The Olympics are over and it’s time to peel ourselves up off the sofa. Spring has sprung and amateur horticulturists across the land are itching to get back into their flower beds and rockeries after a long winter of inactivity.
Pruning, mowing and weeding can be as dangerous as competitive sports. After the relative hibernation of the winter months, forgetting that our bodies, like the gardens, need to be coaxed in gently and limbered up over a period of time, many gardeners overdo things and end up needing treatment for a host of injuries including gardeners’ back, weeder’s wrist and pruner’s neck. The most common garden-related injuries are lower back pain, sprains and strains to ligaments and joints. Throwing yourself into the hobby, without a warm up, is as dangerous as an All Black returning to competition without training.
Many people do not realise how far they have strained themselves until later, when the aches and pains set in and it is too late to do anything about them. So remember; before getting started, warm-up!