Why Your Garden May Be a Great Place To Exercise

I have shared many times recently that my parents had a love for gardening I believe part of that was because it helped them to relax. They both grew up in farm families and worked daily on the farm and that included in the fields and in the family garden. When they were married they moved to town and started a family and yet continued a family garden. I believe they found gardening to be a form of relaxation. It was good for their minds, body and soul. Gardening allows you to get a bit of exercise into your day and allows you to relax at the same time. Calories are burned off while you are having fun.

The activities and daily tasks of gardening allow gardeners to use all of their major muscle groups. Activities such as raking, hoeing, digging and bending to plant allows the gardener to use his aerobic body potentials and strengthen their muscles.

National Gardening Exercise Day occurs each year on June 6th. The day is to encourage gardeners to maximize the benefits from gardening by adding some stretches and a few extra steps and squats. Gardening has been known to be therapeutic and now it can also help build muscles and for burning calorie. Gardening includes walking back and forth as well as  bending up and down. Being outside in the garden offers fresh air and sunshine as well.

Just like with any other exercise there are a few things that you will want to do:

• start out slow 
• use both sides of the body equally. An easy way to do this is to change hands when doing garden chores such as raking or shoveling, switch hands every 5-10 minutes to give each side a good workout.
• don't forget to breathe
• lift with your legs, bending your knees. This will help protect your back
• Take in plenty of good H2O