Injury prevention absolutely must be a consideration whenever somebody attempts to do yard work this fall. It’s easy to get into certain bad habits if you’re returning to chores around the yard for the umpteenth time in however many years. The truth, though, is that your body isn’t going to be used to the actions required of you to work around the yard. If you’re putting up Halloween decorations, getting leaves together, or even climbing onto the roof, you’re expecting more of your body than it’s used to giving, and this is how an injury can arise.
A new report focuses on those techniques one can put in place in order to prevent an injury from happening. It’s important to approach yard work as the workout that it is. When you think of it as a physical activity like any other, you improve your chances of staying healthy.
That means that stretching and warming up are going to be critical whether you’re mowing the lawn, picking up leaves, or erecting ghoulish skeletons in time for Halloween. Stretch those parts of your body you know you’re going to be using and develop a plan for the yard work itself. You would never go into a workout without having a regimen planned, and the same should go for fall yard work.
The other way you can protect yourself before you even get started is by having the right equipment for the job and by making sure that equipment is capable. If a rake is ratty to the point where it can barely even scrape leaves toward you, you might buy a new one. Otherwise, you’re going to be putting an excessive amount of strain on your back. The same goes for if any item is too long or too short. If you’re trimming a tree, for example, and you have to strain your back to the sky just to reach the branches, you may be better off investing in a new unit.
You can lessen your risk of an injury by switching up activities while you’re outside. If your plan involves raking, gutter cleaning, and tree trimming , switch between those four at regular intervals. Rake for a little bit, then clean the gutters, and then trim some branches, and come back to raking. Take a break between each. In this way, you limit your exposure to the types of injuries that can result from repetition. Take a couple days to do all the work rather than do it all at once.
Finally, lift with your legs and put limits on how much you actually lift at a given time. In this way, you can dramatically reduce the risk of an injury.
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