The Best Stretches for Gardeners from a Physio: Prevent Aches and Keep Moving

The Best Stretches for Gardeners from a Physio: Prevent Aches and Keep Moving

by | Sep 23, 2025 | Active Health Blogs, Physiotherapy

 Spring has sprung, and New Zealand gardens are calling! Whether you’re planting vegetables, pruning fruit trees, or tackling that long-awaited garden makeover, hours of bending, digging, and reaching can leave your body feeling less than fresh. But don’t let aches and pains keep you from enjoying your green sanctuary.

As physiotherapists, we see countless gardeners each season struggling with preventable injuries. The good news? With the right stretches and movement strategies, you can keep your body as healthy as your plants.

Why Gardening Can Be Tough on Your Body

Gardening is essentially a full-body workout in disguise. You’re constantly switching between movements that challenge different muscle groups:

  • Prolonged bending strains your lower back and hamstrings
  • Repetitive digging tightens hip flexors and can cause shoulder impingement
  • Kneeling for extended periods creates knee stiffness and quad tension
  • Overhead reaching (hello, fruit tree pruning!) can trigger neck and shoulder pain
  • Carrying heavy items like bags of soil or full watering cans stresses your entire kinetic chain

The problem isn’t the activities themselves – it’s doing them without proper preparation and recovery.

Your Pre-Garden Warm-Up Routine

Never jump straight from the couch to the compost bin. These dynamic stretches will prepare your body for garden work:

1: Gentle Spinal Rolls

  • Stand tall, feet hip-width apart
  • Slowly roll your spine down vertebra by vertebra, reaching toward your toes
  • Hold for 3-5 seconds, then slowly roll back up
  • Repeat 5 times

Why it works: Mobilises your entire spine and gently stretches your hamstrings – perfect prep for all that bending ahead.

2: Hip Circles

  • Place hands on hips, feet shoulder-width apart
  • Make slow, controlled circles with your hips – 5 in each direction
  • Gradually increase the size of the circles

Why it works: Lubricates hip joints and activates the muscles you’ll use for squatting and kneeling.

3: Shoulder Blade Squeezes

  • Extend arms out to sides at shoulder height
  • Squeeze shoulder blades together, imagining you’re holding a tennis ball between them
  • Hold for 5 seconds, release, repeat 8 times

Why it works: Activates your posterior chain and counteracts the forward head posture common in gardening tasks.

Post-Garden Recovery Stretches

These stretches target the areas most commonly tight after garden sessions:

1: Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch – for your hips and lower back

  • Step into a lunge position, back knee on the ground (use a garden kneeler or folded towel if needed)
  • Tuck your tailbone under and lean forward gently
  • Feel the stretch in the front of your back leg’s hip
  • Hold 30-45 seconds each side

Pro tip: This is especially important after digging, which keeps your hips in flexion for extended periods.

2: Seated Hamstring Stretch – for your lower back

  • Sit on the edge of a garden bench or chair
  • Extend one leg straight, heel on ground, toe pointing up
  • Gently lean forward with a straight back until you feel a stretch
  • Hold 30 seconds, switch legs

Perfect for: After transplanting seedlings or weeding at ground level.

3: Wall Angel – for your shoulders and neck

  • Stand with your back against a wall, feet slightly away from the wall (or legs against the wall too if you want a deeper stretch)
  • Slowly slide arms up and down the wall, maintaining contact
  • Perform 10-15 repetitions

Why it’s brilliant: Reverses all that forward reaching and overhead work while strengthening your upper back.

4: Supine Spinal Twist – for your lower back

  • Lie on your back, knees bent to 90 degrees
  • Keep knees together, slowly lower them to one side
  • Keep opposite shoulder on the ground
  • Hold 30 seconds each side

Essential for: Releasing tension in your lower back and obliques after carrying, lifting, and twisting.

Smart Gardening Habits to Prevent Pain

Stretching is just one piece of the puzzle. Here are physio-approved strategies to keep you gardening comfortably:

Change positions frequently: Set a timer for every 15-20 minutes to remind yourself to stand, walk around, and switch tasks.

Use proper tools: Long-handled tools reduce bending. Ergonomic grips reduce hand and wrist strain. A good kneeler saves your knees and back.

Mind your posture: When lifting soil bags or plants, squat down – lift with your legs, not your back and keep your weight in your heels. Keep the load close to your body.

Stay hydrated: Dehydration increases muscle cramping and fatigue. Keep a water bottle handy.

Listen to your body: Some muscle fatigue is normal, but sharp or persistent pain is your body’s warning signal.

 

When to see a Physiotherapist?

While these stretches can prevent and relieve minor aches, some situations warrant professional attention:

  • Pain that persists for more than a few days
  • Sharp, shooting pain that radiates down your arms or legs
  • Numbness or tingling in your hands or feet
  • Pain that interferes with sleep or daily activities
  • Any injury that occurred during a specific incident (like a fall or sudden twist)

A physiotherapist can assess your specific movement patterns, identify weak links in your kinetic chain, and create a personalised programme to keep you gardening pain-free.

 

Your Action Plan

  1. Before gardening: Complete the 5-minute warm-up routine
  2. During gardening: Change positions every 15-20 minutes, stay hydrated, and listen to your body
  3. After gardening: Perform the recovery stretch sequence while your muscles are still warm
  4. Daily maintenance: Include gentle movement and stretching in your routine, even on non-gardening days 

Your garden should be a source of joy, not pain. By incorporating these physiotherapy-approved stretches and movement strategies, you’re investing in many more seasons of healthy, comfortable gardening.

Remember, the best stretch routine is the one you’ll actually do consistently. Start with just a few exercises that feel good to you and gradually build your repertoire as they become habit.

Love gardening but struggle with aches and stiffness?

Book a session with one of our physiotherapists today and get a personalised plan to stay strong, flexible, and pain-free while gardening. With expert guidance on stretches, posture, and movement, you can enjoy every planting, digging, and pruning session without discomfort.

Let’s make sure your body feels as good as your garden looks!

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Breathing your way to better asthma.

Breathing your way to better asthma.

by | Jul 6, 2023 | Active Health Blogs, Christchurch, Physiotherapy

Inhalers are essential to managing asthma, but did you know, taking your reliever inhaler
more than two days a week, shows your asthma isn’t controlled.


Maybe the dose of your preventer is not right, or you’re not using your inhaler correctly.
Smoking cessation, keeping active and weight loss are also recommended in the NZ Asthma
Guidelines 2020.


What is often forgotten is HOW you are breathing. This isn’t doing some crazy technique
where you jump in the snow in your underwear, but learning to breathe well and adaptably,
all the time. Research shows that improving breathing in asthmatics reduces symptoms and
inhaler use.


When we breathe, it should be silently through the nose and your upper belly should go
gently outwards. The breath out should be relaxed and twice as long as the breath in.
Asthmatics habitually try to get air in as easily as possible, leading to shallow mouth
breathing and a short exhale. This is how we breathe when stressed and makes asthma
worse.


Thinking about nose/belly breathing and a long-controlled exhale means the air you breathe
in is clean, warm and moist (that’s the nose’s job), that you are relaxed and there is plenty of
space to get the next breath in. Try humming, this helps keep the nose ready and active, it
also gives you a long exhale!


The better you breathe at rest, the harder it is for your asthma symptoms to take hold.

Written by Catherine George.

The nose: The key to winter wellness

The nose: The key to winter wellness

by | Oct 31, 2022 | Active Health Blogs, Christchurch, Physiotherapy


Your nose is your first line of defense to allergens, pollens, viruses and the cold air. As air
flows through your nose it goes to work filtering, warming and adding moisture to the air so
by the time it reaches your lungs it’s clean and at body temperature. The moisture ensures
the lungs function and can clear debris that does get through and inflate and function
optimally.


The other amazing factor is the production of nitric oxide (NO) in our sinuses (laughing gas!).
It doesn’t make you giggle but its effects are widespread and definitely promote wellness.
NO works as a sterilizer (anti-fungal, antiviral and antibacterial), it promotes the beating of
cilia – the cells that work like a Mexican wave to move your mucus around, reducing snotty
noses and postnasal drip. It acts as a vasodilator (opens the blood vessels) and breathing
against the increased resistance of small breathing tubes (compared to the mouth) opens up
your air scass – this leads to an overall increase in the amount of oxygen you can absorb –
up to 17-20% than through your mouth! NO also has anti-inflammatory effects.


This is all missed when you breathe through your mouth! You are more likely to feel calmer
as you slow your breath down and tell your body it’s safe believe it or not breathing through
your nose also improves your memory!!
My favorite saying is it’s as silly to breathe through your mouth as it is to eat through your
nose. People often tell me they can’t get enough air through their nose – this can be due to
issues within your nasal structure and sinuses but often is actually due to chronic mouth
breathing. The disuse leads to nasal stuffiness and a sensation of being blocked, so you
continue to mouth breathe worsening the situation.


So….. tuck your chin in, close your lips, let your teeth sit slightly apart, your tongue floats to
the roof of your mouth so it’s creating a small amount of suction, and is docked behind the
top teeth. Breathe silently and feel your head, neck and shoulders relax and enjoy the calm
and wellness.

Written by Catherine George, The Lung Mechanic

Why every new Mum deserves postnatal physiotherapy.

Why every new Mum deserves postnatal physiotherapy.

by | Sep 30, 2022 | Active Health Blogs, Christchurch, Physiotherapy, Rangiora

Physiotherapy following childbirth is designed to assist with recovery of the pelvic floor and core, along with the rest of the body and health in general. The initial 3 months following childbirth is referred to as the ‘4th trimester’, and during this time it is essential to allow the body to recover from pregnancy and childbirth. During pregnancy posture must change to accommodate for the beautiful wee baby growing inside. The ribs widen as the heart increases by 50% of its normal size and the ligaments soften to allow the body to stretch. The muscle activity around the pelvis changes as the pelvic position changes. This is a normal process and a clever way the body adapts to have a child. The pelvic floor is a group of muscles that sit like a trampoline in the base of the pelvis. With the increased weight of the baby resting on the pelvic floor it also undergoes some stretch throughout pregnancy.
post natal physio near me

Changes to the pelvic floor during birth.

During a vaginal delivery, or attempted vaginal delivery, the muscles and nerves stretch significantly to allow the passage of the baby from the inside to the outside. The pelvic floor is designed to stretch to 250% of its resting length, much more stretch than any other muscle of the body. However, depending on the circumstances of the delivery, that stretch to the tissues may be temporary but sometimes if there is a greater degree of stretch, a longer duration of stretch or the need to use instruments such as forceps, the tissues may be injured and not be able to return to their predelivery state. Due to the constantly changing circumstances of each mother’s labour and delivery it is possible to injure other structures around the pelvis during vaginal deliveries such as the pelvic bones, the tailbone, the nerves and the tissues that hold the pelvic organs inside the body. For those who have a caesarean section delivery the pelvic floor has undergone the stress of the pregnancy. There may have been stress to the vaginal and pelvic floor tissues and muscles if a vaginal delivery was initially attempted, and then in order to access the baby for delivery the abdominal wall tissues and muscles are injured as they are cut to access the baby therefore also need time to heal and recover. We know the scar takes at least 3 months to heal to a reasonable strength when it can then start tolerating more stress and loading. Due to these significant effects on the structures around the pelvic floor and pelvis it is very important to allow time for these injured tissues to recover follow childbirth, and to rehabilitate them in a safe manner. Pelvic health physios can help to guide women in this recovery, as well as check if there has been injury to the pelvic floor muscles or other structures during childbirth. Allowing the appropriate time to recover and rehabilitate from the normal adaptions from pregnancy, childbirth and the potential injuries that may have occurred is beneficial to optimize recovery and to address any symptoms or difficulties women may be having in the 4th trimester, but also to reduce the risk of pelvic health problems later in life. Pelvic floor physical therapy has been proven to reduce the risk of pelvic organ prolapse, urinary, bowel, and sexual dysfunction and pelvic pain.
post pregnancy physiotherapy

When to begin Pelvic Health Physiotherapy;

It is highly recommended to start pelvic floor physiotherapy around 6 weeks following delivery. This is to screen for any potential injuries, and to help to guide recovery including exercise and return to sports and fitness whether your goal is circus performing, running 5km or 50km. Having said that, it is never too late to see a pelvic floor physio. Many pelvic health symptoms that occur after having children and are often thought to be a ‘normal’ consequence are in fact common but not normal. They are a sign of pelvic floor dysfunction and often respond very well to pelvic health physiotherapy. A good example of this is leaking when you cough, sneeze or jump on a trampoline- this is common but not normal!

Postpartum physio can also help with:

    • Difficulty peeing or emptying the bladder, leakage of urine, and bladder urgency or frequency
    • Constipation, difficulty with bowel movements, and leakage of bowels
    • Painful sex, diminished or absent orgasm
    • Separation of the abdominal muscles
    • Restoring core function and strength of the abdominals and pelvic floor
    • Pelvic floor and pelvic girdle, low back, and hip pain
    • Caesarean section and episiotomy scar tissue and pain
    • Pelvic organ prolapse prevention and/or treatment
    • Eliminate pain from trauma to the pelvic floor and muscles
    • Reduce pain from nerve damage in the pelvic and pelvic floor
Postnatal physiotherapy helps with this and really should be a standard part of our healthcare as it is in France! As a profession we are excited that the upcoming ACC Maternal Birth Injury coverage will improve access for many new mothers to undergo postnatal rehabilitation- more on that in our next post. Our Pelvic Health Physiotherapy team at Active Health are here to help you recover and live your best life! Call us at 03-383-6290 to see one of our team.