Pain-Free Gardening

The history of gardening can be traced back to ancient times. Initially, gardens were built as a place where Kings can relax and release some stress. No, our own garden at home is not as splendid and glorious as the garden of Eden or the Hanging Garden of Babylon, but it definitely is one place I go to when I need to get rid of the noise from the outside world and just quiet my mind. Unfortunately, unlike kings of old, I do not have any servants I can command to tend our garden, so at the end of the day, it would be still me who would do the dirty work of pulling out the weeds, watering the plants, and dealing with the earthworms. Don't get me wrong, though, because I love gardening. The only problem is that while it should be a fun and stress-free activity, it usually ends up with me going to sleep at night and waking up the next day with pain in several different parts of my body. As you see, gardening is a form of workout and we should start seeing it as that. Many people injure themselves while working in their gardens simply because they don't realize this fact. So, to enjoy pain-free gardening, here are some cool advice for you.

Gardening can be a very strenuous activity, especially if you are going to work on a very large area. But despite the size of your garden at home, warming up before getting down and dirty is crucial in preventing any kind of muscle injury. A 10-15 minute walk followed by a some stretching should be enough to do the trick. Since you're going to use your shoulder muscles mostly, warm up by rolling your shoulders in a circular motion. Work on your neck muscles as well by moving your head from side to side a few times.

One of the most common injuries people get from gardening are cramps, whether in the back or the legs. To avoid overusing a particular muscle group and getting cramps, never stay in one position for more than ten minutes.

Aside from leg cramps, another common injury people get from gardening are back strains. To avoid hurting your back, make it a habit of bending your knees and contracting your ab muscles whenever you need to grab or pick up something form the ground like pulling a weed or picking up a tool.

It's very common for people to kneel on both knees when working in the garden. This may seem to be a harmless posture, but most of the back pain people get from gardening is actually caused by kneeling on both knees. A good posture would be to kneel on one knee and keeping the other foot flat on the ground, as if you're proposing to your girlfriend.

The picture at the right seems to be a good way to describe this last tip, but that's not what I mean by 'cooling down'. What I mean by cooling down is ending your gardening session with a short exercise such as doing some light stretching and taking a short walk. You can then take a warm bath afterwards to prevent experiencing muscle soreness the following day.