If your aging body isn’t as spry as it once was, you might find yourself feeling like you simply can’t take care of your yard and garden the way that you once could. Luckily, if you’re still wanting to take care of this part of your property all on your own, there are things that you can do to help make this much easier on you.
To help you see how this can be done, here are three ways to make yard work easier on an aging body.
Give Your Body Time To Warm Up
While you might like getting out into the yard or garden in the early morning hours to take advantage of the cooler weather, as you get older, you might want to stay inside for a bit longer until your body has a chance to warm up.
For many older people, it can take a few hours for their bodies to get a decent amount of mobility back in the morning. But if you try to start doing hard yard work or gardening early in the morning when you haven’t given your body a chance to acclimate and get warmed up, you’re increasing the chances of you pushing yourself too hard and getting injured. Additionally, you should start your yard work or gardening time doing simple, easy tasks before you jump to the more physically demanding tasks.
Use Helpful Tools
The tools that you might be used to using in your garden or to do yard work may not work for your body as well now that you’re getting older. But luckily, there are all kinds of ways to modify outdoor tools so that they are easier to use and don’t leave you feeling sore and achy.
If you’re used to a push mower, consider finding an inexpensive riding lawn mower to save you from having to walk around so much. Along with this, you can also get a weeder that you can use standing or tools with bigger and longer handles so that you don’t have to use as much range of motion.
Protect Your Back and Knees
When doing yard work, people’s backs and knees are the things that are most likely to get hurt from all of the hard work. This is why you often see older people or senior living communities having raised beds so that people don’t have to bend over or kneel down as much.
Another thing you can try to protect your back and knees is to make sure you’re wearing supportive shoes and using kneeling pads when you do need to get close to the ground.
If you love doing yard work but need to make some modifications now that you’re getting older, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you learn how this can be done.
