Trim Your Pains Away With ERGONOMIC GARDENING TOOLS
Which ergonomic gardening tools should I consider? There are a variety of ergonomic tools that can help protect you from sustaining an injury while tending to your plants, flowers, and shrubbery. Some of the most beneficial ones include: • Ergonomic digging tools. Digging can cause abnormal bending, twisting, and stretching of your wrists that could result in pain or injury. By using a curved-handle tool (such as a shovel, scooper, or cultivator) for digging purposes, you can avoid straining your wrists while scooping out soil or planting flowers. • Ergonomic pruning tools. Pruning can strain your arms and shoulders, due to the pressure and angle of the task. Ergonomic pruning tools can increase leverage and make cutting in general significantly easier. Companies such as Fiskars use patented PowerGear mechanisms to ease the strain of cutting and increase consumer usability. Because of this, they are also recognized by the “Arthritis Foundation’s Ease of Use Commendation.” • Ergonomic watering tools. Pulling a watering hose through the garden and coiling it back up afterward can cause aches and pains in the arms and hands, especially if someone is suffering from arthritis in their upper extremities. Ergonomic watering tools include lightweight garden hoses, soakers, and drip hoses, that can be easily snaked throughout the garden, thus easing strain on the arms. Hose chests with automatic rewinding features can also be purchased in order to avoid manual coiling with
achy or stiff hands. • Ergonomic container gardening. Reaching, bending, and stretching down to tend to your garden can result in pain from hunched and overworked muscles. Container gardening, such as raised garden beds and trellises, can help fix this. With container gardening, the garden is brought to you, eliminating the need to reach down to work on it. This can greatly eliminate pain in the shoulders and arms, as the muscles will be much less stressed with raised containers. What if I still feel pain? While ergonomic gardening tools are great for lowering the risk of pain and injury, sometimes they unfortunately do not always do the trick. If you still find yourself in pain while working on your garden, contact ReQuest Physical Therapy as soon as possible. One of our physical therapists will take a look at your upper extremities in order to determine the root of the pain. Afterward, an individualized treatment plan will be created for you in order to relieve your pain and improve your overall function. Treatments may include manual therapy, massage, or guided exercises to get the affected area(s) back to their normal range of motion. If you are suffering from upper extremity pain contact ReQuest Physical Therapy today! We’ll help you trim your pains away so you can get back to tending to your garden as much as you’d like.
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