Spring gardening

You know “that” day when it arrives. The sun has some warmth. You have nothing else planned for the day. Gardeners World has returned to your TV screen.

It starts with a simple intention - to potter in the garden. Coffee in hand you start in a small area and just want to clear a little bit of the bed. Before long, however, it’s lunchtime and now you’ve been on your hands and knees for a couple of hours but you’re making good progress.

By the end of the day, the garden is looking ready for springtime proper and you can pat yourself on your back. It’s then that you realise you can’t because your shoulders are aching so much you can barely lift your arm. The next day you roll out of bed and it takes a good few minutes before you can straighten up. You ask yourself cautiously - maybe I overdid it yesterday?

What now? The best thing you can do is to keep moving - not with another hard day in the garden - but just enough that you’re not sitting in the same place all day.

Rotate your shoulders backwards, and take a long out breath as you drop your shoulders away from your ears.

Roate your body to loosen up your back and roll your pelvis back and forwards if you are aching in the lower back.

Go for a short walk to get blood flowing around your body - taking waste products away and bringing nutrients to help heal your muscles.

For some deeper relief, book a massage appointment to help relieve any aches. Explain what you were doing in the garden for specific treatment to help refresh your body. You can also get advice on how not to reduce the risk of it happening again, and reassurance/timescales on feeling better.

You’ll finish a massage feeling relaxed and refreshed, and you can spend some time enjoying the benefits of your hard work in the garden

For advice on how to manage any injuries that you have developed, get in touch.