The teacher mentioned in the article, Glenn Black, attracted clients with yoga injuries to his bodywork and yoga classes.  He didn’t teach any inversions (such as headstand or shoulderstand), because he felt they were dangerous.  Black says that “…the vast majority of people should give up yoga altogether.  It’s simply too likely to cause harm.”  He feels that it’s better to focus on exercises that increase range-of-motion and strengthen weak parts of the body.

What Causes These Injuries?

People come to yoga with their own physical limitations, and in Western culture, we often sit all day and then push ourselves in a strenuous workout or yoga class.  The article mentions that in India, many people do different postures throughout their day, such as squatting, which can better prepare them for yoga asanas.

There were no mentions of injuries from yoga in the early books written on yoga in the 20^th century, including “Light on Yoga” by B.K.S. Iyengar.  Since then yoga has become incredibly popular, with a 5-fold increase in yoga practitioners between 2001-2011.  There are lots of yoga studios, and not all teachers may have had sufficient training to prevent injuries.

The article also mentions ego-driven teachers who push their students to do more, more, more, which tends to encourage students to push more, and possibly go too far.  This is also common in American culture in general, where the urge to compete can be really strong, and can lead people to disregard their own inner guidance and better judgment.

In some yoga poses the head is dropped back, which can be risky.  An Oxford neurophysiologist named W. Ritchie Russell found that there was a rare danger of strokes from “excessive extensions of the neck, such as occur in whiplash.”  Taking the head and neck into extreme positions “could wound the vertebral arteries, producing clots, swelling and constriction.”

That’s a scary thought!  And yoga was supposed to be so good for you!  There has been a belief that yoga only has benefits to practitioners, and no dangers.  I myself have been injured in yoga classes.

In one teacher training I was in back in 1991 we were to sit for about 45 minutes in Virasana (a pose where your knees are bent, the pelvis is seated on the floor and the feet are on either side of the pelvis) while listening to lectures.  My legs would fall asleep repeatedly, and it was hard to get up afterwards.  The article mentions a student who did a similar pose for hours daily and developed nerve problems in his legs that made walking difficult.

I also hurt my back doing a deep backbend in another yoga class, and had 2 other injuries, all of which happened when I was being assisted by the teacher or other students in the class to go deeper into the pose.  When I was younger, I loved to attend advanced yoga classes, and I would do anything the teacher proposed.  You can get away with a lot when you’re in your 20’s that may not work so well a few decades later!

Making Yoga Safer

After I met Jean Couch in 1994, I changed my yoga practice completely.  Since Jean had studied with Noelle Perez-Christiaens from Paris, she had given up practicing and teaching advanced yoga poses.  Noelle is the author of many books (most are in French), including, “Attention! Le Yoga peut etre dangereux pour vous; pathologie du yoga.”  My best translation of this (helped by Google Translate) is “Attention!  Yoga can be dangerous to you; pathology of yoga.”

This book was published in 1980, many years before yoga hit the big time.  Noelle studied with B.K.S. Iyengar for decades before that, and feels that she ruined her body by doing extreme yoga poses that were better suited for Indians.  Urged by Iyengar, she studied posture around the world and discovered that less industrialized cultures had a different and healthier posture than Western industrialized countries.  They also had less back pain.  Noelle’s and Jean’s work is the basis of my teaching (the Balance Posture Method).

Man in Balance in Oaxaca, Mexico

When I began studying with Jean I had to let go of many poses that I practiced regularly, and I started over with doing yoga in a safe way, with a precise focus on alignment of the spine.  I have had no yoga injuries since then.

It is essential to respect the limits of your body, to know when to push and when to stop.  It can be fine to feel that burn in a muscle when you’re on a long bike ride or hike, or a deep stretch in a yoga asana/pose.  But there are also warnings to pay attention to – any sensations of ripping, popping, strain, joint pain, or just a sense that you shouldn’t go any farther.  Trust yourself!  It’s better to be safe than sorry!

Should You Do Yoga?

So, can yoga wreck your body?  If done aggressively, competitively, and without paying attention to your body’s needs – YES.  If you do poses where you drop your head back – yes.  If you come from a culture like ours where our daily posture is misaligned – yes.  But, you can also use yoga to heal from those injuries.  I teach classes focused on this and I’ve studied with other teachers who specialize in this as well.

For some tips on how to practice yoga safely, check out these previous blog posts:

http://www.sonomabodybalance.com/blog/2011/02/3-tips-for-a-safe-yoga-practice/

http://www.sonomabodybalance.com/blog/2010/03/how-to-do-yoga-without-back-pain/

Just to counterbalance all that other information, the article in the NY Times also states that “yoga can lower your blood pressure, make chemicals that act as antidepressants, even improve your sex life.”  I have experienced many benefits from doing yoga, from increased relaxation to strength and increased flexibility, especially since I’ve changed my way of practicing.

To keep yourself safe and experience the positive side of yoga, find a teacher with training in healthy alignment.  Listen to your body.  Go slowly at first.  And do it for yourself, not to compete with someone else.

By the way, the teacher in the article, Glenn Black, had to have back surgery eventually.  He had done enough damage at that point I suppose.

If you learn to have healthy posture in your daily life (see my classes at www.sonomabodybalance.com), you can support the health of your spine and other joints throughout your entire day, every day, not only in a yoga class.  And that really can help you prevent injuries, in yoga and anywhere else!

References: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/magazine/how-yoga-can-wreck-your-body.html?scp=1&sq=how%20yoga%20can%20wreck%20your%20body&st=cse

© Dana K. Davis, 2012

It showed that Iyengar style yoga was helpful for chronic lower back pain – more helpful than only conventional medical treatment.  The study was done in the UK and lasted 12 weeks.  Participants who did yoga in addition to conventional medical care experienced improved back function and more confidence in performing daily movements, compared with those who did not do yoga.

More than half of the participants in the study kept up their yoga practice after 9 months, and the benefits continued for 9 months.  It’s really important to continue to practice, because you can lose gains you’ve made if you stop moving your body in healthy ways.  As the familiar saying goes, “Use it or lose it!”

The Yoga of Daily Life

If you blend Iyengar-style yoga with the postural alignments of the Balance Method, you can have even more impact on your pain and discomfort.  If you are changing your daily posture (how you sit, stand, bend, and sleep) as well as practicing yoga with healthy alignment, you can make a powerful difference in your comfort level.  Bringing healthy postural guidelines into daily movements gives you the leverage of many more hours per day to relieve and heal your back.

Not every style of yoga may help.  Be careful which classes you attend if you have back pain.  You can see previous posts on my blog for more information.  Just go to www.sonomabodybalance.com/blog and search for “yoga” under the Categories index.  In those posts I’ve given you tips for practicing yoga without hurting your back.  Here are a few more tips.

3 Tips for a Safe Yoga Practice

1) Don’t push past your limits.  Yoga is not a competition, though in our American culture it’s easy to get competitive about everything.  One of the “yamas” or ethical disciplines in traditional yoga is called “ahimsa”, which means “non-violence.”  This can be applied to how you treat your own body.  Do you treat it like an object which you try to force into whatever position you want it to do?  Or do you treat it lovingly, and create a partnership with it, working with both its strengths and weaknesses?

2) Be very cautious with rounding of the lumbar spine.  While deep forward bends may be impossible without some rounding of the lumbar (lower) spine, people with Balanced posture keep the spine elongated even while in forward bends.  They also have a “universal curve” in the spine where the curve is evenly distributed throughout the spine rather than having a sharp apex in one spot.  Rounding of the lumbar spine, especially when lifting or twisting, is a very easy way to hurt your back!

3) Feel your stretch in the “belly” of the muscle, not in your joints.  It’s fine to feel a stretch in your thigh or calf, but if you feel pain in a joint, it’s best to come out of the pose.  Pain in your knee, in your hip joint, in your shoulder joint, or in your spine signals a potentially dangerous situation.  Back off until you feel the stretch in your muscles rather than pain or pulling at these joints.

If you don’t do yoga, you can practice some simple stretches to maintain or increase flexibility, and bending in “Balance” (at the hip joints) will help to keep your hamstrings flexible over the years.  So remember to use your body wisely, keep it moving, and include your daily movements as part of your practice.  Bringing this awareness to your body movement will really pay off for years to come.

© Dana K. Davis, 2011

When we study healthy, Balanced people (usually in less industrialized countries), they are always using the least amount of effort to do things. When they sit, they sit. They don’t try to exercise while sitting. When sitting upright at a desk, if you sit on an exercise ball, it requires your back muscles to be in chronic tension. That isn’t good for the muscles.

Healthy muscles have tone and resilience. They are not chronically contracted. It’s fine to exercise your back muscles, but don’t do it for 8 hours in a row! Otherwise, you’re likely to get sore and exhausted, as well as endanger your spine from overly curving it.

There is a healthier way to sit at your computer, which I teach in the Balance Your Body Foundations Series. You can learn how to place your pelvis so that you are resting on your bones rather than relying on your muscles to hold you up. Of course, there are postural muscles that will always be engaged when you are upright, but when you sit in Balance, you will be using less energy and less effort.

Is this a bad thing? I personally like to save my energy for more important things, rather than using it all up sitting at my desk. Just think: then you may have the energy you need to exercise after work, rather than feeling exhausted.

I sit on a chair with a fairly flat seat, and I don’t lean back against the chair back. You could lean back, if the chair has a slight recline to the back, and isn’t curvy. This works well if your keyboard is in your lap. I prefer to sit forward using a wedge, and find that this position has been comfortable for many years now. It allows freedom for the arms and shoulders as well. Armrests can be an interference, especially if they aren’t adjustable.

Some of the most “ergonomic” and expensive desk chairs can be the worst. They can be extremely curvy, taking your back into an artificially curved shape that is extreme. I also don’t recommend lumbar supports in most cases, for the same reason. The good news is that you can often get a desk chair that is very comfortable for a reasonable price. One store that has some good options is Scandinavian Designs. They have stores in Santa Rosa and San Rafael.

If you’re new to the Balance Method and want a quick lesson in pain-free sitting, you can watch my 5 minute video to get started right away (http://www.sonomabodybalance.com/blog/2011/03/new-video-on-pain-free-sitting-posture/).

If you’d like some personal guidance in buying your next desk chair, check out my “Furniture for Pain-Free Living” or “How to Buy a Great Chair” workshops. For information on upcoming workshops and classes, visit www.sonomabodybalance.com.

© 2011 Dana K. Davis

But after studying with Jean for a while, I realized that I was getting more and more comfortable sitting at my computer working. I hadn’t realized that the nagging, achy feeling I had at the end of my workday was actually back pain! That is, until it went away! I had been “putting up with” the discomfort because I assumed it was normal, and that there was nothing I could do about it. Have you ever felt that way?

I also became much more comfortable driving, and noticed that I was also more alert when commuting. Again, I would never have said I had “back pain”, but the discomfort I felt when driving or flying on a plane was taking a toll on my energy and well-being. There was also the pain I felt when washing dishes or chopping vegetables.

A lot of discomfort or pain is believed to be “just part of getting older”. Do you really want to accept that? Or can you envision growing old with grace and ease, feeling comfortable in your body and staying active? This is possible!

So, do you have back pain? Here are some questions to consider:

1. Do you squirm with discomfort when sitting at the computer or at lectures or classes?
2. Does driving for long distances or flying on a plane leave you feeling strained and exhausted?
3. Have you eliminated things you love to do because of pain or discomfort (traveling, sports, socializing)?
4. Can you sit in a chair as long as you want, or do you have to get up several times an hour to avoid pain?
5. Can you walk several miles without paying for it afterwards?

Now, some of you KNOW you have back pain. Sometimes there’s no question about it. But I find there are a lot of people who just put up with a low level of pain or discomfort on a daily basis – because they don’t believe they can do anything about it.

The Balance Method can help you with this! How would you like to learn simple postural guidelines that you can practice anywhere, anytime to reduce or eliminate your pain? What would your life be like if you knew what to do to prevent or relieve your pain, wherever you are? We see people in many countries throughout the world that have elegant posture and pain-free bodies. They stay straight and active into their old age.

This is possible for all of us. We all were In Balance as children (up until age 3), and then most of us in the U.S. lost our natural posture. Come to a 2-Hour Balance workshop to learn more about this, see some fabulous slides of Balanced people, and learn how to sit pain-free!

© 2011 Dana K. Davis

© 2011 Dana K. Davis

The typical American sitting posture

What’s the Problem?

The technical name for it is Forward Head Posture, and it is associated with headaches, neck and shoulder pain, muscle spasms, excessive upper back curve (thoracic kyphosis), nerve compression and fatigue. It’s easy to get into a repetitive cycle of pain, spasm and more pain. As we age, these symptoms can get worse.

For every inch that the head moves forward, it has the effect of adding 10 pounds of perceived weight. So, if your head weighs 12 pounds and moves forward 2 inches, it’s as if your head now weighs 32 pounds! The muscles of your neck and upper back will have a constant added strain in this position. These chronically contracted muscles become oxygen-starved and can develop a build-up of toxic waste products due to a lack of circulation.

What’s Causing this Epidemic?

It’s widely believed that the amount of time Americans spend sitting at desks is a cause of Forward Head Posture (FHP). Incorrect ergonomics can also play a part here.

One chiropractor has referred to FHP as “text neck” after seeing more and more young patients with degenerative changes in the neck due to too much texting with the head forward (Dean Fishman, DC). He says that “Because the demographic of people ages 13-27 is one of the largest groups of texters, we can expect to see a large increase of medical and chiropractic conditions within the next decade.”2

One thing that I don’t see mentioned in most articles on posture is that there are populations of people who sit a lot in less developed countries, and these people stay in healthy alignment, with elongated spines, ease of movement and flexibility well into their old age. Noelle Perez-Christiaens and Jean Couch have studied these people extensively, and have done decades of research on the characteristics of healthy posture.

Sitting in the typical American posture tends to lead you down the road to misalignment and pain. I’m referring to the alternating cycle of trying to “sit up straight” using muscle tension (which is exhausting) and then when the muscles tire, collapsing – ending up with FHP.

So How Can You Get Your Head Back in Alignment?

What can you do about this? You can follow the example of Balanced cultures from around the world, and of children under 3 years old, who have naturally aligned posture. It’s an instinct we all have as children, but we lose it as we learn by imitation from those around us in our culture.

What’s most important is to sit on your sitz bones. You may think you know this already, but everywhere I go I see people sitting with a tucked pelvis – sitting on their backs rather than their butts. I go into a lot more detail on this in my article from December 2009 “10 Tips for Pain-Free Sitting” (http://www.sonomabodybalance.com/blog/2009/12/).

If you find yourself in this “out of Balance” position, pull your feet under your chair, bend forward from your hip joints (not your waist), lift your pelvis up and move it to the back of the chair. Of course, this is pretty difficult on a deep couch. I’d recommend trying a simple folding chair to start with – one with a fairly flat seat.

The head moves forward when the pelvis moves forward. So, to get the head to move back, you must start with getting the pelvis back underneath your spine. Then you can begin to “rebuild” the spine from the base up, lengthening your lower back by releasing your front ribs down. Allow the vertebrae to stack on top of each other like blocks, rather than tilting them back at angles by lifting your chest.

Finally, you can work with the shoulders, neck and head. Draw each shoulder back and down, pulling your shoulder blades down your back. Tuck your chin in towards your throat and give the back of your neck a stretch. Then relax. Remember not to “hold” the position for more than a minute or so, because chronic muscle contraction leads to oxygen deprivation of the muscles, as mentioned above.

Doing some simple stretches and movements on a regular basis can also help increase circulation in areas that are tightly held habitually. Try simply raising your arms slowly in front of you, then overhead; then lower them out to the sides and back as you return to where you started, with your arms at your sides. These arm circles can help to loosen up tight areas, increasing range-of-motion and circulation.

I will be going over more exercises and stretches to realign the neck, shoulders and head in my upcoming workshops in the East Bay and in Petaluma in March. For more information, visit www.sonomabodybalance.com/html/workshops.html.

© 2011 Dana K. Davis

References:
1 For more information on risks of wireless technology, see http://emfsafetynetwork.org/
2“Forward Head Posture Caused by Texting” by Dean Fishman, DC, Dynamic Chiropractic newsletter, April 2010

Whether you are a regular meditator or someone who sits on the floor only when you have to, sitting without a chair can pose problems for most people. While this may come naturally to people in some cultures who grow up sitting on the floor, many Americans experience pain and discomfort if they sit without a chair for too long.

Why is it so uncomfortable?

One reason is that in the US, almost everyone has grown up with the typical American posture, which is out of alignment with gravity. That usually leads to a tightening of the hamstring muscles (on the back of your thighs). If you don’t do any stretching, the hamstrings get even tighter. Then when you try to sit on the floor, tight muscles in your legs and hips, as well as your postural habits, lead you to feel squirmy and fatigued, or in pain.

Why Is This Important?

When you are sitting on the floor (or on any surface without back support, such as a bench, bleachers, etc.), most people try to “sit up straight” and tighten their back muscles in the process. Then as they get tired, they end up collapsing and sitting like a “cashew”. This is a dangerous position for the spine, because it compresses the intervertebral discs, as well as the internal organs. It crimps the arteries in your neck which bring blood and oxygen to your brain. This makes you tired. Sitting this way often leads to postural changes which can be difficult to reverse, as you get shorter and curvier.

How to Sit Comfortably

The best way to start is to learn how to sit comfortably in a chair, leaning against the back of it. You can find instructions for this in my blog post entitled “10 Tips for Pain-Free Sitting” (www.sonomabodybalance.com/blog/2009/12/). The next step is to learn how to sit forward on a chair, without back support. I teach this in my Balance Your Body courses. Then you can learn some stretches for your hamstrings and hips to open up those areas in preparation for sitting on the floor.

One other helpful tip is to use a pillow or some other support to sit on when you’re on the floor. There are various options sold for meditators that can be helpful, such as benches or zafu cushions. Try to sit so that your knees are not way higher than your hips, if you’re sitting cross-legged.

If your back is already hurting, or you’re afraid it might, don’t be afraid to get a chair. In many meditation groups, this is completely acceptable. If you’re at an event, grab a pillow or some other prop to help yourself sit a bit up off the floor.

If you are a regular meditator, you might have practiced just “being” with the pain. While that can be an interesting focus, I prefer not to meditate on my pain unless I have to! If you learn to sit more comfortably, your mind will be free to focus on or be aware of other things besides pain. This could open up a whole new world for you.

So the next time you are meditating or sitting on the floor, try sitting on a prop and see if your back feels more comfortable. Of course, there’s a lot more to this than I can go over in this article, so I’d suggest also reviewing the blog post I mentioned above on pain-free sitting. I’m wishing you peace and comfort in this New Year!

If you’d like some instruction in how to sit on the floor without pain, come to my upcoming workshop on Friday, January 28 – “How to Sit for Meditation Pain-Free”. For more details, visit www.sonomabodybalance.com/html/workshops.html.

©2011 Dana K. Davis

It’s not their fault for promoting unhealthy posture; they just don’t know any better. It’s like the proverbial fish swimming in the water that doesn’t see the water anymore. I didn’t realize that I too had this typical American posture until it was pointed out to me. Once I was awakened to this, there was no turning back! I hope some of you will join me in my quest to return to us our birthright of healthy, pain-free, natural posture.

I’ve also included a couple tips for you to share with the children in your life.

I’m wishing you a wonderful Harvest season!

Dana
—————–

Hello,

I am a Certified Yoga Teacher and a Certified Teacher of the Balance Posture Method, and someone forwarded to me a link to this article on your website: “Classroom Organization: The Physical Environment”. In particular I wanted to comment on the paragraph below:

“Establish informal furniture arrangements where students can sit on soft chairs or pillows, or lounge on the carpet. Another myth is that children learn best when sitting up straight in hard chairs. About 75 percent of the total body weight is supported on only four square inches of bone when humans sit up straight in a hard chair, so it is easy to understand how the resulting stress on the buttock tissues causes fatigue, discomfort, and the need for frequent changes in posture. Research supports the common-sense notion that many students pay better attention and achieve higher grades in more comfortable settings.”

The Balance Method is based on decades of research on populations of people without back pain who stay straight and active into their old age. I have taught this method since 1997 and seen hundreds of students achieve reduction in pain, increase in comfort and even regain lost height.

I think the paragraph about children sitting in this article above is dangerous to children’s health. Humans have been sitting on those few inches of bone for hundreds, if not thousands, of years with no apparent problem. Rather, our modern posture in the US since about 1920 has led to a huge incidence of back and joint pain, lost height, and tension. If we can teach children healthy posture from the start, they will be able to concentrate better, and they won’t be destined to a future of back pain.

All children in all countries, and of all races, have healthy, natural posture up until age 3. After that they begin to imitate the adults and older children around them and lose their natural alignment. More and more children are experiencing back and joint pain, as well as sports injuries. This can be prevented by encouraging children to maintain their natural alignment and not to abandon it in favor of “lounging” on the carpet.

Children (and adults) need to make frequent changes in posture when they are uncomfortable, and unhealthy posture makes people uncomfortable. Children may move around also because they are children, and are full of energy and learning to use their bodies in new ways. This shouldn’t be taken to mean that they shouldn’t sit on chairs.

Of course, chairs don’t need to be hard in order to provide healthy support. I teach using folding chairs that are firm, but with some padding. This provides the optimal balance of firmness plus cushioning.

I don’t believe there is any stress on the buttock tissues from sitting on the buttock bones (ischial tuberosities). Rather, the stress happens when we get OFF those bones and sit on the buttock flesh. It feels softer because we’re sitting on more padding, but this is extremely damaging to the spine. People all over the world sit on those bones for their entire lives and maintain healthy spines as a result. In the US, 80% of people experience low back pain, so we know there is a problem.

Let’s start kids out right by reminding them of their natural, original posture, and provide trained adults who can model this healthy posture. Then kids can concentrate better, feel more comfortable and age gracefully with comfort and strength.

If you’d like more information, you can visit my website at www.sonomabodybalance.com or the website of the Balance Center at www.balancecenter.com.

Sincerely,
Dana K. Davis, MA
——————————
A Couple Tips to Teach the Children in Your Life

1) Remind kids to bend at their hip crease (at the top of their thighs) rather than their waist. Children under 3 do this naturally; older kids start to lose this.

2) Remind kids to sit on their sitz bones (ischial tuberosities) – the hard bones under them. If they sit on these bones, their backs will be straighter and they’ll be more comfortable.

3) If you tell kids to “sit up straight”, most likely they’ll tighten their backs and lift their chests. Instead, if they are sitting on their sitz bones, they’ll naturally be straighter.

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.

The Garden at RDI

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