To celebrate National Gardening Exercise Day, taking place on June 6th 2016, Bakker.com has put together eight top tips for gardeners to help prevent gardening injuries when working outdoors. National Gardening Exercise Day celebrates the positive effects gardening can on your body, so stay safe with these eight tips.
By following these eight tips, Bakker.com hopes to help avoid those inevitable gardening injuries which many of us have encountered:
- Do a quick warm up – Always begin with a warm up. Take a brisk walk to get your heart pumping and blood flowing
- Impose a 10 minute limit – Don’t perform any job for more than 10 minutes. Alternate the hand or arm you’re using wherever possible
- Listen to your body – Pay attention to what your body is telling you, slow down or take a break if you notice pain or breathlessness
- Lift with your knees – Straighten your back, look ahead and lift using the power of your knees and legs. Never use your back!
- Kneel on foam pads – Use a foam-padded kneeler to prevent knee pain and backache when planting, weeding or tending to low growing plants
- Use long handled tools – Use long handled tools if you can, as this will reduce the amount you need to bend, reach or stretch
- Do back exercises – Perform back exercises before and after gardening to mobilise and strengthen your spine
- Don’t work after eating – Never start gardening immediately after eating: blood will be directed towards the digestive system rather than essential muscle groups
Adrian Nind, Managing Director at Bakker.com, commented: “At Bakker.com, we wholeheartedly believe that gardening has significant physical health benefits. Our research last year showed the mental health benefits alone to be astounding – and we all know that the variety of activities and tasks which we all complete in our gardens can really tire us out! These eight tips are designed to help prevent gardening injuries – and we hope they’ll be useful on National Gardening Exercise Day.”
To find out more about the ways gardening is good for you, click here.
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