Gardening Fitness

With all this beautiful weather and having more time at home at the moment, you might be spending a lot more time in the garden.

Not only is gardening a good way to switch your focus at this time, it’s also a great form of exercise as it involves so many different activities. But it can be very demanding physically which can take it’s toll on parts of your body. And as we can all relate to, time often flies when you're tackling a job, so before you know it you can also end up spending a lot of time in one position. In this article, we’ll look at the main areas which can be affected and offer some tips and exercises to help keep you injury free.

Generally, the main area to address to ensure you keep injury free is the lower back. Gardening typically involves a lot of bending over and twisting placing pressure on the intervertebral joints and discs, so being aware of how long you’ve been in one position or doing one job is important. You can try setting a timer so that every 20 minutes or so you can do some stretches such as gently arching backwards or some gentle rotations.

Stand with your chin tucked in and place your hands on your buttocks. Bend your back backwards, arching your lower back and keep your chin chucked in (look forwards). Return to the starting position and repeat 5 times

Stand up with your arms crossed over your chest, then slightly flex the knees and push hips back. Rotate your shoulder and pelvis to one side in a synchronised fashion. The shoulders should not turn more than the shoulders and should always be aligned with the pelvis. Do 5 x in each direction

Being in the correct position and squatting or kneeling down where you can, will also reduce the load you place on your low back area.

Hedge trimming or overhead prunning, whilst also challenging for your back can also be tough for the shoulder joints and more specifically the rotator cuff tendons. Using a step ladder or an extension arm for the hedge trimmer to help keep your hands below shoulder height will really reduce the strain on these tendons. Doing some strengthening exercises, such as these below will also keep these tendons healthy and able to cope with the extra load better. 

Stand or sit and tuck your elbows in by your side, and bend it to 90 degrees. Hold the inside of your wrist with your other hand. Attempt to to turn your hand in towards your body, but resist any actual movement with your other hand. Hold 10 secs do 5 x daily

Tuck your elbow in by your side and bend it to 90 degrees. Hold the outside of your wrist with your other hand. Attempt to turn your hand out and away from your body but resist any actual movement with your other hand. Hold 10 secs do 5 x daily

Gardening can also be a great way to strengthen your legs and mobilise your hips and knees. But too much kneeling when weeding for example can cause inflammation of the structures at the front of the knee. This can be pretty sore so using a mat or knee pads to kneel on will really help protect them.

Gardening is such a satisfying activity and you can often be out for much longer than planned. One final tip is to try and have a few jobs on the go at the same time so you can spread the load.

Dare I say it but maybe a spot of rain will help our gardens, but in the meantime I hope this article will help keep you safe and help keep you gardening!