HANDY HINTS FOR AVOIDING ACHES & PAINS WITH DIY & GARDENING

I think it's safe to say that Spring has finally arrived....happy days :-) ....and with it the season for  DIY and gardening!!

Just yesterday, after our first glorious weekend of the year, I treated 3 people who had gained aches & pains from DIY or gardening over the weekend!  So here are 4 handy hints to avoid it....

1.  take regular breaks - I guess it makes sense to do this and we probably do it at work regularly but somehow with DIY and gardening, we often don't remember

2. remember to use your 'core' muscles as much as you can, activating your core helps to stabilize your body so your arms and legs don't feel like they're taking quite so much of the strain

3. vary what you're doing.  Repetition is the worst offender for cause of aches & pains with all sorts of things so try to break up your tasks into different activities and finally once the day's work is done

4. stretch!  Stretching at the end of a day's DIY or gardening seems furthest from our minds when it's more about reaching for sustenance like cake or beer!  But it's still really important.

I don't think any of yesterday's patients would have needed physio if they'd remembered these handy hints :-)