Tag Archive for: raking leaves

Portsmouth NH physical therapist demonstrates proper raking posture to prevent back pain.

6 Tips to Protect your Back when Raking Leaves

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6 Expert Tips to Protect Your Back When Raking Leaves in New England

Here in Portsmouth, NH, and across New England, fall foliage is beautiful — until all those leaves end up in your yard. As a local physical therapist, I often see an increase in back pain and strain injuries this time of year from people raking leaves without realizing how much stress it puts on their spine.

The good news? There are many simple things you can do to protect your back when raking leaves and prevent unwanted pain this fall season.

Below are six expert tips I share with my clients at CJ Physical Therapy & Pilates in Portsmouth to help you stay active, healthy, and pain-free while raking leaves.

1. Warm Up Before You Start

Just as athletes warm up before a game, you should too before tackling your yard. Starting any physical activity cold can lead to unnecessary strains and injuries.

Take a quick walk around the block to get your blood flowing — the gentle rotation in your torso is great for your spine. You can also include torso twists, shoulder shrugs, and arm circles to loosen up your joints and lubricate your spine before raking. A 5-10 minute warmup goes a long way in preventing back pain.

2. Choose the Right Rake

When it comes to raking ergonomics, the right equipment matters. Choose a rake that’s lightweight, durable, and long enough so you can maintain an upright posture while using it.

Poor ergonomics waste energy and increase your risk of injury. A well-designed, ergonomic rake might cost a little more, but it’s a worthwhile investment in your long-term spinal health — because back injuries are far more costly.

3. Bend with Your Legs and Hips

When raking or lifting, one of the worst postures for your back is being bent forward and twisted. To protect your spine, bend and lift using your legs and hips, not your back.

Maintain an upright posture while raking, and when scooping up leaves, squat and pivot with your hips and knees instead of twisting at your waist. Making this a habit — not just during yardwork — will keep your back strong and injury-free.

4. Take Regular Breaks

Raking is repetitive and can tire your muscles quickly. When your muscles fatigue, your form suffers — and that’s when injuries happen.

Take a short break every 30 minutes. Set a reminder on your phone, put the rake down, and give yourself a gentle back stretch or stand tall and reach overhead. These quick resets help maintain good posture and protect your back during longer yardwork sessions.

5. Engage Your Core

You don’t need six-pack abs to protect your back, but simply engaging your core muscles can provide essential support.

While raking, gently draw in your lower abdominals — you should still be able to breathe and talk easily. This subtle engagement keeps your spine stable and supported, reducing strain and helping prevent injury.

6. Keep Moving Afterwards

What you do after raking is just as important as what you do during. The biggest mistake people make is collapsing onto the couch afterward.

Right after strenuous activity, your spine is more pliable and vulnerable — so avoid slumping. Instead, take a short walk, do gentle stretches, or stay upright for a while before resting. Being mindful of your posture post-raking can save you from feeling that familiar “tweak” hours later.

Protect Your Back This Fall

Hopefully these tips give you a few things to think about before tackling all those leaves — and most importantly, help you protect your back and avoid unwanted pain this fall season.

If you’re in Portsmouth, NH or the Seacoast New Hampshire area and find yourself struggling with back pain after raking or other fall activities, we can help.

At CJ Physical Therapy & Pilates, we specialize in helping active adults in the Seacoast stay strong, mobile, and pain-free — naturally.

Call us today at 603-380-7902 or visit www.cjphysicaltherapy.com to learn more and download your free guide to preventing back pain.

Portsmouth NH physical therapist demonstrates proper raking posture to prevent back pain.

6 Tips to Protect your Back when Raking Leaves

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Leaves are everywhere right now in New England, which means for many, the tedious task of raking them is right around the corner. I love Fall – but I don’t love raking leaves. And raking leaves is even worse when you’re suffering from back pain. The good news is there are many things you can do to protect your back when raking leaves. 

Here are 6 of my most popular tips to protect your back when raking leaves:

1. Warm up before you start.

Just as athletes warm up before a game, so should you before raking. Beginning any physical activity without preparing your body can lead to unwanted strains and injuries. For raking, focus on warm up activities that target your back, shoulders, and legs. Something like a quick walk around the block before you start is an excellent way to warm up. It gets blood flowing to your legs and arms, and the gentle rotational aspect of walking is great for your spine and torso. You could also include some basic stretches into your warmup such as torso twists, shoulder shrugs, and arm circles. This gets some lubrication into your joints and spine to help protect your back once you start raking.

2. Choose the Right Rake.

With any repetitive activity such as raking – good ergonomics is essential. Ergonomics refers to how safe and efficient you are in your working environment. Bad ergonomics will typically cost you unnecessary energy and labor – and can often result in an injury. When it comes to raking, choose a rake with a handle that is long enough so that you can maintain upright posture while using it, and go for one that is light in weight yet still durable. A good, ergonomic rake might require a bit more investment than you were intending, but it will be worth it in the long run because ultimately, a back injury will cost you much more. And knowing how to protect your back from injury is priceless.

3. Bend with your legs and hips

When performing repetitive activities or lifting something heavy, one of the most vulnerable postures for your back to be in is the combined position of flexed (bent forward) and rotated. To protect your back and avoid injury, you want to use your legs and hips to bend and lift. If you’ve got the right rake, it will be easy to maintain an upright posture while raking. And then when it’s time to scoop up the leaves and deposit them, you’ll want to squat using your hips and knees, and pivot with your trunk and pelvis. Avoid lifting with a curved back and twisting from your waist or spine. Maintaining these habits on a regular basis (not just when raking) will help you protect your back from strain or injury that could otherwise be very easily avoided.

4. Take regular breaks

Continuous and repetitive raking can tire out your muscles and make them more susceptible to injury. Plus, when you get into the monotony of raking, the mindlessness of the activity makes it easy to not pay attention to things like maintaining good posture and using good body mechanics. An easy way to combat this is by taking regular breaks. I recommend at least once every 30 min. Set an alarm on your phone or watch to remind you – and when it goes off – stop what you’re doing, put the rake down, and give yourself a quick upright back stretch. This very simple and easy strategy will go a long way in protecting your back when raking leaves.

5. Engage your Core

You don’t need six-pack abs to protect your back while raking leaves, but simply being mindful of your core can be super helpful and certainly won’t hurt you. Most back injuries occur when you least expect it – and when you aren’t paying attention. When you’re raking leaves, or any other mindless, repetitive activity for that matter, make an effort to think about gently drawing in your lower abdominals while you perform the activity. It’s a subtle move, and you should be able to easily breathe and talk while doing it. If you struggle to breathe and talk normally – you’re overdoing it.  This simple act of engaging your core will help keep your spine more supported and stable while raking and it will help protect your back.

6. Keep Moving Afterwards

What you do after raking is equally as important as what you do during to help protect your back from pain and injury. One of the biggest mistakes people make after a repetitive or strenuous activity (like raking) is to slump on the couch or recliner and “rest”. This is one of the worst things you can do to your spine because it’s more pliable and vulnerable right after strenuous activity. And when you put your spine in a relaxed, flexed position while it’s vulnerable – you’re just asking for an injury. You won’t notice it while you’re resting – but you might feel a tweak or strain when you go to stand up – or even up to several hours later. Do yourself a favor and perform some gentle stretching after raking, or go for another walk to help relax your back. And be mindful of your resting postures for a few hours after raking. This is an easy way to protect your back during raking season.

Hopefully these tips give you a few things to think about before you go raking all those leaves in your yard – but most importantly – help you protect your back and avoid unwanted back pain this fall season.

Dr. Carrie Jose, Physical Therapist and Pilates expert, owns CJ Physical Therapy & Pilates in Portsmouth and writes for Seacoast Media Group. To request a free copy of her guide to back pain CLICK HERE or to get in touch, email her at [email protected].

Portsmouth NH physical therapist demonstrates proper raking posture to prevent back pain.

5 Tips to Avoid Back Pain when Raking Leaves

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We are in peak leaf-raking season right now in New England. Leaves are everywhere – and the daily sound of leaf blowers in my neighborhood has become somewhat meditative. I love Fall – but I don’t love raking leaves. And raking leaves is even worse when you’re suffering from back pain.

The good news – it’s not as hard as you think to avoid back pain while doing this repetitive, monotonous activity…

Here are 5 tips to help you avoid back pain when you’re raking leaves:

1. Take a walk before you start.

Walking is a really great activity for your back in general, but it’s also a really easy way to warm-up your entire body ahead of an hour or more of repetitive raking. Personally, I love nothing more than taking a walk in the cool, crisp Fall air.

Why not take a quick walk around the block before you get into your raking?

This simple activity will bring blood flow to your arms, legs, and spine – and get all your joints moving and warm ahead of the full body activity that is raking.

2. Stretch every 30 minutes.

The biggest “danger” to your back when it comes to raking leaves is the repetitive nature of it – specifically the frequent bending and rotation of your spine.

Our spines were designed to hold us upright, not to bend and twist over and over again in the same direction. One of the simplest ways to protect your back while raking leaves, or any other repetitive activity, is to take quick and frequent rest periods to stretch. Every 30 min or so, stop what you’re doing, and give yourself a simple stretch backwards. This very simple action can go a long way in avoiding excessive back pain while raking.

3. Bend with your legs and hips.

As mentioned above – one of the worst activities for your lower back is repetitive bending and rotation – which is very easy to do if you’re not paying attention while raking leaves.

One way to avoid this is to use your hips and legs to bend and rotate. Using your legs and hips to bend and get lower to the ground when raking minimizes the bending at your spine – and pivoting at your pelvis to throw the leaves away minimizes the rotation to your spine.

Don’t get me wrong, your back will still likely be sore after taking even when “doing everything right” – but the stress will be significantly less and can help you avoid throwing out your back a day or two later – because yes – this is the timeframe when it will usually occur if you didn’t use good habits while raking your leaves.

4. Engage your core.

You don’t need six-pack abs to prevent back pain while raking leaves, but being mindful of your core can be super beneficial and it certainly won’t hurt you. Most back injuries occur when you least expect it… coughing, sneezing, picking something light off the floor.

These activities are so mindless and automatic that you’re typically not paying attention to what your core might be doing – or not doing. Raking leaves is an equally mindless activity. Each time you pull the rake toward you or lift it, think about drawing your belly in and engaging your abs. This will help keep your spine more supported and stable while raking.

5. Keep moving afterwards.

What you do after raking is equally as important as what you do during to help prevent back pain.

One of the biggest mistakes people make after a repetitive or strenuous activity (like raking) is to slump on the couch or recliner and rest. This is one of the worst things you can do to your spine because it’s more pliable and vulnerable after strenuous activity. When you put yourself in a relaxed and sustained bending position – after all that repetitive bending – it can be the icing on the cake.

You go to stand up and “boom” – there goes your back. I see it all the time. Do yourself a favor and go for another walk after raking to cool down, and be mindful of the posture you rest in after all that hard work.

Hopefully these tips give you a few things to think about before you go raking, and most importantly, avoid unwanted back pain so you can enjoy this beautiful fall season.

Are you local to Portsmouth, NH and looking for help with your back pain?

Consider speaking to one of my specialists.

You can tell us everything thats been going on and we’ll see if we’re fit to help you – and give you all of the information you need to make the best decisions for your health.

Dr. Carrie Jose, Physical Therapist and Pilates expert, owns CJ Physical Therapy & Pilates in Portsmouth and writes for Seacoast Media Group. To request a free copy of her guide to back pain CLICK HERE or to get in touch, email her at [email protected].