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Cleaning Up Fall's Beauty
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Many of my patients are taking weekend drives to admire the beautiful fall foliage. This time of year you can't help but take in the beauty of our surroundings. My home town of Clarion is known as the autumn leaf capitol of the world, and is home to the Autumn Leaf Festival. My personal favorites are maple trees with their vibrant reds. It is all so beautiful but when we get back home from those scenic drives we have to clean up the leaves that are no longer part of their tree.
I know that raking leaves is second nature to most of us because we have been doing it most of our lives, however; each year we do it we are a little bit older and need to take care of our bodies a little bit more. The first time that most of us go out and rake leaves we feel pretty good until later that night or even until the next morning and then we feel as though we were run over by a truck. Why is that? Raking leaves is such a benign activity that it shouldn't bother us at all. The problem lies in the way we do it. Most people whenever they rake using a pulling and twisting motion that is not typical in our daily routine. Whenever we do an activity for the first time that our muscles are not accustomed to it can cause strain within those muscles.
The one thing that you need to remember to help prevent yourself from feeling the stiffness and soreness usually associated with the "post-rake" is to stretch your hamstrings. A simple bend at the waist to touch your toes (keep your knees straight, and don't bounce) to stretch your hamstrings will do quite a lot for keeping your low back at ease. Hold each stretch for about 8 seconds come back up and do it again. There are many varieties of hamstring stretches, but keeping your feet together and bending at the waist works just fine. Do this several times before and after you rake and you will notice that your back will feel much better the next morning than you are used to.
You might be asking yourself why you have to stretch your legs to help your lower spine. As we age, our muscles begin to shrink or more accurately shorten. Whenever we were younger we could do anything and not worry about stretching, but we were much more flexible then. So as we get older we must make a point to stretch more and stretch better. This keeps our body more limber and more able to bounce back from injury, fatigue, and general soreness.
One other quick tip before I sign off, try to rake leaves whenever they are dry. It can make a world of difference in their weight while carrying/dragging/disposing of them. Later this week I promise I will talk to you more about headaches and we will get back on track. I felt I needed to write this for all of us who will be raking later this week and the weekend, as I'm sure I will be. I think I probably needed this reminder just as much as you.
