Ouch! It’s Gardening Season: Some Tips for Easing the Pain
April 30, 2008 by Liberty Kontranowski
Filed under Easy Health Tips, Pain, Your Body
Image details: Man working in yard served by picapp.com
‘Tis the season for firing up the lawnmower, breaking out the hedge trimmers and playing in the dirt. But any fool knows that a day in the yard can equal a day on the couch…in pain.
When the aches and pains of bending, walking, twisting, etc start working their unsavory magic on you, try these tips to ward off a back mishap.
* Grab the heating pad and hunker down. Johns Hopkins University reported that when patients with backaches wore heat wraps for 3 consecutive days, their pain levels decreased by 60%. What’s more, they remained low for weeks afterward.
* Lean on me…backwards. If you feel like you’ve scored yourself a stiff back, do not sit up straight to try to work out the kinks. Instead, say Scottish researchers, lean back at about 135 degrees with your legs uncrossed.
* Feel the pressure. Seeing a professional trained in acupressure and allowing them to do their thing can alleviate discomfort by a whopping 89%, says the British Medical Journal. While a tad more pricey than Tylenol, acupressure is a great choice for those interested in more natural healing.
So there you have it. Tips that’ll get you excited about working in the yard again. Well, maybe not excited, but at least a little less petrified of gardening’s repercussions than before!
Of course, if you’d like more information on treating various types of pain, be sure to visit the fabulous Marijke over at Help My Hurt. She’s a whiz when it comes to all things pain, for sure.
Great post. thanks for the plug – just as long as you don’t say that I *am* a pain!
Gardening is great exercise. I use it in place of my regular exercise routine this time of year.
oops.
I woke up SORE THIS MORNING from last nights garden venture—–missed this when it ran.
bad bad MizFit