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Lower back pain

JoeXJoeX Posts: 1,783
in Problem solving
Not a gardening injury, but I put my back out yesterday through a combination of holding my baby poorly for several hours and a 10 km run.

Anyway, as I’ve gotten into gardening I noticed how much pressure is on the lower back.

I lift properly, but it’s seems like everything involves stooping; scarifying, mowing, digging, planting, weeding, raking, dead heading, sweeping...pretty much everything.

Is that just the nature of the beast or are there techniques and tools that can promote good posture?

Cheers TP
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Posts

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    It seems like everything involves stooping.

    That's because it does.  Try icing it. I did my back in badly last year. I couldn't really move for a month. I'd lay out my bed with frozen hot water bottles and lay towels over them. Then lie / sleep on them. That, with anti-inflammatories managed to get me moving again. It took weeks, though. 

    I'd recommend giving your back as much of a rest as possible, esp if you have a baby. Don't risk messing your back up long term. It can be a life long bane. Just take time to enjoy the garden for a while.
  • JoeXJoeX Posts: 1,783
    Fire said:
    It seems like everything involves stooping.

    That's because it does.  
    Haha!

    Fair enough.   I’ve bought a trolley already to reduce the heavy work, may buy a kneeling thing and an electric scarifier.  I don’t suppose some kind of giant whisk for the compost is available?  Maybe I can repurpose the rotovator.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Is it part of your work?
  • JoeXJoeX Posts: 1,783
    pansyface said:
    A combination of holding my baby poorly for several hours and a 10 km run.
    My sympathies go to your baby. The poor thing must be quite frazzled.

    My OH had lower back pain for years. Tried painkillers, osteopaths, physiotherapists, etc etc.

    In the end, someone recommended Iyengar yoga classes.  It wasn’t a way to a quick fix but he has been pain free for thirty years.
    It’s only a rare thing for me, I’m just hoping to stave off long term problems by making my gardening as back friendly as I can while I’m fit.
  • Pauline 7Pauline 7 Posts: 2,246
    I do a lot of kneeling while I am gardening and I use a camping mat and the cushion from an old sofa. 
    West Yorkshire
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  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    I use a neoprene Kneelo to cushion my knees, much better I find than a cushion. I also use Voltarerol gel on my sacro-illeoac joints as soon as I come in from the garden if they hurt and have a monthly back massage (I had a crushed vertebrae  eleven years ago and find the massage keeps me mobile). 
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I think stooping is the killer. I realise I do it a lot and am trying to stop. The oldest, worst habits are the hardest to break.
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    I try to avoid stooping. I kneel to weed. I have arthritis of the lower spine and it has given me 2 bouts of sciatica in the last few months. When I was young I thought gardening was healthy, but now I don't think it's very good for backs. I can no longer push very heavy wheelbarrows or carry 50L bags of compost about.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • madpenguinmadpenguin Posts: 2,543
    I recently bought this garden kneeler/seat for gardening and have found it very useful.

    “Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
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