Now that the weather is cooling off a bit, it is time to pull weeds, plant new flowers, and catch up with our garden. Keeping a garden can feel like a full-time job, and can be really tiring on your body. The last thing you feel like doing after gardening is going to the gym and getting a workout in. Make the most of your time by achieving your workout goals while grooming the flower beds. Being outside already improves your mental health, so why not take advantage and work your physical health as well. The workout is over when your lawn and garden looks its best.
Just as you have ‘Arm Day’ or ‘Leg Day’ at the gym, now you can add ‘Gardening Day’. Between pushing a lawn mower and lifting the hanging baskets, Gardening Day quickly turns into a full body workout.
One way to truly turn this into a workout is by using the farthest spigot to fill your watering can. If you are working on the front yard, use the spigot in the back to fill up the watering can. Walking around the house with the extra weight may not feel like a big deal now, but you will feel sore and stronger tomorrow. Does the exercise named Farmer’s Walk make a little more sense now?
The best part about this workout is the distraction. When you are transporting hanging baskets full of flowers from their holding place in the garage to the front porch, you aren’t thinking about it as a workout, but instead as decorating or doing something you love. Even though you aren’t thinking about it as lifting, you are using your upper back muscles and core to get that basket over your head. You are doing the same thing when you lift the bags of mulch, push the lawn mower, or even rolling up the hose.
Throughout your gardening, you will be doing a ton of squatting to pick up different things and to move tools and plants around. Add an extra glute workout by holding a lunge while pulling your weeds. This will protect your knees from the normal position to weed and as you move down the flower bed, switch the leg you have forward. Just holding a lunge for 30 to 40 minutes can burn the same amount of calories as a quick walk or bike ride.
Make sure to keep everything even. This may be the most difficult part of using gardening as a workout. If you are right-handed, you are more likely to start digging with your right-hand. Try to make a conscious effort to switch hands halfway through. This will tire out and strengthen the muscles in both arms rather than overloading your dominant side.
