Avoid aches and pains; Gardening.

Byline: By Hannah Stephenson

OH, how my back aches! Like most over-enthusiastic gardeners, I've overdone it on digging, weeding and planting during the few fine days we've had in the last week. And I'm paying for it.

I know they say an hour's hard graft in the garden is equivalent to a good session in the gym, but it can also put intense stress on the body.

You can burn 290 calories an hour weeding or 325 calories digging, but if you don't warm up properly and then over-exert yourself in spring after months of doing nothing in the garden, you're asking for trouble, says Jacqueline Knox, a Pilates expert and physiotherapist to the British rowing squad.

However, she says there are ways to garden which can alleviate aches and pains. Knox has now teamed up with garden designer Bunny Guinness to write Garden Your Way To Health And Fitness, a book offering exercise plans and injury prevention in the garden.

One in 20 of Knox's clients at her clinic in Tallington, Lincolnshire, is seeking help for a gardening injury.

"I have found that making very small changes to their gardening technique and showing them how to do some therapeutic, strengthening exercise before gardening and some stretching afterwards, causes many of their aches and pains to melt away," she says.

She advocates Pilates-based movements and body balancing - keeping your spine in a neutral position rather than slumped forward.

There are safe ways to carry out everyday tasks like pushing wheelbarrows, lifting heavy pots and picking low-lying fruit, she says, along with ways to alleviate backache, tennis elbow and other common gardening ailments.

When lifting heavy objects like potted plants, keep your back in a neutral position and take away the strain by bending your knees to go down for the object, then use your legs and abdominal muscles to lift it. Lift the pot with both hands, with one foot on the ground for stability, while the heel of the other foot can come off the ground as you rise to a standing position.

Post-gardening stretches should also lessen stiffness after a day's work and are essential if you've been doing something involving leaning over or kneeling for long periods, such as weeding, she says.

Garden Your Way To Health And Fitness, by Bunny Guinness and Jacqueline Knox, is published by Timber Press, priced pounds 14.99.