” The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.” (Alfred Austin)
This hobby is very functional as well as beneficial for our body and mind, for our physical and mental health at the same time. When we concerned about gardening as a “workout” related activity, we found it very appropriate as it makes our body to do all types of movements. Its unique form of exercises that allow us to do something calming, creative and fun side by side.
Warm up, mix it up, bend at knees, cool down and other sporty moves; not only strengthen our muscles but also speed up our heart rate and increase heart and lung capacity.
Gardening is the best mind-body workout as it keeps us active and reduces our stress level. As a result it can cure heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other lifestyle related disease.
Its great form of functional exercise improves flexibility, balance and sensory perception.
Remember that every workout is not for everyone because everybody has different metabolism. Gardening requires a lot of physical activities of different level that is why gardening workout is suitable to a variety of people and age group.
It also involves a number of different kinds of exercises such as stretching, weight lifting and a moderate cardio-vascular workout. 30-40 minutes a day can burn 150-300 calories as it claims that 45 minutes of gardening can burn as many calories as 30 minutes of aerobics.
Squatting, bending, lifting, digging, raking keeps our joints flexible and a variety of motions at a steady pace, perform a variety of the following moves like raking, mowing, weeding, pruning, digging, composting, tilling, all are aerobics exercises. Turning compost is just like weight lifting. Trimming trees and shrubs is roughly the equivalent of walking at a moderate pace.
Garden tools like wheel barrow, garden trowels, garden gloves, hand pruners and loppers, power gear loppers, plant dividing tools, watering gear, garden forks, leaf racks, shovels and spades are supposed to be the best alternate of any fully equipped gym workout tools. So, in this way you can easily turn out your very own garden into a ” Gym-Garden.”
One more thing to share with is that the lack of serotonin in the brain causes depression. According to medical science, “getting your hands dirty in the garden can increase your serotonin levels-contact with soil and a specific soil bacteria Mycobacterium Vaccae triggers the release of serotonin in our brain.”
Happiness is a habit, an aptitude…….. not an opportunity or a choice.
