Your back and your garden.

Just a few hints and tips i picked up about gardening if you have a bad back i hope might be useful. 

• If you love your garden as much as I do and you have backache, pinched sciatic nerve symptoms or one of the many back pain issues you may be wondering if you can ever garden again. Gardening can be hard on the back and I thought I would have to give it up forever. However I discovered that is not necessarily the case…

• Gardening is a very physical activity but there are lots of things you can do to make it easier. Even if you really cannot do the physical work you can still take a very active part in your garden. Also gardening is a great motivator, and wonderful back care inspiration. If you want to do your garden and you are dealing with or recovering from, back aches and pains you are much more likely to keep up with any back care stretches and exercises and be diligent about looking after your back.

• First do check with your healthcare professional to make sure it is safe for you to do gardening activities and if there is anything you should absolutely avoid doing.

• Then look at your garden with a critical eye from your “bad backs” perspective and if necessary consider a redesign. This is something many gardeners do anyway once in a while. If you have persistent backache, back pain or disc problems you just need to take a few more things into account. You know your back like no one else does. Evaluate what jobs you find difficult and which are fine for you. Listen to your body and let that be your guide.

• Consider a low maintenance garden. Plant so that there are no bare patches of earth where the weeds can grow. Less weeding equals less bending and less backache. Go for low maintenance plants and shrubs. Concentrate plants needing more attention in one area and consider a raised bed for them so less stooping for your back. Place the area nearer to your house or your garden shed. Your tools will be closer to hand that way.

• Scented plants are fantastic in raised beds for everyone to enjoy. You can even grow great vegetables in large raised beds and have more control over the environment and soil. Raised beds at waist height mean less work for your back. If you have a small lawn, consider gravelling it or using chamomile or other lawn plants.

For a great back care routine do check out Lose the Back Pain

More hints and tips next time until then take it easy and happy gardening :}

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Lose The Back Pain System
Lose the Back Pain, is a system of self assessments to determine what physical imbalances you may have that may be causing your pain, then specific and targeted exercises to follow to address the imbalances, along with pain reduction strategies. 

For useful information and suggestions there is a Free Back Pain Book Written by the Healthy back Institute-

7 Day Back Pain Cure
This free book (there is a small shipping/handling fee for physical book) will give you a good starting point for taking back control of your back pain covering reasons for pain, pain relief, possible treatments, action plans and many other things you will find useful. Follow Jasmine Ann Raintree's board Back And Sciatic Pain Strategies. on Pinterest.