gardening? Take time to warm up, stretch, and listen to your body, says Step & Spine Physical Therapist Barrett Ford, and back pain in the garden can become a thing of the past.

More than 80 percent of our population will experience lower back pain at some point in their lives. When you consider 40 million households in the U.S. actively tend a garden, that’s a lot of sore backs.

“When gardening, about 80 to 90 percent of your movement is in a bent position which is unnatural on the body and, when prolonged, can lead to lower-back pain,” Ford said. “Repetitive bending, reaching, twisting, and lifting – all actions common to gardening – tend to put the lower-lumbar area of your back at risk.”

Even light digging, planting, weeding, and mulching can, over the course of a long gardening season, put your lower back at risk.

“Most back issues are not from a one-fell-swoop deal,” Ford said. “Even though there’s that one last movement – the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak – most of it is an accumulation of a lot of bending … of bent postures over a long period of time.”

Be mindful, Ford added, that such risk can be tempered if gardeners take an athlete’s approach to the activity they love. Like runners, cyclists, golfers, and other weekend warriors, proper warm-up and stretching are just as key to injury prevention for gardeners as utilizing proper tools and techniques during “game time.”

Ford offers the following warm-up and stretching tips for gardeners, as well as a few tips for preventing back pain and injury during the process of gardening:

Warm-Up & Stretch

• Walk: Walk before you garden. Walk after you garden. Just walk, Ford says, because “it’s actually more important than any other exercise you do.”“When you bend and sit, the pressures on your spine and disk are maximized,” he said. “When you walk, it actually rehydrates and unloads – takes pressure off the spine. One thing I always have my patients do is a simple walking program.”
• Press-Ups, or ‘Cobra’: Stretch the back again by performing a press-up, or ‘cobra’ in yoga circles. This stretch involves lying flat on your stomach and, with feet and hips firmly on the ground, pushing your head and chest up while arching your back. Keep your chin up!“You’re stretching the front part of your body, and more specifically, you’re equalizing pressure in your spine, making the disks move forward,” Ford said. “When you’re gardening or sitting, your disks are moving backward.”
• Hip Flexor Stretches: Stretch the hips by slowly stepping into and holding lunges prior to gardening. These hip flexor stretches are performed by slowly stepping forward, lunging your hip forward while keeping your chest back. Hold for 30 seconds to a minute, then stretch your other hip the same way. This not only stretches your hips, but also the lower-lumbar area of your back – the part of the back most susceptible to injury.
• Back Bends: After spending time bent over gardening, back bends (like the press-ups) work to equalize the pressure in your spine. Put your hands on your hips and slowly bend backwards a few times before you start gardening, Ford says, and do a few more every 3 to 5 minutes while you’re in the garden. During these mini-breaks, take time to walk around and hydrate, as well.

While Gardening

• Start Slow: Don’t tackle the tough jobs first. Ford suggests warming up your body and building stamina by starting with simpler projects and breaking larger projects into shorter gardening sessions.
• Garden on Hands & Knees: When working close to the ground, Ford suggests doing so on all fours. Better than bending at the waist, this gardening position places the least pressure on the spine – even better than kneeling or working from a seated position.
• Practice Mindful Lifting: When lifting bags of fertilizer or heavy potted plants, always bend with the knees and lift with your legs, Ford says, keeping the bulk of the weight close to your body.
• Buy & Use Quality Tools: According to Ford, the use of quality, long-handled gardening tools can reduce your need to bend at the waist. And don’t lift and carry when you have a wheelbarrow or garden cart available.
• Listen to Your Body: If you begin to feel discomfort or pain in your spine, take a break, change tasks, or stop your gardening task altogether. “Walk, stretch, and rest your back,” Ford says. “If pain or discomfort persists, contact your personal physician or call a physical therapist directly for an evaluation of the spine.”