UPDATE – Gardening provides essential exercise for the body
Studies show that you can garden and keep healthy at the same time. It is claimed to give you a new zest for life and to make you feel younger. Here are some tips to tone your body while also tending to all your plants and flowers.
For the gardening and yard work to provide you with a beneficial work out for your body then you need to stick at it for at least thirty minutes a day, once you start to get in the swing of it then you will be wanting to do more and more.
To get the most benefits out of the work then use as little machinery as possible. It might take longer using manual bush clippers, trimmers and a push lawnmower but all this together could save you taking a trip to the gym. Make sure you work at a steady, constant speed to keep you heart rate up at a set level.
Make sure you change your jobs every ten minutes from pruning to weeding and so on or try and alternate the hand you are using.
Raking and carrying leaves is a good work out for the upper arms and will increase strength and flexibility. You can expend as much raking as you would taking a leisurely bicycle ride.
Gardening is brilliant to improve your strength, endurance and flexibility and it can also help reduce high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other medical risks. It will also help the local environment and wild life.
Trimming the trees and shrubs is the same as taking a walk at a moderate pace. Women in general can burn up to 300 calories with an hour of moderately strenuous gardening activities like digging and planting.
Once the garden is in a good condition (a garden can never be finished) you can sit back and relax as studies also show that being in the presence of trees and flowers reduce our stress levels.
Below is a little list of the activities you can do and how many calories you will lost over a 30 minute period. This is accurate to people who weigh over 12 stone.
- shoveling snow – 243
- mowing the lawn with a push mower- 243
- general gardening – 202
- digging, spading, tilling- 202
- clearing land – 202
- weeding – 182
- planting seeds/seedlings- 162
- watering lawn/garden – 61