Prevent Back Pain During Yard Work Season

Can you guess the time of year when I have the most people cancelling classes due to injuries? It’s the same time of year when I have the most people coming to the studio with unusual back pain. You guessed it – it’s when the weather warms up and yard work season begins. Rather than hurt yourself, try the following tips to prevent back pain and overuse injuries yard work can cause. 

Spring Aches & Pains

Finally, after a long winter spent mostly indoors, the sun is out! You can finally tidy up the yard and start those projects you’ve been dreaming of. I take pride in having a pretty garden and enjoy spending time in my outdoor space with family and friends, so I definitely get it. Unfortunately, all that pressure washing, gardening, trimming, and other outdoor projects after a lazy winter can easily add up to injury. 

Even if you’re an active person, spending a whole weekend doing physical work will take its toll. These projects are real workouts! Shovelling bark mulch and hauling a wheelbarrow is hard work. You’re moving heavy loads, and doing repetitive work, usually favouring one side of the body. 

Weeding and planting can mean a lot of squatting or kneeling on the ground for long periods, maybe leaning and reaching in ways you don’t normally move. If you’re anything like me, you mean to take breaks or get cleaned up… but then you bend over to pull just one more weed (about 25 more times!).

Pressure washing, window-cleaning and tree pruning are other common spring activities that can lead to sore shoulders, back, and neck. Since ignoring these tasks isn’t an option (well, it isn’t for me), the best thing to do is prevent back pain and other yard work related injuries in the first place. 

How to Prevent Back Pain & Still Get The Yard Work Done

The best things you can do to prevent back pain and still enjoy working in the yard is to give yourself a break and prepare yourself physically. Taking breaks is hard for me, but it’s better to spread the most intense work over a few days. Rather than mulching all the gardens in one day, why not do half today and half a few days later? You can do less intense tasks like sorting seeds or shopping for bedding plants with the leftover time. 

Working out in your yard for a full day is a huge workout to jump into after a long winter break. Strength training and mobility activities can help you prepare yourself for the season and prevent back pain that’s so often associated with it. Since Pilates is my main focus, let’s look at how certain exercises can support your body for all those projects you’ve planned for Spring. 

Stronger Upper Back & Posture

Lots of exercises in Pilates strengthen your upper back, which will help with your posture, which in turn is going to help you fatigue less quickly when it comes to doing things like shovelling, raking, or reaching up over your head. Some exercises like these are: 

• The hundred
• Single leg stretch
• Pulling straps and T on the long box
• Shaving on the reformer
• Chest expansion on the tower

Shoulder Mobility and Chest Opening

Shoulder mobility and opening of the chest will also help with reaching movements, like stretching up to pressure wash your gutters. Try these exercises:

• Chest openers on the spine corrector
• Reverse push-through on the tower or cadillac
• Rowing on the reformer
• Double leg kick on the mat

Lower Body Strength & Mobility

Gardening especially has you doing a lot of squatting and getting down to and up from the ground. This is where leg strength and knee and hip mobility are helpful.  Just getting down to your mat is a good way to help with this. The following exercises will help, too: 

• Footwork on the reformer
• Single and double leg stretch
• Rolling like a ball
• Monkey on the tower
• Stomach massage on the reformer

Core Strength

Good core strength is essential to prevent back pain, but it will also help you to use your full body during yard work, rather than just your shoulders, arms, etc. Pilates works your whole core during a session, not just your abs. 

One Last Tip

Finally, don’t forget to stretch! During your breaks, take a few minutes to do some mat work to stretch things out. My personal favourites are: 

• Standing rolldowns
• Spine stretch
• Rolling like a ball (if the ground isn’t too hard)
• Saw 
• Mermaid or side bends

Yes, You Can Prevent Back Pain

Taking breaks and building strength and mobility will definitely help you prevent back pain from working too hard in the upcoming nice weather. So listen to your body and be kind to it! Start by practicing the exercises above to keep moving well all season long.