There are several gardening exercise tips you can implement in your daily routine to help you become stronger and more efficient in your garden. These include sweeping, hoeing, and digging. These exercises are very beneficial for your muscles and joints and will make your work in the garden much easier. You can use these gardening exercise tips on a regular basis and your gardening chores will become a lot easier.
Digging
Digging is an excellent way to get a good physical workout. It also improves the health of your soil. Digging helps to build up bulky organic matter, which helps with drainage and nutrients. One hour of digging burns around 150 calories. You burn even more calories if you are heavier than average. To get the most out of your gardening exercise, use a waist-height spade and engage your abdominal muscles to keep your back straight.
Lifting
Gardening is a great hobby and way to make food for your family. It is also a good workout. However, long hours of working in the garden can leave you sore and unable to do much else. That’s why it’s important to incorporate a few gardening exercise tips to prevent any injury.
Sweeping
Gardening can be a relaxing hobby that you can also incorporate into your exercise routine. Sweeping and raking, for example, can burn up to 200 calories per hour. The more vigorous weeding and raking can burn as many as 300 calories per hour.
Hoeing
Hoeing as part of gardening exercise tips is a great way to get a cardio workout in the garden. You can use it to dig holes for plants and turn the soil over. It can also be used to remove weeds. It’s particularly useful on rocky soil.
Squatting
Squatting is an excellent form of exercise for gardening. It not only helps you to prepare your body for the heavy lifting of weeding, pruning, and other gardening tasks, but it is also a great way to save your back. By bringing your forearm to the thigh, you can support your back while squatting and weeding. Performing three rounds of ten squats will help you get your hips warm up, and you can increase your depth as you progress.
Digging holes
Digging holes for gardening is an excellent way to get a good aerobic workout. It helps build muscle in the legs, arms, back, and neck. It is best to use a shovel rather than a gas-powered post hole digger. Digging holes also helps you start a compost pile, which is valuable fertilizer. Digging holes for compost burns about 250 to 300 calories per half hour.
Lifting trays of flowers
Using your legs to lift heavy trays of flowers can be a great form of gardening exercise. This can also prevent a person from straining muscles during strenuous gardening work. You should also try to avoid bending over to prune an awkward shrub. Also, remember to vary the gardening tasks and movements to ensure you’re using your major muscle groups. It’s also important to drink plenty of water and wear long sleeves.
Lunge-and-bend
Lunge-and-bend gardening exercises are a great way to work out your lower back and legs. They also strengthen your abs and prevent an overly-exaggerated curve in your lower spine. In this gardening exercise, you begin by standing up and bending your front knee 90 degrees. Your back leg should be stretched out behind you. As you bend over, lift your front knee and place your foot on the ground. Hold this pose for fifteen or twenty seconds.
Lifting a shovel
Lifting a shovel is a great way to get your body moving. To make it easier, make sure you have lightweight shovels or other long-handled tools. When lifting, bend at the hips and lower back, and always keep your knees bent. It is also important to lift the load lightly, and make sure you have a good grip on the handle.
Lifting a rake
Lifting a rake for gardening requires strength and flexibility. To avoid injury, it is best to do this activity slowly and gradually increase the length of the workout. While gardening, you should also stretch your muscles thoroughly, especially your arms and legs. You can also use a garden stool to relieve pressure on your knees. Also, try to use lightweight tools to avoid stressing your hands, wrists, and shoulders.