Spring Gardening: How to Recover After a Day of Heavy Lifting
Gardening involves a lot of "hinging"—bending over at the waist for hours at a time. This puts an incredible amount of strain on your erector spinae (the muscles along your spine) and your hamstrings. If you go straight from the garden to the sofa, those muscles will "freeze" in that shortened position, leading to that familiar Sunday morning stiffness.
The "Gardener's Protocol" should start within 30 minutes of coming inside:
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Lower Body Air Compression: Use the foot and calf airbags to flush out any swelling from standing or kneeling.
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Lumbar Heat: Enable this immediately. It draws blood to the lower back to repair the micro-tears from lifting bags of soil.
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The Bridge Stretch: Use a program that arches the back. This reverses the "hunching" you've been doing all day, opening up your chest and resetting your posture.