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How to avoid back pain while gardening

Toronto chiropractor Dr. Stacy Irvine shares some tips to prevent back-breaking gardening
How to avoid back pain while gardening
Dreamstime photo illustration
Using knee pads when pulling weeds and planting can help prevent back pain.
By: News, Published on Mon May 27 2013
If you have green thumbs, be careful not to get your back muscles wrung.
That’s the message for Toronto gardeners from local chiropractors, who see spikes in sufferers every spring when the garden beckons.
“Especially a year like this, where we’ve had such a (bad) spring and everyone is dying to get out there,” said Dr. Stacy Irvine, a chiropractor at Toronto’s Totum Life Science. “When people are rushing, that’s when they get into trouble.”
To prevent that from happening, Irvine says to warm up before you start, suggesting a walk around the block or a hot shower.
“It’s going to make you feel better and (you’ll) probably enjoy gardening more,” said Irvine.
But even when you’re limbered up, it’s still possible to throw your back out. Repetitive motions and lifting heavy objects improperly are chief culprits of injuries, says Irvine. “The riskiest thing relating to gardening is bending over and twisting at the same time while lifting something heavy.”
Try switching tasks every 15 minutes, and use knee pads when pulling weeds and planting, said Irvine. Also, lift with your legs and keep your back straight.
Rake with one leg in front of the other — and switch the front leg once in a while.
And if that doesn’t prevent the pain?
“If you do get injured, try to see someone for treatment right away,” Irvine says. “If you wait, it takes us much longer to get you feeling 100 per cent.”


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