It’s that time of year when lawns are again growing, requiring our regular chore of mowing and trimming. Depending on the size of your lawn and the type of lawn mower you have, the job of mowing could be a quick and easy chore or a long and laborious chore that wears you out.

Smaller lawns go quick, but the larger the lawn, the longer it takes.

When I lived in Arizona, our front lawn was rock and our backyard was desert except for a 30-foot by 20-foot square of lawn for our girls. It didn’t take long at all to mow that.

Now I live in northern Kentucky and with the recent rains we’ve had, the lawns need mowing almost twice a week, providing you can find a dry day to mow. The grass here is also a thinker grass than what most had back in Arizona.

As much as I enjoy lawn work, mowing these days is a real chore because of my spinal injuries. Eleven of my 23 discs are damaged – 5 of 7 in the neck, 5 in the upper middle back between the shoulder blades and the disc at L4 in my lower back. Spine doctors have told me my neck is very unstable and all I can say is that it matches the head it holds up.

Mowing the grass these days causes a lot of pain and often pinched nerves in my neck and sometimes a really intense muscle spasm in my neck and shoulder. My yards aren’t that big, but it’s using my right arm and reaching when I mow that is the problem. I have limited range with my right arm due to my injuries.

I have a really good chiropractor who is well trained in sports injuries. I never believed in chiropractors until I saw what he did for my oldest daughter and then for me. A few years ago, I needed a new lawn mower and mentioned to him that I was thinking about a small riding mower, believing it would be easier on my neck and arms. He quickly told me that a riding mower would be the worse thing for me.

I asked him why a riding mower would be so bad, as I thought it would save my arms and neck. He told to place a Styrofoam cup of water on the seat of a riding mower, turn the mower on and then see what happens to the water in the cup. I didn’t have to actually do it as I understood what he was getting at as the vibration of the riding mower causes the water to jump all over the place. He explained that it would do the same to my spine meaning that the intense vibration of the mower would go right up the spine, aggravating all of the damaged discs and my compressed vertebra.

He went on to explain that anyone, especially older folks with any kind of chronic back injury or condition, should avoid using a riding mower. He said that he has seen a number of patients who had a riding mower with back problems and it only made their problems worse.

That’s why I’m warning all of you with any kind of chronic back issues to avoid using a riding mower.