Top Tips to Avoid Autumn Gardening Injuries:
- Keep Warm. Muscle strains often occur through lack of initial warming up or sudden lifting/movement without prior priming of that muscle. Keep your muscles warm and walk and stretch to warm up prior to lifting, raking the lawn etc.
- Avoid Raking up Leaves if you have a Bad Back. Leaf raking, like hoovering and ironing, puts a shearing strain through the pelvis. If you already have any chronic back pain especially discal in origin then you must not rake up leaves! If you are pregnant then this activity is also likely to cause damage so please avoid.
- Avoid Pruning above Head Height. Using shears repetitively above one's head whilst looking up can cause neck and arm symptoms. It is quite possible to trap a nerve if this position is held too long.
- Avoid Lifting and Twisting. When moving bags of garden rubbish or clearing away pots then lift with your knees bent and then straighten. Do not twist and rotate the spine whilst flexed and lifting as this is the most likely position to cause injury.
We wish you all family fun putting the garden away for winter. In the unlikely event of injury, apply ice packs to the injured area immediately for 15mins per hour. If you are medically fit to take NSAIDS such as ibuprofen, naproxen then do so with food. Kingston & Teddington Osteopathy is open 6 days per week so if you need advice please call the landline on 02089776396.
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