Exercise In The Garden

You don’t need a 12 month gym membership to stay fit and active. There is plenty you can do to stay mobile in your very own back garden!

First up gardening – This is a fantastic way to use your muscles to build arm, leg and core strength, as well as keeping the garden in shape.

Start off by stretching out your arms, back, legs and neck so you don’t cause yourself an injury. You wouldn’t start a session in the gym without a good stretch so don’t miss this out.

Try and plan your time gardening into a structured routine, so mixing up light movements and exercises with heavier ones then returning back to light ones. This will allow your heart rate to return to normal in between the heavier tasks. Finally make sure you allocate yourself time in garden and for each exercise. You don’t want to be endlessly turning over soil or weeding for hours on end as your more likely to do some damage to your joints and muscles.

For toning exercises exaggerate the normal movement it takes for raking for example and rake left handed for 20 strokes then swap arms. Do this set 3 times and you will certainly start to feel the effects.
An example of a 1 hour gardening fitness routine could be as follows:
– Rake the leaves – 15 minutes (20 strokes each arm) and repeat
Digging an turning over soil – 20 minutes
Weeding the edges of the garden – 15 minutes
Exaggerated sweeping of the patio – 10 minutes (20 strokes each arm) and repeat.

If gardening just isn’t your desire but you would still like to tone up, use your allocated space as your own outdoor studio.

Lunges, squats, press-ups- whatever you choose to do can all be done just using your own body weight. You don’t need equipment or weights and you don’t need a personal trainer-unless you want one!

– Stretch for 10 minutes – use an old towel or mat if you want to stretch on the floor.
20 body weight squats
20 lunges each leg (lap around your garden)
10 press-ups (on knees)
20 side reaches each side
Rest in between sets and repeat 3 times.

It’s as simple as that, so there’s no excuse not to stay active and mobile while keeping the rose brush pruned!