5 Tips to Avoid Low Back Pain During Spring Yard Work!

Who doesn’t love Spring? The days are getting a little bit longer, the temperature is getting a little bit warmer, and the birds are starting to chirp! All this beauty and then…the yard work begins. Over my nearly three decades as a physical therapist, one trend I have observed is the increase in the number of patients I treat with low back pain starting in the springtime. Now there can be a number of reasons for this, but spring yard work is at the top of the list. This week’s blog focuses all on prevention of low back pain during this beautiful time of the year. Whether we like it or not, if you are a homeowner, yard work is a reality. So here we go iMove PT community, 5 tips to avoid low back pain during spring yard work season!

Tip #1: Stay active during the winter months!

When the springtime comes and you start spreading your mulch and lugging around heavy planters, have you ever thought of yourself as an athlete? Well you are! An athlete just isn’t somebody we watch on TV who gets paid millions of dollars. Anybody that participates in a physical activity is an athlete. And like all athletes, they don’t just have a great season then hibernate on the couch the rest of the year. They have to train and practice throughout all seasons. Professional baseball players follow conditioning programs in the winter and then have Spring Training to warm their bodies to get ready for the season. What do you do as a professional yard worker to prepare your body for the spring season? My best advice is to have a fitness routine in the winter months to prime your body for the upcoming rigors of spring time yard work. By doing this you will keep your muscles, tendons, and ligaments all in good condition and able to withstand the physical demands placed on your body when bending, twisting, and lifting to work on your flower beds. Confused as to what your program should consist of? Reach out to iMove PT and we will create a medically based fitness program designed just for you!

Tip #2: Warm your body up before heading out to the yard!

On a cold winter’s day, you don’t just start your car and drive away. What do you do? Well….you start the car, let it warm up for a couple of minutes, and then take off. You let the engine warm-up before you ask it to perform such a complex task. I like to think our bodies are like high-end sophisticated and complex cars. So doesn’t it make sense before we place physical demands on our body to warm it up first? Of course it does. Now you don’t need to run 5 miles to warm it up. A simple walk around the block, walking up and down a flight of stairs a few times, or even marching in place for a minute or two can warm up your amazing engine…and prepare your body before the fun starts in your yard. The goal is to elevate your heart rate a little bit, warm the body, and lubricate your joints to prepare for what is coming ahead. Remember, you are an athlete, you are a warrior preparing to do battle with your yard. A warrior doesn’t go into battle without properly warming up.

Tip #3: Bend through those knees and hips!

I’m sure everybody has been told to bend through your knees and hips when you pick something up from the floor. But, my question to you iMove PT community is do you know why? Well I thought we would include a picture to give you a visual of the why. Look at the large muscles of the legs, the quadriceps and the gluteals. We want these big muscles to do the work as we lift the bag of mulch or even the tiny plant we will put in the ground. Now look at the tiny muscles close to the spine that give the spine stability. Yes, those tiny muscles along the spine are very important to exercise. However, when we are ready to lift we want those big warrior muscles doing most of the work. You might say “what if I have knee or hip pain and can’t bend the way I should”. Pain restricts mobility and physical function. This is when you need to reach out to the iMove PT experts to decrease your pain, improve your mobility and have an enjoyable spring in the yard.

Tip #4: Keep the mulch bag close to you!

Oh, those dreaded mulch bags. We know mulch is essential to keep the weeds out and to keep our yards looking pretty. But how in the heck can we possibly lift a 20 pound bag of mulch safely? We already discussed the bending of the knees and hips above. Well there is something else to add…keeping the bag of mulch very close to our body as we lift. If we try to lift the bag of mulch away from our body something very interesting starts to happen. This 20 pound mulch bag all of a sudden starts to get heavier and heavier. Before you know it, your low back is feeling 50-60 pounds of pressure placed on it. Avoid this potential risk of injury by just keeping the bag very close to your body as you lift and then move the bag of mulch. And as I have been telling patients for 30 years, the weight of the object you are going to lift does not matter. If you lift a five pound potted plant, but you lift it with the pot two feet away from your body, you are at a great risk of injury.

Tip #5: Know your limitations!

Let’s be real for a moment. Age affects all of us. Our bodies at age 60 simply don’t handle the same level of physical stress that they did when we were 20. Although this doesn’t involve yard work, let me digress for just a moment and tell you my own story. I am 51 years old and guess what, I am finding out that my engine can no longer do what it could when it was 20, especially without the proper conditioning. Recently, I made the assumption that my two dogs needed more exercise (and maybe me too!). I decided to do the right thing and start taking them on walks. However, I overlooked the fact that I hadn’t gone on a walk myself for a month or two. Mr. Physical Therapist takes his dogs out for a 30 minute walk on day one, and a 35 minute walk on day two. About two hours after the day two walk I noticed pain on the bottom of my right foot. You guessed it, I ignored my own physical limitations (lack of conditioning) and now I am dealing with the dreaded plantar fasciitis (trust me, a blog will be coming along soon about dealing with plantar fasciitis). Now back to spring yard work. If you know you have several hours of work to be done in order to make your yard look beautiful, what can you do to avoid being laid up for a week or more from over exerting yourself? Three thoughts come to mind, and all point back to knowing your physical limitations. First of all, don’t do it all  in one day. Spread it out over three or four days to allow your body to appropriately tolerate the new physical stress which can cause inflammation, and yes, pain! Spring lasts a long time so don’t feel like your yard will have a panic attack if the work is spread out over a week or more. Next, say you plan to work for two hours in your yard, don’t spend the entire two hours doing the same activity or in one position. Bending forward spreading mulch for two hours will surely give you low back pain. 15 minutes of spreading mulch followed by 15 minutes of walking around and dropping fertilizer and then 15 minutes of sitting in your lounge chair drinking your favorite beverage is a much safer approach! Finally, there is nothing wrong with having your kids do the work for you! Yes, of course you will get pushback. Not too many kids love yard work, not too many adults do either. But getting your kids to spread the mulch can save a lot of trauma to your own low back. If you don’t have kids or if the kids are too young to help, there are a million landscape companies that are willing to help. Yes, I know I know but that costs money! But spending money on the landscape company could potentially save you time and money with doctor and physical therapy visits later on. If you have any questions about how you can safely do your spring yard work please reach out to iMove PT at info@imovephysicaltherapy.com. A mission of iMove PT, a mission we live every day, is to make the world healthier, a world where fewer people are living with chronic pain and where all can have the yard of their dreams! Thank you for reading!