Do you love the thrill of seeing beautiful flora or delicious fruits and vegetables sprouting from your garden? If so, it’s likely that you spend quite a few hours tending to your beds and planting areas each week. While rewarding, gardening can take a toll on the body and leave you with an aching back. Here are a few tips from our Greensboro chiropractor to avoid back injuries while pursuing your gardening passion.

 

Stretch Before Digging In

A limber body helps create a happy gardener, so consider performing a set of warm up exercises and stretches before hitting the dirt. Make sure your routine includes plenty of motions that stretch the limbs, neck, and back. Yoga is a great option, as there are numerous seating and standing positions that loosen up the body without any impact.

 

Precautions for Lifting, Bending, and Kneeling

When picking up items, lift with your knees instead of the back. Hold your load close to your body for a reduced back strain. Bend your knees to maintain a center of gravity when you kneel or squat to ground level to avoid repetitious bending of the back. When kneeling, put only one knee on the ground and leave the other raised with the foot on the ground to ease back strain. Rotate knee positions regularly to avoid knee injuries.

 

Vary Garden Tasks to Avoid Needing a Back Injury Chiropractor in Greensboro

Avoid overworking any one group of muscles by changing up your routine in the garden. Try not to spend an entire day solely weeding, digging or planting on your knees. Switch up for an hour or so and do some watering or attending to elevated plants to give your legs and back a break and avoid injuries due to repetition and overuse.

 

Make Your Garden Ergonomically Friendly

Rather than bending and stooping when planting and tending to your plants, bring them up to your level with ergonomic planning. Consider using hanging baskets, window boxes, barrel planters or stylishly raised beds that add character to your landscaping.

 

Let Garden Tools Have Your Back

With the right gardening tools, you can alleviate quite a bit of strain on the entire body. Let wheelbarrows or garden carts move supplies about the yard. When weeding or planting, use a small bench or garden stool to eliminate squatting down so often. Use a cushioned pad when kneeling and consider investing in lighter, ergonomically friendly tools.

 

Chiropractic Techniques Used by Our Back Injury Chiropractor in Greensboro

Our Greensboro chiropractor uses a variety of techniques including chiropractic adjustments, physiotherapy, soft tissue therapy and other natural, non-invasive modalities to help with back pain. Chiropractic manipulation techniques to relieve spinal misalignments that cause back pain include:

  • Diversified
  • Sacro-Occipital  
  • Activator Method
  • Cox Flexion Distraction
  • Craniosacral
  • Gonstead

Soft Tissue Techniques we use include Active Release Techniques (ART), Functional and Kinetic Treatment with Rehab, Graston Technique and the Myofascial Release Technique (MRT). We also use deep tissue laser therapy, acupuncture, and massage to help alleviate and resolve back pain long term.

 

Looking for Chiropractic Care in Greensboro?

For more information or to schedule an appointment with our Greensboro chiropractor at Healing Hands Greensboro Chiropractic, contact us today.