HFL 11x17_Trim Away Pain with Ergonomic Gardening Tools

May is prime-time for gardening, with flowers blossoming and the weather making outside activities more enjoyable than ever. Gardening is a great way to get outside and take advantage of the fresh air, but it can also put a strain on your upper extremities. It is important to keep your hands, wrists, elbows, and shoulders safe while you garden, so you can continue to keep doing the spring activities you love while you can! Ergonomic gardening tools can be found online, and many can also be found at your local gardening supply stores. By using specially designed tools, you can avoid pain and greatly decrease your risk of injury while working on your garden.

Living Hands for

SPECIALTY EXPERTISE For Shoulders, Arms, and Hands

NEWSLETTER

TrimYour PainsAway with Ergonomic Gardening Tools

May is prime-time for gardening, with flowers blossoming and the weather making outside activities more enjoyable than ever. Gardening is a great way to get outside and take advantage of the fresh air, but it can also put a strain on your upper extremities. It is important to keep your hands, wrists, elbows, and shoulders safe while you garden, so you can continue to keep doing the spring activities you love while you can! Ergonomic gardening tools can be found online, and many can also be found at your local gardening supply stores. By using specially designed tools, you can avoid pain and greatly decrease your risk of injury while working on your garden. Continued Inside

www.handsforliving.com

Living Hands for

SPECIALTY EXPERTISE For Shoulders, Arms, and Hands

NEWSLETTER

TrimYour Pains Away with Ergonomic Gardening Tools

Which Ergonomic Gardening Tools Should I Consider? There are avarietyof ergonomic tools that can help protectyou from sustaining an injury while tending to your plants, flowers, and shrubbery. Some of the most beneficial tools 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 easilysnaked 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 toyour garden can result in pain fromhunched and overworkedmuscles. Container gardening, such as raised garden beds and trellises, can help fix this.With container gardening, the garden is brought toyou, eliminating theneedtoreachdowntoworkon it.Thiscangreatlyeliminate pain in the shoulders and arms, as the muscles will be much less stressed with raised containers.

(Continued inside)

www.handsforliving.com

Trim Your Pains Away with Ergonomic Gardening Tools

(Continuedfromoutside)

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 this Spring while working on your garden, contact Hands for Living as soon as possible. One of our Certified Hand Therapists (CHTs) 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 needed, custom orthotics can also be prescribed to help you comfortably continue doing the activities you love. If you are suffering from upper extremity pain, or you’d like to learn more about how ergonomic tools may benefit you, contact Hands for Living 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. To find out more about how we can help you care for your hands, call us at 425-368-7943 or visit us online at www.handsforliving.com.

Ergonomic Tools Image Courtesy: thegardenfather.com/garden-blog/f/more-garden- tool-shopping

www.handsforliving.com

Fun & Games SUDOKU

Healthy Recipe: Miracle Red Juice

The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once.

INGREDIENTS • 2 large beets • 4 long carrots • 2 apples • 6 celery stalks • 2 limes or STRENGTHENS • Immunity

lemons • 2 tsp flour • 2 inches of Ginger

• Kidneys • Pancreas • Digestive Tract

• Eyes • Liver • Spleen

INSTRUCTIONS Preparebeets,carrots,apples,celery, limes(or lemons)andgingerby chopping into smaller pieces before placing into a juicer. As the skin ofabeet ispackedwithantioxidantsandnutrients, it isrecommended to leave the skin on the beet. Beet skin and lemon peel (if using) havestrongflavors,soyoucouldalsopreparehalfwithskinandhalf peeled to adjust to the flavor, or simply peel all if preferred. Apples canbeanycolororvariety.Donotpeeltheginger,whichyouwilladd to taste as ginger can be spicy. After all ingredients are added to the juicer, blend until juiced and smooth. Drink juice as soon as possible to obtain all benefits of the antioxidants and nutrients. Miracle Red Juice can be absorbed more easily on an empty stomach. Drink one glass every other day or as needed.

www.handsforliving.com

Hand Exercise Helps With Weakness and Pain

Patient Spotlight

WRIST EXTENSION STRETCH

1.

2.

“The one thing I regret is not going in earlier.” “ I had a workplace injury: too much repetitive vibration for using a Sawzall and a concrete cutting saw. The friendly therapist JoAnn Keller recognized the problem and set about solving it with a series of hand therapy and exercises. The one thing I regret is not going in earlier.” - C. W.

www.simpleset.net

Rest your forearm on a surface for support so that your wrist hangs over the edge. Hold your palm and knuckles with your other hand and relax the tips of your fingers. Gently bend the wrist of the grasped hand upwards using your other hand.Your fingers can remain bent while doing so. Hold for 20 seconds and repeat 3 times.

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

handsforliving.com

Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online