All this lovely weather has had us all rushing to work in our gardens. We’ve been weeding, planting, digging, raking, cutting down…the list goes on. Its been great to spend time outdoors and we do love our gardens, but many clients have turned up this week complaining of back ache!
The trouble with gardening is we spend hours bending forwards, our spines constantly in flexion, we rare repeatedly forward bending for long periods of time and then wonder why our back seems to seize in this position, or we get really achy in our lower backs.
My 3 top tips for avoiding low back pain:
1. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate – I know I’ve said this before when discussing staying healthy in the heat, but, most people don’t realise how important drinking more water is if you suffer from back ache! Your body needs water to function properly, all your organs need water to be effective, your discs in your spine need water to help maintain their flexibility, being even sightly dehydrated can and does affect your pain levels! Have that extra glass of water! Make a commitment to drinking 3 litres of water for the next two weeks, keeping properly hydrated is so simple and effective – give it a go, you’ll be surprised at what a difference it makes.
2. Eat Clean – this means cutting out all processed foods, gluten, sugar, caffine, alcohol and some dairy that can cause inflammation in the body. If thats too much for you to do, then at least cut out Wheat and Gluten, that means no bread, breakfast cereals, cake, pastries, biscuits, also check labels, lots of products may contain wheat flour. Inflammation causes pain so its important to rid your diet of these inflammation causing foods and fill your body with ‘clean’ foods that have a natural anti-inflammatory effect! Omega 3 is a great anti-inflammatory, its found naturally in oily fish like salmon and mackerel, and in seeds and nuts. Flaxseeds, chia seeds and walnuts are particularly high in Omega 3, add them to your salads, sprinkle on top of Greek full fat yoghurt, add them in a fruit smoothie. If you’re suffering a particularly bad attack of back pain, clean your diet up for two weeks and notice how quickly your pain levels will decrease.
3. Posture, if you spend all you time sitting or slumped then your back will start to complain. When we garden our backs are constantly flexed forward. One of the worst movements is forward flexion and rotation – think raking leaves, its not long before your back will complain. Your Buttock (Gluteal) muscles will weaken, your pelvis will tilt forward and this causes tightening in your low back and also compression of the joints in your spine. Taking regular breaks, extending your spine by bending backwards, lying on the floor and gently rotating your legs from side to side, moving from your hips all help. Remember to bend the knees, bend from the hips rather than bend the spine – keep your spine in a ‘neutral’ position and move your knees and hips instead. Be kind to your spine as Joseph Pilates said “a man is as young as his spinal column “