Your spring back pain isn't just from gardening
Every spring I start seeing the same thing in the clinic. People come in with low back pain, or sciatica running down one leg, and they blame the garden. The weeding. The planting. A morning of bending over that they weren't quite ready for.
And sure, that's part of it. But here's what I've noticed: the garden doesn't create the problem. It just reveals what was already there. Like a plant shoot that was always going to push through — it just needed the ground cleared first.
Pain is stuckness
In East Asian medicine, pain means something isn't moving. Blood, energy, fluid — something has stagnated, and the body is letting you know. Spring is when your system is trying to shift gears after months of winter stillness. That's a lot to ask of a back that hasn't moved much since November.
The Wood Element — which governs spring — is also the element of wind, change, and transition. When that energy gets stuck instead of flowing, it often lands in the low back and hips. The sciatic nerve is a common path for that stagnation to travel.
The good news is that the body is wise. It knows how to heal. Sometimes it just needs a reminder.
We get things moving — often not where you expect
Most people come in expecting needles in their back. That's rarely where we start. Some of the most effective points for low back pain and sciatica are on the hands and feet — distal points that get the whole channel moving without touching the area that hurts. Patients are often surprised. Sometimes the relief is immediate. Sometimes it takes a few sessions. Both are normal.
Think of it like the garden. Sometimes all you need to do is move some rocks, pull a few weeds, add some fertilizer — and the plant does the rest. The body is the same way. Get the stagnation moving and it often resolves on its own.
Don't wait it out
Spring back pain that gets ignored tends to become summer back pain. If the pattern shows up every year around this time, that's useful information — it means there's something worth addressing, not just managing.
If you're on the Olympic Peninsula and this sounds familiar, come in for a free consultation. Let's take a look at what's stuck.
Jason Taylor is a licensed acupuncturist and East Asian Medicine Practitioner based in Sequim, Washington, specializing in Five Element acupuncture.