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.
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