Gardening & Yardwork

How to dig, plant, mow, and maintain a garden without loading your spine — tool selection, posture, and work interval strategies.

Gardening is regularly recommended as a gentle, low-impact activity. This is only partially accurate. Gardening involves sustained low-level bending, asymmetric loading, repetitive flexion-rotation (weeding, raking), carrying moderate loads, and vibration from power tools. The research on gardening injuries consistently identifies it as a significant source of acute and cumulative back injuries, particularly in people over 40.

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