How To Get Fit In The Garden
There's an added benefit to gardening other than growing plants. It's keeping fit. And it's more than mere exercise.
We tend to overlook the fact that everyday gardening is more than a productive way to grow beautiful plants and obtain tasty fruits and vegetables. How many gardeners ever considered the immense amounts of exercise one can get in the process of gardening.
While you can get almost as much muscle (if not more) exercise as you do working out, it is very productive at the same time.
How could gardening possibly give as much exercise as working out? Just think about all the various facets of preparing a garden.
There are holes to be dug, bags and pots to be carried, and weeds to be pulled.
Doing all of these things help to work out almost every group of muscles in your body.
Here's a tip. Before you go out into your garden, you should always stretch out.
Even if your goal isn’t to work out and get exercise, it’s still a good idea.
Often gardeners spend long periods of time hunched over or bent over. This can be bad for your back.
So not only should you stretch out before hand, but you should always take frequent breaks if you’re spending long amounts of time in these positions.
Believe it or not, weeding and pruning are some of the best workouts a gardener can get.
With the constant crouching and standing, the legs get a great workout.
If your weeds are particularly resistant, your arms will become particularly toned just from the effort required to remove them from the ground.
If you plan on taking the whole workout think very seriously, you should always be switching arms and positions to spread out the work between different areas of your body.
One of the most obvious ways to get exercise is in the transporting and lifting of bags and pots.
Between the nursery and your house, you will have to move the bags multiple times (to the checkout, to your car, to your garden, and then spreading them out accordingly).
As long as you remember to lift with your legs and not your back, transporting bags and pots can give you a fairly big workout, even though you probably don’t make those purchases very often.
And while we might complain about mowing our lawns this can also be a great exercise.
If you’ve got an older mower that isn’t self propelled, just the act of pushing it through the grass will give you more of a workout than going to the gym for a few hours.
During the course of mowing the grass, you use your chest, arms, back, and shoulder to keep the mower ahead of you.
Your thighs and butt also get worked a lot to propel the mower.
Not only do you get an all around muscle work out, but it can improve your heart’s health.
It’s good for you as a cardiovascular activity, as well as a great way to lose weight due to the increased heart rate and heavy breathing.
If you plan on using gardening as a way to get in shape or lose some weight, you can hardly go wrong.
Just be sure to stretch out, drink plenty of water, and apply sunscreen.
As long as you take steps to prevent the few negative effects such as pulled muscles, dehydration and sunburn, I think you’ll have a great time and end up being a healthier person because of it.
So in future, instead of thinking of getting into your garden as you normally do - thinking of the exercise and the free workout you'll be getting - by staying at home.
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Neil Smith has written extensively on life (and how to deal with it) including 3 non-fiction books and numerous blogs. To read how he went from zero to hero while solving a ghostly mystery CLICK HERE.
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We tend to overlook the fact that everyday gardening is more than a productive way to grow beautiful plants and obtain tasty fruits and vegetables. How many gardeners ever considered the immense amounts of exercise one can get in the process of gardening.
While you can get almost as much muscle (if not more) exercise as you do working out, it is very productive at the same time.
How could gardening possibly give as much exercise as working out? Just think about all the various facets of preparing a garden.
There are holes to be dug, bags and pots to be carried, and weeds to be pulled.
Doing all of these things help to work out almost every group of muscles in your body.
Here's a tip. Before you go out into your garden, you should always stretch out.
Even if your goal isn’t to work out and get exercise, it’s still a good idea.
Often gardeners spend long periods of time hunched over or bent over. This can be bad for your back.
So not only should you stretch out before hand, but you should always take frequent breaks if you’re spending long amounts of time in these positions.
Believe it or not, weeding and pruning are some of the best workouts a gardener can get.
With the constant crouching and standing, the legs get a great workout.
If your weeds are particularly resistant, your arms will become particularly toned just from the effort required to remove them from the ground.
If you plan on taking the whole workout think very seriously, you should always be switching arms and positions to spread out the work between different areas of your body.
One of the most obvious ways to get exercise is in the transporting and lifting of bags and pots.
Between the nursery and your house, you will have to move the bags multiple times (to the checkout, to your car, to your garden, and then spreading them out accordingly).
As long as you remember to lift with your legs and not your back, transporting bags and pots can give you a fairly big workout, even though you probably don’t make those purchases very often.
And while we might complain about mowing our lawns this can also be a great exercise.
If you’ve got an older mower that isn’t self propelled, just the act of pushing it through the grass will give you more of a workout than going to the gym for a few hours.
During the course of mowing the grass, you use your chest, arms, back, and shoulder to keep the mower ahead of you.
Your thighs and butt also get worked a lot to propel the mower.
Not only do you get an all around muscle work out, but it can improve your heart’s health.
It’s good for you as a cardiovascular activity, as well as a great way to lose weight due to the increased heart rate and heavy breathing.
If you plan on using gardening as a way to get in shape or lose some weight, you can hardly go wrong.
Just be sure to stretch out, drink plenty of water, and apply sunscreen.
As long as you take steps to prevent the few negative effects such as pulled muscles, dehydration and sunburn, I think you’ll have a great time and end up being a healthier person because of it.
So in future, instead of thinking of getting into your garden as you normally do - thinking of the exercise and the free workout you'll be getting - by staying at home.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neil Smith has written extensively on life (and how to deal with it) including 3 non-fiction books and numerous blogs. To read how he went from zero to hero while solving a ghostly mystery CLICK HERE.
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