Patty Brick, a gardener and physical therapist from New Jersey, is well-acquainted with sore back muscles and injuries to shoulders, elbows, wrists and hands caused by stressful repetitive motion in the garden.
"People are lifting heavy bags of mulch, repotting and replanting, moving shrubs. Everyone's trying to plant these beautiful planters, then lift them up," she says.
"It's a lot of work for weekend warriors trying to get all their gardening done."
Pruning, with its constant and forceful squeezing, is another big-time pain-producer.
"People will go and clean out an entire row of shrubs and not think anything of it, creating that same motion 100 to 200 times," Brick says. "Two days later, their wrist is bothering them and they don't understand the burning in their elbow that's radiating up to the shoulder."
It's called lateral epicondylitis, or tennis elbow.
Time to toss out the "weekend warrior" model, which gets a lot done on Saturday and causes miserable immobility on Sunday. Brick has a better idea, one she uses on the flower and vegetable gardens, shrubs, and containers on her own property.
She takes her time, making sure to work in two-hour sessions or so, with breaks in between.
"Give your muscles and joints a chance to recover from what you've done for the last two hours," she says.
Gardener David Siller only occasionally gets sore, which, for a 31-year-old bloke, is about as bad as it gets.
Siller farms for a co-operative in Pennsylvania, using his hands like any home gardener, but on a much grander scale.
Siller tries to stay mindful of his methods. When digging holes, for example, he won't jump on a shovel, over and over, with one foot. Better to evenly distribute the weight by using both feet.
Lifting is another problematic activity, as anyone who has ever lugged mulch bags across a paddock can attest.
Farmers at the co-operative routinely hoist 25kg boxes of cucumbers, watermelons, and eggplants - but not by bending at the waist. Siller bends his knees slowly, keeping his back straight.
He keeps in shape with runs and daily yoga.
"If I've been outside working hard all day in awkward positions planting ... you don't get to pay attention to your body as much," he says.
"Coming home, taking a moment to examine your body through breath and observation, that is a really powerful thing."
And it feels good, too.
