Chiropractic Tip: Don’t Fall Into Unexpected Seasonal Injuries
Fall is an intoxicating time. It’s usually still warm and often the leaves are glorious. We all want to be out there and that can lead to some unexpected injuries.
The American Chiropractic Association cautions us to guard against upper or lower back strain, neck strain and shoulder pain.
Gardening and fall lawn cleanups often lure us into lots of new activities, that create a lot of twisting, turning, bending and reaching movements that we do not normally do. Before you jump right in take some safety precautions:
Safety Tips for Outdoor Lawn & Gardening
Wear supportive shoes. Good foot and arch support can prevent some back strain.
Stand as straight as possible, and keep your head up as you rake or mow.
When raking, use a “scissors” stance: right foot forward and left foot back for a few minutes, then reverse, putting your left foot forward and right foot back.
Bend at the knees, not the waist, as handle yard equipment or piles of leaves or grass. Make the piles small to reduce the strain.
Make sure any yard equipment that you use has a strap and that you use it. Place the strap over your head on the shoulder opposite the side of your body from the device. This will help normalize your center of gravity.
Be sure to switch the side on which you operate the equipment as often as possible, and to balance the muscles being used.
Try ergonomic tools. They're engineered to protect you when used properly.
If your mower has a pull cord, don't twist at the waist or yank the cord. Bend at the knees and pull in one smooth motion.
Take frequent breaks as you work. Muscle fatigue is common with most outdoor work.
If your equipment is loud, wear ear protection.
Be sure to include a warm-up/cool-down period that involves stretching to help avoid injury.
As the fall season goes on, see your chiropractor for more advice on staying active and staying safe.
Seeing Your Chiropractor
Chiropractors offer a patient-centered, whole-person, drug free approach to help keep you well and injury free.
They believe wellness and routine chiropractic care should be as basic to our lives as healthy diets and daily exercise.
They offer the purest form of chiropractic care, providing full spinal adjustments using the diversified technique to check for subluxations, which are misalignments of the spine. Subluxations are misalignments of one or more vertebrae in the spine and/or joints. When the misalignment is corrected it may have far reaching effects on back, neck and sciatica pain.
As a wellness clinic the chiropractic focus is on daily stresses, aches and pain without use of medications or surgery.
If this direct focus on chiropractic wellness sounds just as great to you as it does to majority of the people in the U.S., make an appointment and find out more.
Used under Creative Commons Licensing courtesy of Kate Fries