THE DO’S AND DON’TS OF GARDENING

With a number of people taking up activities they usually don’t have time to do, gardening has become a favourite past-time in this pandemic crisis.  That is fantastic! Fresh air, you are outside, and you are being active.  Just a few precautions you need to be aware of so that you don’t need to call us due to a sore joint, muscle or ligament that you have inadvertently damaged.

 1.   First of all, DO NOT stand with your knees straight and then bend from the waist to weed or plant flowers.  This will/could strain your low back muscles and possibly the hamstrings, which are the group of muscles that run down the back of your legs.  If you want to stand to garden and weed, please at least bend your knees to take the pressure off the low back and hamstrings

            THE WRONG WAY                                      THE RIGHT WAY

2.   Secondly, DO NOT kneel down on your knees and sit back onto your heels or close to them.  This is actually closing the knee joint and puts a lot of pressure on the joint and all the muscles that surround the knee.  If you feel you need to kneel down, then kneel down on one knee and have the other knee bent at 90 degrees so that you can take the load off your knee and save your back at the same time.

THE WRONG WAY                                                                             THE RIGHT WAY

3.   Thirdly, try and use a small stool to sit on so that you can relax the back, take the stress off your knees and not strain the muscles of legs.

So enjoy the fantastic weather we are having and get out into your garden.

Marc Rizzardo

Sports Physiotherapist