Garden exercise – garden health benefits

Gardening obviously has many health benefits – cleaner air, you get to eat organic or at least less processed veggies, and then there are the health benefits. It’s already been shown that green spaces of any type are healthy to live around, but gardening can also be a stellar workout. In fact, there’s even been books on this topic. Check out Fitness the Dynamic Gardening Way or Get Fit Through Gardening, both by Jeff Restuccio.

Health and exercise benefits of gardening:

Cardio and weight lifting aspects of gardening include tasks like pushing a mower, raking, lifting bags of soil, pushing the wheel barrel, turning compost, shoveling, tiling, and more. Jeff Restuccio, author the above mentioned books talked to WebMD about gardening as exercise and suggests “Making your gardening into a structured exercise routine, alternating light activities with heavier ones, then a light one, and so on. Rake for a while, then dig holes, then prune.”

The American Horticultural Therapy Association relates that garden settings hold curative effects for people with mental illness. and currently, horticultural therapy (HT) is recognized as a viable treatment that holds benefits for people in therapeutic, vocational, and wellness programs.

While gardening is an active task and thus has benefits like a workout, it’s also been been shown to be a relaxing active activity that can significantly lower blood pressure in people with hypertension and prehypertension and has been noted to be a good way to fight osteoporosis.

Lastly, because gardening is always changing, never dull, and most people who garden genuinely enjoy it, it makes gardening an exercise to count on. You always hear, “Choose an exercise routine you love, so you’ll stick with it” and gardening fits that bill for many.

What do you think? Are you getting exercise or other health benefits from your garden?