Week 196: Dirt Under My Nails

Are you getting your hands dirty this week?

I sure am.

I'm no gardener but I do like looking at nice flowers over the summer months. I’ve played my luck the past couple years and planted before the May long weekend. This year too, I’ve got my bag of potting soil and trowel ready to go!

Amazingly every year not only do I tempt fate with the weather but my back too. I always have some tightness and soreness after some time playing in the dirt. Does this educated exercise professional ever do a warm-up before gardening? Of course not…yikes!

Needless to say, I was on the hunt for a gardening specific yoga sequence but happily stumbled upon a Do Yoga With Me video that fit the bill.

Constant forward flexion.

Doesn’t that sound like an every day occurrence?

Well, moreso when kneeling over pots and gardening beds with the addition of a digging motion. That is an equation for back pain.

Hatha Yoga for Better Posture provided a time and space for working through the supportive muscles of the core with many opportunities to extend and flex the spine through a full range of motion.

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel yoga work at the wall. All though, Melissa set-up the move as an exercise not necessity a yoga asana, standing at the wall with the arms up in “cactus position”, low back pressed against the wall with the feet placed further away from the wall was a fantastic alignment tool to get the spine stacked back to its more natural state. This was one of the many seeds I needed to sow to get my back to feel better!

Although I didn’t warm up, I sort of feel like I’ve been training for gardening all year long. My yogic deep squat (malasana) was the perfect position for many of my gardening feats! Even to the point that I actually wasn’t bothered to be in the position for long periods of time. Woowho!

I still have more to add to my garden this year (flowers and herbs!) so I’m sure this practice is going to get me through the early days of Spring!
LW