It’s estimated that 120 million American homeowners gardened in 2020 with 50 percent hitting the soil for the first time in the past 12 months. While gardening is a relaxing hobby, a great workout, and a way to learn to grow your food, it’s also one of the top causes of back pain in people over 40.
Gardening can be strenuous with its bending, lifting, twisting, and squatting. These motions can lead to awkward positions that can strain the muscles in the lower back. Prolonged use of gardening tools, like shovels, rakes, hoes, and gardening shears, can lead to your lower back becoming physically exerted. Lugging heavy bags—10- to 50-pound bags—of mulch, topsoil, or moss; each with unstable and shifting weight can also pull or strain back muscles.
Whether your back pain began before you took up gardening or because of it, you can start taking better care of your back while you garden by following these tips:
Much like any other exercise, warm your body up before gardening for extended periods. Aim to work your back, knees, arms, shoulders, and neck to help prevent soreness after gardening. Do each stretch below for at least 10 repetitions.
Sometimes, no matter what you do, you still get lower back pain after gardening. You can always rest for a few days afterward and use trusted over-the-counter products to ease any minor pain—hot and cold packs, topical cream or spray, and ibuprofen.
If pain persists or worsens, seek medical help to have your pain diagnosed by a specialist.
Gardening is a fun hobby to pursue and better when done safely and pain free.
