Spring is here! As the weather warms, seeds spring to life, buds burst, and our gardens call. One of the first tasks in any garden is turning over the soil. This usually entails using a shovel or spading fork. Careful! Wrong use can quickly bring soreness and possibly exacerbate otherwise dormant back issues. Right use, on the other hand, is easy to learn and will make your work as light as the proverbial spring breeze, ensuring you have plenty of energy to enjoy the roses you cultivate!

Using a shovel or spading fork impacts two main areas of the body: the back and the shoulders. The key points to remember are:

• Use your inner corset.
• Keep your shoulders back.
• Hinge from your hips.

Let's start from the beginning. As you pick up your instrument of soil improvement-be it a shovel or spading fork-invoke your inner corset. This ring of muscles will lengthen and stabilize your spine, and create a firm foundation of power for the work ahead. Keep those muscles engaged throughout.

Gently squeezing the inner corset provides a good platform for the upper body. Let the shoulders roll back into their natural position at the back of the rib cage. Don't let them fall forward and constrict the chest and the circulation to the arms. Picking up the shovel with the shoulders back transmits the weight of the shovel through the body to the heels.

With the upper body prepared, you are now ready to dig. Put the tip of the shovel into the ground and lean into it-hinging at the hips. Be careful not to round the back as may have been your habit before. Next, as you put your foot on the shovel, use your full weight to sink the shovel into the ground. As you lift a shovel-full, maintain awareness of your back and shoulders; try to maintain length in the spine and relaxation at the front of the shoulders in the pectoral area.

Hiphinging, inner corset and posterior shoulder placement while digging (Portugal)

Using tools in accordance with your natural architecture will make your work efficient and pleasurable. Enjoy! And don't forget to smell the roses.

Esther

Quote of the month

"What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it."
~ Charles Dudley Warner, 1829-1900
My Summer in the Garden, 1891

Useful links

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Book: 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back

Video presentation: authors@Google

News of the month

Gokhale Method 101 comes to ten cities in the U.S. beginning in April. Please click the links below for schedules:

• San Francisco, CA
• Ann Arbor, MI
• Boston, MA
• Boulder, CO
• Chicago, IL
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Phoenix, AZ
• Portland, OR
• Providence, RI
• San Diego, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington DC

Gokhale Method Level 1 teacher training launches in April 2009.

Success story of the month

"As one of many, many positive changes the technique has offered: I was always freezing at night - my hands and feet were always cold and we had a space heater on the floor of our bedroom to augment the incredibly wasteful central heating we always had running. It's been getting better and better - heat no longer needed, mountains of blankets reduced to molehills, my husband no longer roasting like a chicken every night - but last night I actually went to sleep without needing or wanting to wear socks!

As an added bonus, we now no longer have to run the heat all the time, saving about the cost of the GM 101 course.

My favorite part is that this is a technique I'm responsible for using myself - it's not something someone else does "to" me. Cortisone shots, constant adjustments, massages, even acupuncture (as necessary as it is right now) make me feel removed from myself, take way too much time, cost too much and tend to allow me to create for myself a very tempting illusion that I'm related to my body in the same way I'm related to my car: if it needs service, take it in, pay the mechanic; it's someone else's problem if it's broken and if they can't fix it, better go find another mechanic or get stranded in the center lane of the highway in a broken "car."

With this method, I can step up and be responsible for helping myself. Very empowering."

~ Nichole Edraos,
Senior Administrator,
SolFocus, Inc.