Everyone loves a beautifully maintained yard, but most people don’t love the maintenance part of the beautiful yard. Yard maintenance, especially in an Arizona summer, can be grueling work and people with back pain need to take special precautions. Use these tips to help address yard work and back pain:
- Use the right tool – Using the right tool for whatever you are doing in the yard increases efficiency and decreases stress on the body, especially the back.
- Loosen up – Before you start doing heavy yard work, warm-up doing some of the lighter tasks to activate the muscles without putting a lot of load on them
- Hydrate – Summertime is hot, make sure you are well hydrated before you start and take plenty of fluid breaks. Dehydration can cause cramping, which can lead to muscle spasms and strain/sprain injuries.
- Mix up yard tasks – If you have work that requires you to be bent over, mix it up with work that requires you to work over you head. This uses different muscle groups and allows for muscle recovery.
- Take breaks – Working all day on the yard with no breaks is dangerous. Take frequent breaks to rehydrate, rest, and recover.
If you are currently dealing with back pain, you may want to outsource the labor so you don’t aggravate your back condition.