Injury Prevention While Performing Yardwork
The leaves have fallen, and the snow will be here soon. Your yard work may include raking leaves or shoveling snow, cleaning gutters, or hanging lights. Raking and shoveling can be a strenuous activity that you might have yet to do. As you prepare your yard and house for the change in weather, remember these tips to prevent injury.
Leaf Raking Injury Prevention Tips
As we tire of the hot and humid, days of summer, many of us look forward to the cool, crisp fall air. This time of year is beloved by many for so many reasons. Football, apple picking and going to the pumpkin patch are just a few! Even though most of us love to admire the scenery as the leaves change from green to various shades of yellow, red and orange, most would agree that raking them is one of the dreaded jobs of autumn. While raking leaves seems easy, the sheer volume of leaves can turn what seems to be a simple tasks into several weekends of work.
To help you combat some of the aches and pains that are often associated with fall yard work, here are a few tips to help you get those leaves out of your yard and if you still have any energy – maybe give you something to look forward to in the spring!
6 Stretches to Try Before Raking the Leaves
After a summer of hot weather and mowing lawns, we now look forward to the changing colors of the trees and the inevitable downfall of leaves. While this may invoke memories of children making piles of leaves to jump in and enjoy, for those of use with larger trees near our yards, it can mean something much different. Raking is a repetitive task that can cause real aggravation to some of the more vulnerable structures in our lower back and shoulders. Luckily, you can always limit your risk of injury or strain with a proper stretch and warm up before picking up the rake. Here are a few stretches to try:
