Tuesday, January 11

Prehabilitation

PREHABILITATION:

Just as Weeding is not done just to make your garden look good - (remember, it’s really about keeping more nutrients for the plants you cultivate) Fitness is not just about image, looking good or how much you weigh. It is all about physical ability and function. Here we are focused on how be fit enough to function well in the garden to be able to do all the things you want to do.

If strength training does not mimic the way muscles are used in our everyday life, then it might have a cosmetic effect (helping you look good/fit) but it will not necessarily translate into an injury preventing result. It is important to perform ‘functional exercise’ and to be specific in
your form to target the right muscles in the right way. I call this Pre-habilitation.

If rehabilitation is the restoring of a body after injury, then in order to prevent that injury from happening in the first place we must prehabilitate our bodies—get them in shape before we perform an activity to handle our life work with ease and efficiency

 Prehabilitation is strengthening and conditioning prior to any injury as opposed to rehabilitation which is re-conditioning after an injury has occurred.  Physical preparation will decrease the chances of becoming a casualty of the garden. In order to attain and maintain the positions discussed in the previous chapters, the gardener needs both strength and flexibility.
So how do we  learn how to really bloom and grow; making our bodies strong enough to handle our gardening chores with ease and without injury? Participating in gardening activities alone will not pave the way for a future of injury-free gardening seasons. Football players do not prepare for their sport simply by playing more football. They train by practicing the movements under controlled conditions and strengthening the specific muscles they will use in the game. So that when they are in the action, their bodies will support them in those actions. Muscles get stronger by being challenged and stressed and we learn muscle sync by repetition and practice.

I can’t emphasize enough that the most common reason people get hurt during gardening is because the load you put on your muscles is more than you have prepared those muscles to handle. In the following entries I hope to teach gardeners how to differentiate between injury and simple muscle soreness and the methodology to reduce the incidence of either.

The soreness you feel after a long day in the garden is the same soreness you get after a hard workout session in the gym. It is a normal response to overexertion and part of a process that actually leads to greater strength once the muscles recover. It’s called DOMS – delayed onset muscle soreness - and typically lasts a couple of days. Muscles have been worked to the point of exhaustion and in the process they have given off lactic acid and other byproducts of cellular respiration during exercise. First, the inflammation process begins as a result of the exercise. Then the muscle cells heal. As a result, the muscle is more resistant to damage from exercise in the future. The greatest instance of DOMS happens in untrained or de-conditioned people.

Believe it or not, one of the best ways to get rid of muscle soreness is to do the very same exercises that caused the soreness in the first place, but at a much lower intensity level. Strength training will circulate blood to the sore area, help carry nutrients to the sore muscles and transport any chemical byproducts out of there. And the stronger the muscles become, the more they adapt and the less soreness is created from future exercise. One way to avoid intense muscle soreness is to make sure there’s enough time to warm up before a gardening session and to cool down properly afterward.

The most common garden injuries are sprains, strains, muscle overload and tendonitis. But over time, chronic injuries can occur, especially with overuse and improper techniques. Chronic injuries include rotator cuff damage or shoulder impingement syndromes, sacroiliac dysfunction, and nerve entrapment or compression, and spinal disc pathology. Studies prove that weight training using proper form and technique drastically reduces the risk of such injury. But PROPER FORM is the operative word here. Be sure to work with or get advice from a trained professional. Not all fitness trainers have the same level of education or experience. I specialize in  Corrective Exercise to Restore Proper Posture and Biomechanics. If you need some guidance in what is the best exercise, or what is correct form, or how to modify for your injury, or help in finding a qualified coach, just leave me your comments and I'll do my best to help. NOW is the time to prepare for the upcoming spring gardening.


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