by Bob Niklewicz PT MG
Question 1: How many muscles are there in the Human Body? If you have read one of my previous articles, you would know you have about 600 muscles.
Question 2: How many muscles pump blood throughout your body? If you said, “one, the heart”? If you did, you would be mostly wrong. Yes, the heart, about the size of your fist, beats (contracts, then relaxes) about 100,000 times a day. If you multiply that over a lifetime, the amount of work done is staggering. Those 600 muscles (one being the heart) contracts then relaxes during use, too. The difference is the heart beats your whole life while the other muscles work as needed. One of those needs is walking.
As in anything active, start out by warming up. A slow, steady walk may be all you need. My rule of thumb is when you are wearing a sweatshirt with a zipper and feel a need to pull down the zipper, you are warmed up. Walking with comfortable shoes is a plus. Walking around your yard several times should do nicely. If you are walking intensely, such as on dirt hills paths or uneven surfaces, consider a walking stick for balance. Walk at a pace that is not stressful, so you can enjoy the view. You should swing your arms even if you are using a stick. Right hand forward when the left foot steps forward. If you are really into progress, learn to take your pulse or use your smart watch to give you a number. The target heart rate for conditioning is 100 beats per minute. If you just want to warm up, go for the Glow.
“If you are in a bad mood, go for a walk, if you are still in a bad mood go for another walk.”
Hippocrates
Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143. Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.
Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.
Photo credits: www.verywellfit.com, legs; Jeannette E. Warnert
By Bob Niklewicz PT MG
Archimedes once said, “Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world.”
In Mechanical Engineering terms Archimedes would be the force, the long stick would be the lever, the rock would be fulcrum or axis and the world would be the resistance or load. The longer the lever, the greater the mechanical force is multiplied and the easier it would be to move the resistance. Granted, it would have to be an incredibly long lever, but theoretically it could be done. (Figure 1) This set-up would be called a class 1 lever. We don't intend to move the world, so how does this apply to a gardener?
Mechanically, there are three classes of levers. Archimedes was using a class 1 lever. It is the same principle you use when you are on a seesaw with a child. The trick is where do you place the fulcrum. The closer the fulcrum is to the resistance (weight) and with a longer Lever, the more you can move. So a little person can lift a bigger person if the Fulcrum is closer to the big one. (Figure 2) In a smaller tool such as a pair of scissors or pruners, the screw or pin in the scissors or pruners, is the fulcrum. (Figure 3)
Have you noticed that when you try to use the tip of a long pair of scissors to cut something, it is harder to cut than if the cut is made closer to the screw? That is because leverage works both ways. The resistance at the tip can increase your effort to close the scissors. If the child on the left side in figure 2 was considered to be at the tip of a pair of scissors, the person on the right side would be considered the effort to move the child on the left. More effort (weight) is needed on the right to close the scissors. So when cutting an item, branch, stem, cord etc, try to get the item as close as possible to the fulcrum. That will take less force from your hand and less strain to your muscles.
How about if you are digging up rocks or weeds? Lengthening the lever or moving the fulcrum closer to the object to be moved will make the job easier. In figure 4 there are two weeders. The one on the top has a greater curve, (think bigger fulcrum) that will make it a little easier to get results for digging smaller weeds. In figure 5 there is a longer handle and it is using a piece of wood as a Fulcrum close to the weed to pop the weed up. In figure 6 you simply push down from higher up on the handle (longer lever) and up the weed comes.
For the bigger pruning jobs, what else could you use? How about some long handled loppers, figure 7. They work well on the bigger branches having longer handles that gives you more leverage. Also note the size of the jaws in figure 8. They are short so you have to use them close to the fulcrum, but very wide to tolerate the force the long handles generate.
Use tools that allow you to “leverage” a task without hurting your body. Be an Archimedes, not a patient. Watch for part 2 on gardening using leverage in the next post of Spill the Beans.
Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143. Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.
Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.
Photo credits:
Information links:
UHSBerkeley.edu-ergonomics tips for gardening at home
https://uhs.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/ergonomics_tips_for_gardening_at_home.pdf
By Bob Niklewicz PT MG
The word Ergonomics does come from Ergon “work” and Nomos “natural laws.” Ergonomics means the working body should function at optimal level within physiological limits. One of the KEYS to doing this is to have an unobstructed circulation network that delivers nutrients to all cells throughout the body, simultaneously, removing the waste products that metabolism produces. I call this system the “Nutrient Pathway.” This vascular system is vital in maintaining the health of the tissues in all vascularized living things. It is always under-appreciated.
Mammals as well as plants require this kind of circulation system. In the case of humans, the fluid circulated is called, blood and in Plants it is sap. Simply put, blood is transported through arteries and veins, while in plants, nutrients are transported through the phloem and xylem.
The stem has the darker green phloem carrying nutrients up from the roots then to the leaves and back to the roots. The purplish tissue is the xylem that carries nutrients upwards from the ground to the leaves.
In the muscle, arteries are seen as red tube endings, and the veins are shown as the blue tube endings. They provide channels for the nutrient pathway to work in mammals. One of the causes of loss of circulation is compression of these tissues. In the plant, compression can be from a tie that is too tight, or when the stem is bent. That reduces the patency, and the flow of nutrients. In a muscle contraction that is of long duration with high force intensity and high frequency will be compression of the vessels in that muscle. This compromises the circulation to that muscle, building up metabolic waste products.
Reaching forwards and/or overhead with a heavy tool can cause decreased circulation in the shoulders, neck and mid back. In this case, it can cause a hospital visit.
One more thing: Your heart is a muscle too. As such, it also has a circulation network to feed it. When you restrict the circulation to the skeletal muscles (the body's motors) by keeping them tight for long periods of time your system becomes pressurized.
If the blood vessels to those muscles are compressed from holding things tight for prolonged periods, your heart has to work harder to get the blood moving. When the heart contracts it is pushing blood out to muscles. If vessel flow is restricted by hard compression, it takes more power/pressure to get the blood through the muscle.
For example, hand watering your plants and the stream can easily reach the back row of plants. If you step forwards and inadvertently step on the hose, the stream is reduced and only hits the middle row. Furthermore, the hose behind your foot starts to build up pressure. When you notice, you step off and the rush of pressurized water shoots up through the nozzle and you water the fence behind the last row.
The same thing happens in your heart when you sustain an awkward posture, generate force that tightens the muscles and makes the heart work harder to move the blood to where it is needed. So, spend some extra time taking an “ergo break” that will help your heart.
Do you appreciate the nutrient pathway a little more?
Information links:
UC Berkeley-Ergonomics tips for gardening
https://uhs.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/ergonomics_tips_for_gardening_at_home.pdf
by Bob Niklewicz PT MG
Did you know you have 209 bones in your body? The word bone in Greek is “osteon.” It is commonly used as a prefix to refer to issues of the bones. Each bone has two ends and where they meet another bone, that area is is called a joint. In Greek, joint = “arthro.” If joints are overused they become inflamed. The Latin suffix for inflammation = “itis.” Each joint can suffer from wear and tear with inflammation pain and that is called arthritis. More specifically, it would be osteo-arthritis.
The body also has over 600 muscles. The medical prefix for muscle is “myo”. Each muscle has a tough connector at each end called a tendon. If a muscle is inflamed it is called myositis. The terms osteoarthritis and myositis often refer to overuse of those joints and muscles. The good news is that with a little planning, using the right tool and knowledge, much of the pain from those conditions could be minimized while in the garden.
The diagram of the Patellar tendon at the knee is commonly injured.
These are just a couple of the things that keep your body moving and a couple of examples of what can go wrong, mechanically, to your body. Ergonomics is the science concerned with the design, use, and user education for reduction of injury while gardening or at a desk. Ergonomic awareness will help reduce the chances of injury yourself.
Ergonomics is not a quick fix to all the problems of pain and soreness of an injured gardener. Ergonomics is something that will neither improve your endurance or your morale by just talking about it. It cannot reverse degenerative changes to the body or guarantee that you will not get hurt again.
Ergonomics will give you a way to start looking for habits, postures, tools and activities that may be a source against muscle and joint discomfort. In the long run, smart ergonomic practices enhance the aftermath of a great day in the yard when enjoying a glass of your favorite iced beverage instead of applying that ice on what hurts.
Ergonomic awareness in the garden will give you options to improve the efficiency of performing yard projects and promote safety. It can help reduce the problems of fatigue, joint and muscle soreness.
Did you know? By the time you turn 70, your heart will have beat some two-and-a-half billion times (figuring on an average of 70 beats per minute.) No wonder we feel a little tired at the end of the day. Thank goodness for the powerhouse of life in our chests.
References: UW Extension-Gardening Exercises and Body Mechanics https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/sewmg/files/2016/07/LLGExercisesMechanicsHandout-Feb-2017.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiV3-Trjbv4AhXTD0QIHSeZAz8QFnoECAYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3zRO6pyGgkPQ5I9LXInyGR
ACE Physical Therapy & Sports medicine institute-Working on the garden and preventing injury https://www.ace-pt.org/ace-physical-therapy-and-sports-medicine-institute-working-in-the-garden-and-preventing-injury/
Photo credits: https://springloadedtechnology.com/guide-to-severe-knee-osteoarthritis/ ; fix-knee-pain.com
Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143. Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.
Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.
Editor's note: Master Gardeners are keeping busy in their own gardens during Napa County's “Shelter in Place” directive. It's spring, it's getting warmer, it's a great time to work in the garden! Here's how Master Gardeners are spending their time:
by Yvonne Rasmussen
Walking around my block in between rain showers I noticed there were many wonderful smells. The line from an old Lynyrd Skynyrd song started to play in my brain but I changed it a little: “Ooh that smell, can't you smell that smell, the smell of LIFE surrounds you.” Come along with me on my olfactory tour of my neighborhood.
Leaving my back door I was greeted by the scent of fresh cut lawn and lilac. Aha! I didn't know the lilac was blooming. As I rounded the corner, the pungent, buttery scent of the nectarine, peach and plum trees almost done blooming filled my nose with a promise of future bounty. The roses along the driveway have begun to bloom adding their soft genteel sweetness to the air. The comforting scents of resin and pine pitch warmed by the sun exude from a pile of large pine logs, cut down and left in place being too big to move. This large tree had succumbed to pine pitch canker many years before. This smell takes me back to happy memories of camping trips and mountain hikes from my youth. The soft scent of green grass and weedy flowers wafted past me from the open field, mixed with the faint barnyard smells from the neighbors' distant animals.
I can hear the sounds of the goats, horses and chickens chattering in the distance. Fresh earth turned over from a neighbor installing irrigation in their new front yard mixes with the scent of crushed oak tree leaves and blooming wisteria that arches over their entrance gate. I see children bouncing around in living rooms and the pleasant welcoming smells of breakfast cooking, bacon and coffee the most recognizable of those smells, along with other unknown wonders of warm food for a morning meal. Walking along the river the musty, swampy smell of slow water mixes with the scent of trees along the waterways as willow, bay and oaks lean over the creek. Going past the wineries, I catch a whiff of fermentation and wine barrels.
Then, walking past Jessel Gallery I catch some smells of fresh paint from the paintings set out to dry and oxidation from rusting metal of the many whimsical sculptures in front of the store. Rounding the corner, going past another artist studio, Gordon Huether provides me with smells of welding, hot metal and glass being molded into grand sculptures. On the final stretch, rambling back toward home, I pass a row of old roses beginning to bloom on their twisting, gnarled trunks. Maybe they're not as pretty as they once were, but still put forth fabulous fragrance for all to enjoy. The blooming flowers or catkins of oaks and walnuts produce copious amounts of pollen raining down on the wild radish mixing with the smell of cows and horses in the pasture. And finally, I'm back to my warm, cozy, homey smells of roasted vegetables, baked pumpkin pie and fresh brewed coffee and tea. All these smells contribute their fragrance to the mosaic that is my neighborhood. Welcome home.
Informational links:
Scientific American publication-Nov 11, 2002, 'Do scents affect people's mood or work performance?'
By: Rachel S. Herz, an assistant professor of psychology at Brown University
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-scents-affect-peoples/
UC Integrated Pest Management
Lilac info- http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS/lilac.html
Peach info- http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/selectnewpest.peach.html
Pine pitch canker- http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74107.html
Wisteria info- http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS/wisteria.html
Rose info- http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS/rose.html
Walnut info- http://fruitandnuteducation.ucdavis.edu/fruitnutproduction/Walnut/
Oak info- http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS/oak.html
During Napa County's shelter in place directive that protects everyone's health and safety, Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143. Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.
Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.
Photo credits: Wisteria- Free photo, no attribution required; Cat- https://www.uihere.com/free-photos/selective-focus-photography-of-gray-cat-smelling-flower-bud-475864