Yard Work Without Hurting Your Back

Hey everyone, Dr. Lisa here from Essentials of Life Chiropractic.

Since we have a glorious short summer in here in Minnesota, I'm going to show you how you can do all your lovely yard work throughout these months without hurting your back.

Let's start with everyone's favorite, weeding. So we're going to come over here. So how not to weed is bending over, pulling or twisting all up in that back. The best way to do it is squatting. So you bend your knees and you can sort of bend from the hip. Now, if you have really bad hips, I understand. So get a pad, put your knees on it, and then again, don't bend from the back, bend from the hip forward, and then just weed from there.

So next, we're going to do some shoveling. Because who doesn't like shoveling some dirt and some rock, right? Now what not to do is a lot of twisting, one of the worst positions for your back. So you want to face where you're shoveling, go a little bit down that way. Use your hip. Again, you're using your legs. Use your arms to bring it up. Carry it over and face and do it that way. No twisting, okay? It's a good way to shovel. Same with those little pebbles and rocks.

So the last one we're going to do is I'm going to show you how to lift heavier objects. So instead of bending and twisting, that is not a good way to do it. What you're going to do, is get right on top of it. Squat down, use your muscles, and bring it up.

So I hope those all helped you. There are many more other gardening things to look at, but those are the most common here in Minnesota.

Hope you have a good one.

Be Well

Dr. Lisa