4/30/09

Yoga for Gardeners

May: The gardens in Corvallis are in full GROW mode. Tulips, dogwood, redbud, cherry trees, and lilac are all blooming in the studio garden. The weeds are growing faster than I can keep up. Mulch needs to be spread. The amazing miracle of spring is at hand.

And with all the garden work pending, people start coming to the studio with common gardener's aches and pains: low back, knees, ankles, wrists, shoulders .... lots of body parts getting a different kind of work out than they are accustomed to.

My advise: take a short walk before you get down in the dirt. Limber up your muscles. Then watch the clock, get up out of the dirt and stretch every 30 to 45 minutes. Take another short walk around your garden. Smell the flowers, enjoy the fruit of your labors. Then settle back into the gardening at hand.

Here are a couple short yoga break sequences for gardeners. Improvise around these stretches the next time your out in the garden. The exact sequence is not so important, let your body move through and around these ranges of motion.

A yoga break for gardeners: