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Get Fit By Gardening
Trying your hand at gardening may be a best-kept
secret to getting and staying in shape.
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By Star Lawrence
WebMD Feature
Gardening can be a great workout and boost for body
and soul -- if you do it right.
Sharon Lovejoy, author of Country Living Gardener: A
Blessing of Toads, tells WebMD she started gardening
as an infant. Her grandmother, not her mother, was
the gardener in the family. "I think it often skips
a generation," she says.
The
key, Lovejoy says, is to see gardening not as a
punishment but a joy. "You should feel lucky to be
outside in the garden," she says.
And
maybe healthier, too. And not just from eating
veggies you grew yourself.
Aerobic Gardening
Gardening provides all three types of exercise:
endurance, flexibility, and strength.
Jeff
Restuccio, author of Fitness the Dynamic Gardening
Way, is a first-degree black belt but found he was
getting more exercise playing in the garden with his
kids. "I like gardening because it's purposeful," he
tells WebMD. "With food so cheap in the stores, you
may not save money growing your own, but the chances
are, if you grew it, your family will eat it."
He
suggests making your gardening into a structured
exercise routine, alternating light activities with
heavier ones, then a light one, and so on. Rake for
a while, then dig holes, then prune. "Exercise 30 to
60 minutes, then quit, whether everything is planted
or not," he advises.
"Stretch first!" Lovejoy begs. "You'd stretch before
going to the gym, wouldn't you?"
Restuccio also recommends concentrating on deep
breathing while you work -- and increasing your
range of motion, exaggerating the raking motion or
the digging motion. "You can use up 500 calories an
hour that way," he says (official counts put
gardening activities at the 100- to 200-per-hour
calorie-burning level).
He
also recommends raking right-handed 15 times, then
left-handed 15 times.
"If
you think double digging (going down a foot, turning
the soil over, then down another foot, bringing that
soil to the top) isn't exercise," he says, "you
haven't tried it."
Gardening is something parents and kids can do
together. "Never make cutting the grass or helping a
punishment," she urges.
"When I go into the schools, I see so many more
obese kids than I did 20 years ago," Lovejoy says.
"I think parents are afraid to let them out."
You
never know where those seeds, if you will pardon the
expression, will fall or when they will sprout.
"Many of us probably had to weed the garden," Sandra
Mason, an extension educator in horticulture and
environment at the University of Illinois, tells
WebMD. "A lot of people come back to gardening later
-- maybe when they purchase a home."
Gardening as Therapy
The
American Horticulture Therapy Association
concentrates on the cleansing, calming benefits of
being in the natural world.
Lovejoy says studies have shown a link between ADHD
and insufficient outdoors time.
"Hospital patients also do better when looking at a
plant rather than a cinderblock wall," she says.
"Maybe that is how bringing flowers to the hospital
got started."
Older people, even those with memory problems,
thrive in a community gardening situation, according
to the AHTA.
Special gardens have also sprung up for the blind,
the wheelchair-bound (raised beds), and people with
mental disabilities.
Just
walking into a fragrant, warm greenhouse can change
someone's whole mood, Lovejoy points out.
Getting Started and Keeping It Up
When
you walk away from the garden, however, it doesn't
sit there like an elliptical trainer waiting for you
to come back. It starts changing. The keys to making
gardening a hobby you can maintain include:
Start small. A 4-foot by 6-foot bed can produce a
lot of tomatoes or cut flowers. Or you can garden in
containers, just be sure they are large enough that
they don't dry out too quickly. Containers are great
for city folk and those without a back 40, also.
Be
realistic. Peonies are not going to live in some
areas. You need to learn your growing region number
(check any catalog, because these will soon be a
part of your life, too). Stick with plants with a
chance of survival. Constantly killing inappropriate
species can rasp on your last nerve.
Don't do one activity each time you go out there.
"Switch every 30 minutes," Mason advises.
Take
regular breaks. "I sometimes put a rock or something
to show where I am quitting the weeding," Mason
says. You can also set a timer.
Lift
heavy bags carefully. Remember the old saying: Lift
with your legs. "Use your biggest, strongest muscles
for the heavy stuff," Mason notes. She also says to
watch the twisting. "We tend to lift a shovel of
dirt, then twist to the side to dump it. Move your
feet instead."
If
you have allergies, talk to your doctor about it.
Lovejoy doesn't stop gardening, she takes a
Benadryl. Mason points out that you can sort of de-allergize
your yard. "Plants pollinated by bees tend to have
heavier pollen that doesn't fly around as much,"
Mason says. "Wind-pollinated trees and plants tend
to cause more trouble."
Don't throw poison everywhere. This seems so
obvious, but when people see a bug, Lovejoy says,
they grab a can. "Usually a squirt of water to get
the bug off the plant does the trick," she says.
This goes for water gardens, too. Algaecides can
cause an imbalance. Instead, cover the surface with
as many lilypads as you can.
Don't flip for fertilizer, either. "Fertilizers are
like vitamins," Mason says. "What you have naturally
may be enough." Better to feed the soil with
compost, she says.
Check out all the new tools. Mason says there are
new implements for people with arthritic hands or
people with carpal tunnel syndrome (which she has).
"Certain gloves can improve your grip," she says.
If
you are heaving off the couch to garden, take it
slowly. Sedentary people who suddenly start
exercising vigorously risk injury.
Take
a nice hot bath after gardening. You've earned it!
Finally, "don't forget to enjoy your work," Mason
says. "Garden benches are meant to be sat on."
Mason adds: "Go out in your garden every morning.
Greet your garden. It will make you feel so good to
start the day."
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Source - WebMD Inc. All rights reserved. |
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