If you want to get fit and lose a few pounds, would you prefer working out in a gym or working out in your back garden when the sun is shining?
Calories
According to experts, just a few hours of hard work in the garden can do wonders for your health, and it’s a good way of shedding a few calories. If you mow the lawn for over half an hour, you can use 200 calories. Dig out your vegetable patch for half an hour and lose another 250 calories. Weed the flower beds and you lose over 100 calories, and raking up the winter leaves will lose you another 100 calories. So for just two hours of gardening, you will lose over 650 calories, with no gym fees to pay.
Heart
Activity which leaves you slightly out of breath and raises your heartbeat is called moderate intensity exercise, which can help prevent heart disease. You will benefit from half an hour three times a week, so what better way to exercise than gardening?
Toning
It’s not just about calories either: you can tone up while doing your gardening. Hedge trimming will shape up your biceps, and mowing, raking and hoeing will strengthen your arms and shoulders while toning up your abdominal muscles. For toning your thighs and buttocks, squat down to lift or move objects. Make sure all the garden tools are kept clean and working correctly. Spare parts can be purchased from garden centres or hardware stores. For example, you can get Mountfield Spares from https://www.diyspareparts.com/parts/mountfield/.
Stress
You get a sense of wellbeing out in the fresh air working in the sunshine. Studies have shown that working with trees and plants can lower blood pressure, relieve tension in muscles and reduce stress. All the different sounds, smells and textures found in the garden can stimulate all the senses, bringing back memories from the past, which can help elderly gardeners connect to their past.
Responsible
Planting seeds and watching them grow into beautiful plants gives you a sense of achievement, and then nurturing them through winter months and hot balmy days knowing that you are responsible for this living thing raises your self-esteem.
Most of us enjoy a spot of gardening and if it helps us to keep in shape, what is there to lose?
