You Can Garden Your Way To Fitness
If you do gardening or yardwork then make the most of it and use your backyard as a fitness gym. You do enough bending, stretching and lifting to turn yardwork into an effective workout session – if you know how to make the most of it. You can turn a rake and a wheelbarrow into fitness training equipment.
Like any other workout, you should go through a brief warm up to get your heart pumping and the blood flowing through your muscles and joints. Five to 10 minutes of stretching the legs, ankles, arms, shoulders and wrists along with a little aerobics, like running in place, will help reduce the risk of injury and decrease muscle soreness.
To prevent getting stiff from bending too much, alternate between squatting, kneeling on a pad and sitting on a stool. Keep your work close to you and tighten your abdominal muscles when you reach and move to protect your back. If you have back troubles you may benefit from a Stamina gravity inversion table.
Keep your feet shoulder width apart, tighten your abdominal muscles and bend at the hips and knees, not at the waist, when lifitng heavy items. The proper technique will help strengthen your upper body and your abdominal muscles and avoid injury.
If you do any mulching use a wheelbarrow to move the mulch and keep your back fairly upright when shoveling. Use your hips and knees to lift the mulch and keep your stomach muscles tight. Avoid twisting your spine while lifting. You can build upper body strength with your rake. Vary your movements while raking. Instead of raking in the same direction all the time change directions and alternate your arms and hands.
After your backyard workout do a brief cool down. Gently stretch your back, neck and shoulders. Light stretching will help balance muscle groups that may have been overused and decrease post exercise soreness. Best of all working outdoors in the garden can have a calming effect and help relieve stress, and reduce feelings of anger, fear and aggression.
When Old Man Winter blows into town you probably will not be doing much gardening. Walking is good exercise too. Be kind to your feet and get yourself a pair of Brooks Addiction Walkers.
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