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Be safe while raking leaves

Posted on Oct 27th 2007 11:16AM by Martha Edwards

Filed Under: Healthy Home, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness

Raking leaves doesn't seem like the kind of activity that can put you in harms way. But if you do it wrong, you could end up pulling a muscle or putting your back out, and then you'll have to explain how you injured yourself and man, how embarrassing would that be?

So here are some tips from the people at Everyday Health on protecting yourself while raking:

Wear warm clothes to keep your muscles warm
Do some gentle warm-ups before you start raking -- some twists, walking and leg stretches should do
Maintain good posture while you rake
Don't twist your back
Alternate the side of your body that you hold the rake with
Drink lots of water, and take a break if you're not used to exercise.

This is pretty good advice for any sort of active chore -- shovelling snow especially. Don't you think?

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1 Comment

Tags: injury, posture, pulled muscles, PulledMuscles, raking leaves, RakingLeaves

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

trevor 10-29-2007 @ 1:06AM

you can't state the obvious and pawn it off as fitness advice. anyone that rakes leaves has done it all their life and doesnt need to read this shit. did you seriously have nothing better to write? why not write something about how to effectively find local hiking paths to enjoy the fall weather with. why not write about different ways to make use of the leaves you rake. you suck.