50+ Lifestyles

April is National Gardening Month – Prepare Your Garden, Prepare your Knees

Many gardening tasks require knee strength and stability, whether kneeling, sitting, standing or walking. The best way to protect your knees from the stress and strain is to condition them with strengthening exercises and stretching.

The muscles that protect the knees are quadriceps (front of the thighs) and the hamstrings (back of the thighs). To ease strain on the knees, practice strengthening exercises regularly, and always stretch before starting any gardening activities. Your doctor or chiropractor can recommend specific exercises and stretches that are appropriate for you.

Squatting can put unnecessary strain on the knees if done incorrectly or for long periods of time. When squatting keep feet flat with weight evenly distributed. Squatting with the heels off of the ground can potentially damage knee ligaments. Preferred work positions would be to have one knee on the ground; working on hands and knees using a kneeling pad; or sitting in a chair or stool. If you use a chair or stool, place it close to the area where you are working and use long handled tools to avoid straining the upper body. If a kneeling pad is inconvenient to carry, use strap on knee-pads.

Raised beds can make gardening easier, reducing the need to stoop or bend down. The height if the bed can be adjusted to suit the gardeners needs. Raised beds with wide borders can provide a place to sit while gardening.