Why does gardening burn calories

There is also a cost factor to consider as well. Subscriptions to gyms and fitness centres can be expensive and often tie you in for at least 12 months. Gardening is relatively inexpensive in comparison. All you need to start is a few tools and plants. And you can easily expand your equipment as your interest grows. Gardening can be as relaxing or as energetic as you like. Whether you engage in low-intensity gardening or heavy yard work, you can still burn calories and gain many physical and mental health benefits.

In this article, we have taken a look at how gardening can help you burn calories and improve your overall wellbeing. If you want to get outdoors and participate in moderate-intensity exercise, gardening fits the bill perfectly while providing a wide range of physical and mental health benefits. It is clear from numerous studies that gardening helps to burn calories. For example, you can burn around calories per hour when digging soil.

If you prefer lightweight work like weeding, you can burn to calories an hour. More intensive work like shovelling snow can burn upwards of calories per hour. Gardening provides you with a full workout, covering both the upper and lower body. Your arms, shoulders, legs, thighs, back, and more all receive a great workout from tasks like weeding, watering plants, raking soil, shovelling snow, and mowing the lawn. This makes it a great way to exercise without spending money on expensive gym memberships.

Besides the numerous physical health benefits available, gardening also allows you to explore a new hobby and gain the many mental health advantages of spending time outdoors. Focusing on gardening tasks can focus your mind, enabling you to break free from the hustle and bustle of the modern world. It is no wonder then that gardening is a popular pastime for people of all ages and walks of life.

British Journal of Sports Medicine How does exercise treatment compare with antihypertensive medications? A network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials assessing exercise and medication effects on systolic blood pressure.

CDC Physical Activity for a Healthy Weight. Harvard Health Publishing Harvard Medical School. Taking too much vitamin D can cloud its benefits and create health risks. NCBI Vitamin D and rheumatoid arthritis. Public Health England Anna is the marketing and office manager for Garden Benches — a premium supplier of high-quality wooden benches and other outdoor furniture. Anna is the marketing and office manager for Garden Benches - a premium supplier of high-quality wooden benches and other outdoor furniture.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Anna Sharples 26th May Physical benefits Burn calories — Gardening burns around calories per hour, making it a great moderate-intensity exercise. If you want to get healthier and lose a few inches around your waistline, gardening and other types of yard work can help contribute to weight loss.

This is especially the case if you undertake more demanding tasks, such as mowing the lawn, digging soil, carrying plants, and installing garden features. If your goal is to burn lots of calories while gardening, throw in a set of pushups every once in a while or run a lap around your garden to get your heart beating a little bit harder. How does gardening burn calories? Sarah Biren. Sarah is a baker, cook, author, and blogger living in Toronto. She believes that food is the best method of healing and a classic way of bringing people together.

But how does it compare to what you would be doing at the gym? Trade the treadmill for a lawnmower and get yourself moving. If you have a manual push mower then you will get a real workout for your upper body too, but for most of us with a petrol or electric powered device it will mainly focus on your legs and buttocks.

As well as the cosmetic benefits, mowing the lawn also helps keep your lawn healthy and eliminates some of the pests from the grass at the same time. Raking will work your entire upper body, including your shoulder and back muscles, as well as the pectoral muscles in your chest.

Obviously your arms will get a lot of use, but your legs will too when you are picking up and clearing the debris. This all-over exercise works similar muscle groups to a rowing machine. Raking, whether it is grass clippings or dead leaves, is important to allow your lawn to breathe and get the sunlight it needs. Pulling up those pesky weeds, as well as planting new additions to the garden, can really get your blood flowing.

This one will work your body in a similar way to a cross trainer machine. Focusing on the shoulder and arm muscles especially, but also giving your thighs and bottom a good workout too from all of the up and down movement and squatting. Weeds can quickly get out of control without regular attention; Not only will they look untidy, they also steal nutrients and water from surrounding plants.

Another one that will activate almost every part of your body, but with more force than raking, making it more similar to using the weight machines in the gym.

Aside from the specific tasks you may dig for, digging also improves soil aeration. But remember to be careful. Good stretching is an absolute necessity, and break up your activities every 15 minutes or so if you can. Working in the garden may not replace the gym all year round, but it is a great way to improve your fitness and health while doing something incredibly rewarding. What an excellent workout chart, well done to all who helped to compose it.

I tend to find gardening a little difficult but with these statistics in mind it will help me to get out there more, thank you. Thank You for the motivation!!