Gardening is a much-enjoyed outdoor activity that many look forward to in the spring. The wonderful thing about gardening is that it can be a great form of physical activity and relaxing at the same time. Staying active has more benefits that you can imagine. Conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and osteoporosis can be managed or prevented by keeping consistent with some level of physical activity.
Here are some gardening health and safety tips to keep in mind:
Dress appropriately: When gardening, few key considerations are wearing the right gear. It’s important to follow the labels on any products you may come across. So be prepared with goggles, gloves, sturdy shoes, sun screen, long sleeved shirts and full length pants. You should be aware of the environment and tools you are using to avoid injuries, cuts, scratches, or infections. The Suns UV rays can be harmful when skin is left unprotected for long periods of time.
Heat awareness: A common problem is not realizing that prolonged exposure to heat can result in exhaustion and fatigue compromising your health and wellbeing. Therefore, it is important to be mindful of your activity level, hydration, and heart rate while you are working outdoors.
Warm up: Like any other good exercise program, gardening too requires a warm up and cool down period. This may look like starting with light activity such as racking or sweeping to get the full body moving. A few stretches for the back, legs and arms can also help gets muscles limbered up.
Biomechanics/ergonomics: As gardens vary in size, location and type of work it is important to modify your tasks to best suit your physical capacities. Using some tools like knee pads, step stools, and sharp long handled tools can reduce strains and prevent injury. Few key reminders are keeping any load close to your body, back straight and maintain a wide base of support for better balance.
Pace yourself: Surprisingly it doesn’t take much to get carried away when you are enjoying what you do. Often in the “heat of the moment”, we often forget to take little stretch breaks or stay hydrated. These can be quite detrimental and result in injuries.
What Can I do?
It may be a good idea to review some stretches or exercises with a health professional to ensure that you are well on your way.
Pay close attention to your movement patterns and techniques to avoid undue stress on your body.
Ensure that you are well dressed and prepared for the activities planned
Listen to your body and take any ongoing limitations or medical conditions into consideration
Stay safe and enjoy your gardening!
Sumen Singla-Goyal is a registered physical therapist and osteopathic manual therapist. She has been actively serving the Lower Mainland for over 10 years. She is very passionate about her work and wants to empower her patients and community with tools for healthy living.
