Yoga helps gardeners avoid aches, injuries
New York -- My neighbor Bill Fidelo gingerly lowered himself into a chair in my office one day in the spring. "I hurt my back," he said. "It's been three weeks, and I'm just starting to get back to normal."
Fidelo, a garden designer based in Brooklyn, had been standing with one foot on a ladder while reaching up to untwine a vine from a wire when something snapped.
"I should have known better," he said, "but I do this every year."
To many gardeners his story may sound familiar. The first daffodil bloom of the spring is like a gun at the starting gate. Out we go, full force and out of shape, to take on some of the most demanding tasks of the year. Then comes the therapy: ice packs and analgesics for bruised muscles and stiff joints.
But here and there, gardeners are using yoga as a pre-emptive strike for garden aches and injuries. Horticultural groups offering yoga instruction include the Catskill Native Nursery in Kerhonkson, N.Y., which held its first "Yoga for Gardeners" workshop in June, and the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, Mass., which now offers yoga classes every week.
"Backaches are the main complaint," said Elisabeth Cary, the garden's education director. Rolling boulders and the continuous squat-stand-bend-twist of planting and weeding are hard on the body. But it is not the action that may cause pain so much as the inaction of winter armchair gardening.
"A ballet dancer warms up for hours to perform for a half-hour," said Mina Hamilton, a yoga teacher and the author of "Serenity to Go: Calming Techniques for Your Hectic Life" (New Harbinger Publications, 2001). "But a gardener doesn't warm up at all and then goes out to spend three or four hours crouching over flower beds, weeding, shoveling -- doing really hard labor."
I have certainly had my share of pains and remedies. I have had steroid shots in my back, twice. I have worn a corset like Scarlett O'Hara's, which did not help my sciatica (or my figure). I have consulted masseurs, physical therapists, an acupuncturist and chiropractors. In fact, it was my last chiropractor who recommended Hamilton, who teaches yoga to gardeners (and nongardeners) in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and in Manhattan.
I used to have annual spring maladies from too much gardening too soon, but not anymore. Yoga helps me focus on my body mechanics. I am more mindful of the muscles involved. I move more slowly, and most of all I remember to breathe.
Breathing sounds as simple as, well, breathing, but we all tend to inhale and hold our breath during exertion. I have learned to inhale and exhale normally when I lift a heavy pot or walk up a steep slope. Every now and again, I let out a deep sigh. A sigh is not a kvetch in yoga. It is a good thing.
Vandita Kate Marchesiello, an instructor at the Albany Kripalu Yoga Center and its former director, is also a devoted gardener. She said the best stretches for gardeners may be the ones learned by yoga beginners. She also pointed out how much these activities have in common. "When you are focused on the earth, working in the soil, pulling weeds, it is very therapeutic," she said. "Gardening is meditation in motion."
Every yoga session begins with a relaxation exercise, and Hamilton recommends one for gardeners. Sit in a straight-back chair with both feet on the ground and your hands resting on your thighs. Then lengthen the spine upward. Do not go into a ramrod-straight military posture, but respect the curves of the back. The objective is to feel a gentle upward lengthening, with shoulders and face relaxed. Sit for a minute, breathing slowly and deeply.
My friend Fidelo would have been smart to relax in this manner before taking on the twisted bignonia vine. "The mind is willing," he said, "but the body is a few weeks behind." He swears he will begin stretching when his back fully recovers.
Hamilton discourages gardeners from taking on difficult tasks like starting a chain saw at the end of the day, "when you are tired and more apt to have an accident." Besides, focusing on the tasks of the day throws the big picture out of focus.
Since I took up yoga five years ago, I have learned to spend the last minutes of the gardening day just looking and gently reviewing what I have accomplished. "This is the most important thing yoga can offer to a gardener," Hamilton said, "learning to appreciate the fruits of his labors."
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