The past and present years lead people to focus on their well-being and the state of their homes. Health occupies center stage because it is the one thing that acts as a defense against the virus, and home is in the limelight since it serves as a haven, especially during lockdowns. To pass the time, most people took to beautifying their homes, including their gardens. Plants helped alleviate some stress brought by the pandemic and are indeed here to stay even after the virus is finally gone.
Aside from its mental health benefits, gardening comes with physical health advantages because the process of raising plants involves light. Heavy physical activities can also be a great addition to your exercise routines.
Digging
When planting your seeds, the first step is to prepare your soil bed, which requires digging. You might think that your arms are the only ones moving, but your core muscles, legs, shoulders, and back are also involved. Since you need to perform the same actions for a couple of minutes, this part of gardening will undoubtedly have you sweating buckets.
Strength Training
Heavy lifting is also involved in some gardening processes. Sometimes after digging or hoeing, you’d have to move large rocks or debris from your soil beds and relocate them somewhere else. Carrying sacks of soil and other materials is also part of gardening, and if you don’t have a wheelbarrow, you need to move hefty loads on your shoulders. This part of gardening will help hone your various muscle groups and enhance your strength endurance, allowing you to take on more intensive tasks.
Use Tools and Equipment
Cardio without gym equipment is still an effective way to train and maintain your shape, but you can make your workouts more efficient by using the right tools needed for gardening. With the proper tools, you can accomplish some gardening tasks faster.
For instance, using a hoe requires you to make a rhythmic movement that will give your biceps and forearms a good workout. On the other hand, delivering debris and soil in a wheelbarrow and cutting grass using a lawnmower has you moving around the different points of your garden.
Adopt Proper Form
If you think about it, some forms you adopt during specific gardening tasks greatly resemble the exercises making up your routines. For example, raking and hoeing give you an arm workout that requires you to execute certain motions similar to popular patterns. Squatting is also a perfect example of this. When you uproot weeds and deal with pests damaging your garden, you bend low and squat almost unknowingly.
Besides adopting the proper form when performing some gardening tasks, it’s also important to be mindful of the pests you encounter and leave them to professional exterminators so that you can exercise and garden safely.
Immerse in Light Tasks
Some gardening tasks aren’t as strenuous as digging and hauling hefty items. However, they can still help you burn as many calories as intensive workouts can. After trimming your grass and giving it a thorough weeding, you now have to deal with piles of leaves and dirt.
Unlike how you deal with the indoor mess, you don’t have the option of vacuuming clutter accumulated in your garden. A way to deal with this is by raking and sweeping. They might seem like relatively light and easy chores. But they involve using your arms and engaging you in countless sweeping and raking motions. This puts your muscles to work and causes you to break a sweat.
Create a Routine
Similar to how exercise routines work, having a training regimen that focuses on your desired fitness goals lets you stay on track and achieve a fit body easier. Having a fitness plan is also a great way of building a healthy habit that you can bring for many years to come.
With this benefit in mind, you should also create a routine when tending to your garden. You can start examining your plants, getting rid of pests, tidying up, pruning, and watering. You can change it according to your plant’s needs, but the main goal is to build a routine that works for you and your garden.
Switch It Up
Even though routines are beneficial, you can make working out using gardening chores even more effective by switching up your regimen. By diversifying your workouts, you give yourself new challenges and test your body’s limits, which eventually leads to improved strength and endurance levels. For example, you can rake for a few minutes, remove weeds in the next period, and lastly, move debris and soil.
Gardening brings forth a plethora of benefits. It does not only beautify your outdoor space but also helps boost your mental and physical health.
