The correct posture is important
Whether when clearing weeds or cutting hedges; many tasks in the garden require you to bend over. This is precisely when clothing rides up, frequently leaving your lower back exposed, and the muscles underneath it are cooled by draughts. If you now make a careless movement, the risk of lumbago can be very high. For this reason, it is important to pay particular attention to your own posture during gardening work. This means that you should keep your back as straight as possible, and should not be bent over for a longer duration of time. For example, when working on a flower bed, do not bend forward, but sit on your heels in order to guarantee that your upper torso retains its straight posture with a stretched spine. The same applies when transporting heavy objects, such as when lifting watering cans: bend your knees slightly, take the can handles and pick up the watering cans using the musculature in your legs. Your back should stay straight. In order to make watering your garden even less of a strain on your back, an irrigation system can of course be used in order to avoid dragging watering cans around at all.
The right tool for the job
The best way of counteracting an incorrect working posture is to have tools which are adjusted to your own height. In addition, the length of the handle should be adapted to the gardening work being executed. Because, for example, hoeing work is carried out close to the body, you will need a shorter handle. When brushing, on the other hand, the handle should be longer. Please also observe the shape of the tools. An ergonomically-shaped handle ensures that the back suffers as little strain as possible. Using the different attachments in the GARDENA combisystem, numerous garden tasks can be conducted with an upright, back-friendly posture. When gardening, most activities must be carried out close to the ground, but a bent body posture can be avoided using special tools. Above all weeding can quickly become the cause of back pain. People also often feel their backs starting to complain when cutting the edges of lawns. The long handle on the GARDENA Comfort Grass Shears provides the remedy – permitting an upright and back-friendly body posture.
Back pain is frequently the consequence of monotonous work. For this reason, the constant execution of the same movement must be interrupted by other activities in order to vary the sequence of movements. Often regular changes in body posture can prevent back pain during gardening work. Should back pain occur in spite of your precautions, you must give it time to recover. Take a break by sitting on your garden bench or deckchair, after which you can then get going on your gardening work more effectively and with less pain than before.
Using auxiliary equipment
Heavy flower planters, hedge plants with large root bales or many other such objects in a garden present a particular challenge for our backs. When bearing heavy loads, our backs are compressed, meaning that the spine and the intervertebral discs are pressed together. This is to be avoided as much as possible. It is best to use auxiliary equipment with rollers.