How to Eliminate Back Pain Related to Yard Work

Back Pain Oct20th 2024

Have you been dealing with back pain since working in your yard? Do you worry your back will interfere with your ability to care for your yard the way you want? At Comber Physical Therapy in Williamsburg, our chiropractors will identify the root cause of your pain and give you the tools to resolve it and prevent it from returning!

Too often, people with back pain misinterpret the signals their body sends and try to do too much or avoid all activity and do too little. The key is restoring mobility and function, whether the condition is acute or chronic. Until you restore normal function, tissue healing will not occur, and the problem will persist.

Fortunately, at Comber Physical Therapy, we know how to strike the right balance and can help you resolve your pain and restore your function so you can get back to doing what you love!

Request an appointment with one of our Williamsburg chiropractors today, and let us help you get back to taking care of the yard the way you want!

Common reasons for back pain related to gardening

After being cooped up indoors through the long winter months, most homeowners can’t help but start planning and preparing for a thriving, clean-cut yard this spring. Unfortunately, a sedentary lifestyle through the fall and winter months leads to a higher risk of pain and/or injury when the gardening season starts.

Too often, the prevailing advice gardeners hear is how important it is to avoid specific tasks due to risks for lower back pain. Although this advice may seem to make sense and appropriate in certain circumstances, the research is clear, avoiding movements is not as effective as being prepared by staying active and maintaining or improving strength.

Proper yard care requires repetitive movements and prolonged positions and may include heavy lifting. These activities have been associated with back pain, but avoiding them is not as effective as addressing them directly.

When working on your lawn, few injuries are as common as strained or pulled muscles. Strained muscles affect people of all ages, fitness levels, and physical abilities. The repetitive nature of the tasks needed in yard work sets you up for strains. Most of these types of problems resolve with time and by avoiding further aggravating them.

In some cases, what at first seems to be a muscle strain, turns out to be something more serious. Bending and twisting movements are particularly dangerous to the spinal joints, can cause irritation, and may even injure the spine. For some people, repetitive movements or prolonged positions lead to a change in the joint function itself.

The source of back pain is often due to subluxation (misalignment) of a joint. Typically pain in the lower back comes from injury or irritation of the joints (including the intervertebral discs and facet joints). Often the first symptom is a tightness or pain in the muscle, but the root of the problem is the joint itself.

The contributing factors that are most often associated with back pain include:

  • Improper posture or prolonged positions (i.e., prolonged sitting or bending)
  • Repetitive movements, especially bending and twisting 
  • Spinal/pelvic muscle weaknesses (aka “core” weakness)
  • Poor abdominal, pelvic and back muscle coordination (i.e., compensations due to injury)

Ignoring the pain and/or pushing through pain can leave you even more likely to further pain and injury. A proactive approach can reduce the risks and improve your overall health so your body can handle the stressors that can negatively impact your spine.

At Comber Physical Therapy in Williamsburg, our chiropractors can help by restoring joint mobility with spinal manipulations and corrective exercise programs to ensure your body is adequately prepared. It can handle the movements and positions gardening demands.

How chiropractic care can help your back pain

Too often, people wait until their pain is severe or don’t exercise regularly throughout the year, which leads to more complications and possible injuries. Our team will thoroughly evaluate the injury’s severity and identify any other weaknesses or limitations that may affect your function and recovery ability.

We will use this information to develop a comprehensive program that includes targeted spinal manipulations and other manual techniques deemed appropriate. We will also incorporate corrective exercises focusing on posture, body mechanics, and strengthening to help ensure you can adequately perform the required tasks and avoid any future injuries.

Taking care of your yard requires your joints to function correctly, so you will have the ability to bend, lift, kneel, and squat properly. At Comber Physical Therapy, our chiropractors recommend addressing your limitations head-on. We will assess your whole body and restore motion to any joint with restrictions. We will take a proactive approach to ensure you are functioning at your best.

Request an appointment at Comber Physical Therapy today!

If you are dealing with an old injury or are worried about creating a new one, contact Comber Physical Therapy in Williamsburg today and let our chiropractors get you in tip-top shape. We will get to the root of your problems, help identify areas of concern, and address them head-on!

Request an appointment with one of our specialists, and let us help you prepare your body for a pain-free gardening season!

Sources:

Tags: , , , ,