Gardening Is A Workout!

It is that time of year and I am chomping at the bits! This was my favorite garden picture from last year! Here are some statements I read yesterday in a magazine.

"More and more, scientists are confirming what avid gardeners have known all along" Wrestling with stubborn weeds, trimming hedges, and spreading mulch are all good ways to work up a very respectable, healthy sweat. Doing work around the garden also tends to be more mentally and emotionally rewarding than trudging away on the treadmill at the gym. Gardening is a great way to maintain flexibility and tone muscle. Bending to pick flowers or reaching to prune a vine, for examples, can help you stay limber. Digging, hoeing, and lifting build core body strength, which protects against back problems and helps prevent falls. The more you exert yourself, the greater the benefits. Household and yard activities increase metabolic rate threefold to fivefold. That's enough to reduce blood pressure and improve cholesterol levels when a gardener works for at least thirty minutes five days a week. Tasks that are strenuous enough to leave a gardener feeling slightly winded-pushing a hand mower or raking, for example-will improve cardiovascular fitness. Gardening, like more traditional forms of exercise, has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease and help ward off type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes.

Calorically speaking, an afternoon of raking, trimming, and weeding rates as high as more serious workouts. On average, gardening burns about 265 calories an hour, more than expended by brisk walking.

Less strenuous forms of yard work have pluses, too. They are appropriate for people with arthritis and can actually ease their pain.

The benefits of being active in the garden go beyond physical health. Studies show that almost any kind of moderate exercise reduces stress. But gardening may have an added advantage. Instead of blowing your top at your boss, you can attack those weeds to release your aggressions - and have a beautiful garden to enjoy when you're done

Simply enjoying a patch of green, even from afar, can be therapeutic. When Texas A&M University researcher Roger Ulrich compared hospital records of patients recovering from gallbladder surgery, he discovered that the ones whose rooms had a view of nature recovered more quickly than those who look out at a brick wall.

Ultimately, what may be best about flexing a green thumb is that it's such a pleasure it hardly feels like exercise!"