Spring Cleaning: How to Sweep, Scrub, and Squat!
Tips and Tricks for Preventing Back, Hip and Neck Pain with Cleaning
Anyone else dreading spring cleaning?
I mean it’s bad enough to have to do but even worse if you experience hip, neck and back pain.
Good news, we’re going to share some tips on the blog today for good body posture/mechanics for various spring cleaning tasks!
Sweeping
If y’all are like me you sometimes let those dust bunnies go in hard to reach places until you just can’t stand it anymore then try to tackle them all in one day. It feels faster to just reach out with the broom and pull the dust/dirt towards you but doing this over and over again throughout the day can wreak havoc on your neck and back.
Try this instead:
Step as close as you can to the area you’re sweeping
Stagger your stance
Keep your spine straight and hinge from the hips
Use your lower abs to help support your spine with a slight pelvic tuck
Scrubbing
Okay…the dreaded baseboards. While it can feel faster and easier to bend over and scrub, your back will thank you for taking a little extra time to scrub in a better posture.
Here are some ideas for good scrubbing posture:
Kneel on floor or foam padding to bring yourself closer to the level of the baseboard
Crawl as close as you can to the object you’re scrubbing vs reaching out far away from your body
If kneeling doesn’t work for you - try using a vacuum extension or put a cleaning rag on the end of a broom so you don’t have to bend over as much to get the job done
Squatting
Does back pain emerge when you purge? While I love nothing more than a good decluttering session, it can sometimes leave me feeling achy in my back and neck from all the lifting and squatting.
Check out my video below on how to declutter in such a way that your back and neck don’t hate you the next day:
Hinge at the hips vs bending at the waist
Use your abs and glutes to help you lift and maintain good posture
Get as close as you can to the object you’re lifting
Keep the object close to your body as you lift
For heavier objects, squat lower to the object so you can really take advantage of your legs and glutes to help in the lift
Sit back into the heels to push up from the lift
It’s normal to be a little sore the day after your spring cleaning as you are using muscles in a way you don’t do regularly. However, it’s not normal to have sharp pain, pain that lingers 2-3 days and doesn’t improve over time, pain that radiates down into the arms or legs, or pain that is debilitating and prevents you from doing your day to day activities.
If you’re someone who dreads spring cleaning for the fear of injury, give us a call. We’d love to create an individualized strengthening/mobility program for you so that you can clean without fear!
If you haven’t signed up already, join us at Wise Bird Cider this Sunday (3/17/24) at 11am for some FREE CIDER and chatting about all things PT including pelvic floor, running, and posture!
Written by: Kelsey Karnes PT, DPT