Nurture Yourself While Gardening
Nurture Yourself While Gardening
This past year has led me to reflect on how much my daily habits affect and enrich my life. My veggie garden has definitely been a practice I’ve enjoyed cultivating. When I planted my first plot I never realized how enriching this hobby would become. Practical knowledge, patience, community and sharing the results, have also been the fruit I've harvested with my time in the yard. My first season I planted everything, eager to put things in the ground and watch them grow. From beets, carrots, cauliflower and more, I had the whole produce section of a grocery store in my six by ten plot. That year I learned a lot about bugs and spacing. Many things didn’t work out and some have become staples like beets and squash. Every year there were new challenges. For instance, we had to declare war on the rats that were stealing our tomatoes, that was a lesson in pest control. One of our arches collapsed under heavy snow, that was a lesson on structural integrity.
After one year of planting many potato seeds, at harvest we only cultivated one very massive potato, nothing else. Maybe a genetics lesson...not too sure about that one. This year I’ve reflected on my time in the garden. Being my eighth season now, I am quick to make parallels on planting with how I navigate other healthy practices in my life. I’m invested and only want my garden to be healthy and thrive. I need to be consistent and spend a little time nurturing, weeding and taking care of that ecosystem. I’m also learning on the fly, absorbing any information at that time to help me benefit next year's yield.
To avoid garden related injuries, we have to maintain our own “ecosystem” with care, patience and consistency. Back aches, sore knees and wrists and tender sunburns are a few gardening injuries that come through my treatment room. The best advice I can give is to move and change positions often. Weeding for over twenty minutes in the same stance can quickly lead to aches and pains. Being aware of your posture and keeping a fairly straight back while also using your stomach muscles will prolong the time in your plot. If you have many projects to tackle, consider warming up with some gardening friendly exercises. Any functional exercises that mimic movements in the garden will help in the long run. Here are a list of a few that will help with all that hard work: Planks: Start with a modified version of the plank, progress when you can. Core strength is important, and doing planks is one of the most efficient ways to work on core strength.
Squats: From chair squats to more advanced, these will strengthen your legs and core, enabling for more productive weed pulling sessions. Lunges: Beginners should start with stationary lunges and work toward forward-stepping and walking lunges. Great for adding strength and flexibility through the hips.
Deadlifts: Deadlifts are great for strengthening the muscles such as hamstrings, glutes, lower back, and upper back. Not only do these help offset bad posture from sitting, but also help with movements like bending over to pull a weed or to lift a heavy bag of soil.
Push-Ups: From knee push ups to more advanced, we all need upper body strength for pushing wheelbarrows or lawnmowers.
Farmer’s Walk: You get the benefit of cardio and strength training with farmer’s walks. As you advance and build core strength, you can try doing these with only one arm loaded to help with balance.
Woodchoppers: Rotational movements are often overlooked during exercise, but they are so important. Training your body with rotational exercises will help prevent injuries like pulling your lower back muscles. We should prepare our bodies for these movements.
Rows/Bilateral or Single: Great for strengthening the upper back muscle, rows help offset rounded shoulders and other posture issues that come from excess forward movement. Staying hydrated and protected from the sun are equally as important and will stave off unnecessary exhaustion.
Gardening is a good form of physical activity itself but taking these tips into account and being proactive about increasing your strength and endurance will only add to the experience. Our knowledgeable kinesiologists at both our Station Square and Brentwood locations would be happy to guide you through these exercises in more detail, tailored to your abilities.
Please visit physiocollective.ca, or call 604-336-9100 (PC Brentwood) or 604-423-6055, to book a session today!
