Good Posture is Bad for Your Back

I’ve been enjoying the hot weather lately (after such a cold, foggy summer!), and I was taking a walk last night down a peaceful country lane. I saw a garden at almost every house, and some of them were really abundant. I’m glad to see so many people growing their own food and contributing to a more sustainable world.

A lot of people are interested in sustainability these days, but is your posture sustainable? Another way of saying this is, “Do you have a sense of comfort and ease in your body when you’re going about your day, or do you struggle to have good posture and end up in pain?” If you’re not trying to have “good posture”, then are you just collapsing when you sit and stand?

This is so common today everywhere you look. A recent student told me that after taking the Balance Your Body course, she saw examples of unhealthy posture everywhere she looked. It’s our basic default posture in the U.S. But this can be changed at any age – it just takes some practice. Let’s look at posture in the garden, and I’ll give you some helpful tips from the Balance Posture Method as well as from Permaculture, so you can enjoy your time in your garden without sacrificing your back.

(I wrote about “Pain-Free Gardening” last year in August and September, and if you missed those articles, you can read them by going to the archive.)

Tips for Healthy Posture in the Garden

One thing we have learned from observing people in Balance (with natural, healthy posture) is that they use their feet to get to where they want to go. I described healthy bending in my August, 2009 article. One other aspect of healthy bending, in addition to bending from your hip joints, is to get close to the item you are bending toward.

If you want to pick something up, don’t try to grab it from 2 feet away. I’ve been known to do this in my “pre-Balance” days – to be in a hurry and think I don’t have the time to walk right up to the thing I want to pick up. People in Balance walk up to the object until they are usually standing right over it. If you do this, you’ll be in a much safer place to lift the object. Use your feet, not your back.

When you’re digging, again it’s important to bend at your hip crease, not your waist. If you’re shoveling dirt, don’t leave your feet facing one direction and then twist to dump the dirt into a wheelbarrow. Instead, like I mentioned above, use your feet! That way you won’t be twisting your spine, which is dangerous, especially with a load.

Use your abdominal muscles (we call this “bracing”) when you’re digging or pulling tough weeds out of the ground. This helps to protect your back by stabilizing your spine. I teach bracing in the Balance Your Body course. You need to first of all make sure your spine is fairly straight and elongated, then brace to stabilize your spine in that position. This gives you a lot of strength when lifting, carrying, digging, etc.

I’ve been asked numerous times about weeding, and how to work close to the ground. Some Balanced people squat to work low, especially in Asia. Others sit on a low support (in Portugal they may sit on a coffee can). Most of us in the U.S. will do better sitting on a low stool or chair than squatting, since squatting causes most people’s backs to round. You can also kneel to do some weeding, if your knees will allow it. Try a pad under your knees so they won’t be sore later. You’ll also need to make sure your back is straight & elongated in this position.

Tips from Permaculture

Finally, some of the things I learned from Permaculture (Regenerative Design Institute – www.regenerativedesign.org, Daily Acts – www.dailyacts.org) can be really helpful to make gardening more comfortable. Plan your garden for ease by putting things you need to tend to often in “zone 1”. This zone starts right at your front or back steps and extends out from about 0-25 feet. In other words, don’t put plants that you need to harvest daily at the far end of your garden. Make it easy on yourself.

Using perennial plants is another way to lighten your load. These plants don’t need to be replanted every year, thus saving you lots of work if they do well in your climate. You can reap the harvest from one planting for many years. Finally, consider where your water source is and put plants that need a lot of water close to it. Drought-tolerant plants can be placed farther away.

If you pay attention to your alignment while you’re in the garden, you’ll be more likely to keep gardening for many years in comfort. If you also plan your garden with some Permaculture principles in mind, you can save yourself extra work and time. Both the Balance Method of posture and Permaculture can help you to create a more sustainable life – for your garden, the environment, and your body.

© Dana K. Davis, 2010

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