Press pause from digging into yard work
A stretch to weed out aches and pains
A few weeks ago we were shoveling snow. Now we’re digging dirt. Different piles; same back.
Spring inspires a great deal of lyrical language, mostly focused on blossoms and birdsong. All true. It is also, for many, the season of bending, squatting, twisting, hauling, pulling, and reaching as spring gardening introduces the body to a surprising variety of angles.
Spring, it turns out, isn’t just picturesque. It’s also biomechanical. The seasons change; the lower back keeps the minutes.
Even if you’re not the gardening type, spring still has plans for your lower back. The weather improves and suddenly you’re running, cycling, hiking, and moving outdoors with a kind of seasonal enthusiasm the body may not have fully budgeted for. After months spent subtly hunching against the cold, the spine is asked to stand tall again. And sometimes the world has simply been … a lot.
In any case, here’s a stretch that tends to smooth out the lower back, hips, glutes, and hamstrings. I like to do it while standing before I start to garden, again whenever I need a small intermission, and then repeat it while on my back at the end of the day.1
Single Knee Hugs
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Engage your core, shift your weight into your left foot, draw your right knee up towards your chest, and hug it in as close to your body as you can for five to ten breaths. Release and repeat on the other side.
Bonus: Add in a foot circle to release the ankle. Or, if you’re taking the on-your-back version of the stretch, add in a twist by drawing your bent knee across your straight leg.
Grow forth,
Kelly
🌱ICYMI: Last spring I had a delightfully plant-nerdy chat with holistic landscape designer Stacey Vaeth. We dug into all sorts of plant things that make your yard (and you) a little happier. Stacey also writes a fantastic newsletter packed with timely, down-to-earth seasonal education—well worth a spot in your inbox.
There is a theory that at some point you are assigned a hobby—gardening, birding, knitting, bread baking. Gardening, in my case. The (many) Gen Z’ers in my life, however, have already locked in theirs—knitting, birding, and bread baking are all in full swing at Past Tense—with the focus of people who skipped directly to the “pleasantly eccentric retiree” phase of life.