Yardwork – a free gym where you can be yourself, and burn 300 calories

Yardwork – a free gym where you can be yourself, and burn 300 calories

You can get a good physical workout without even thinking about it. And it’s Physical Therapist-approved. Just step outside and see what spring has done to your yard and garden to get a motivational kickstart.

Health organizations that promote cardiovascular health and general wellness have compiled all the most common excuses for avoiding exercise. One example, the American Heart Association, cites lack of time, motivation, and equipment among the top excuses for shirking.

Yardwork overcomes each of these. Time? Sooner or later, yardwork is going to happen. If you’re going to enjoy your outdoor space in the warm months, a little gardening will make it nicer. And your neighbors will thank you. Motivation? Since the focus is on creating an attractive and fun outdoor space, you can forget that you’re exercising. Equipment? Soil is heavy, and shovels, rakes, and mowers get you doing both cardio and resistance training.

Just getting outside in the spring is invigorating, and you might not feel like you’re working out. But you are.

According to Harvard Health Publishing:

“’Many yard and gardening tasks require enough effort to count as moderate-intensity exercise,’ says Dr. I-Min Lee, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an expert on the role of physical activity in preventing disease. For example, raking and many other garden chores require at least 3 metabolic equivalents (METs) — a standard measure that exercise researchers use to gauge exertion.”

Henry Ford Health Live Well blog informs us: “Getting out in the yard for just 30-45 minutes can burn up to 300 calories.”

That’s not super strenuous, but it’s a good start.

Live Well recommends yardwork for its cardiovascular benefits and strength training, suggesting mixing it up so it’s never boring. Digging, repetitive jobs like raking and hedge trimming are part of a good workout, especially if you go “old school” with manual tools. It cites 40-pound mulch bags as weightlifting with a purpose, plus some attractive results. You can also be mindful to bend, stretch, and squat for an hour or so while you make your space beautiful.

You can even incorporate all three of Paul The Physical Therapist’s “Three Things to do Every Day” in your yardwork: walk mindfully behind your mower, squat to tend your flower beds, and bend your back to look up and see how the squirrels are doing and because everyone needs to give their back a good bend at least once a day.

Among the American Heart Association’s top reasons for people not exercising is “Feeling uncertain or uncomfortable.” And that brings up one more great advantage of having done a yardwork routine: you’re literally on your home turf…no judgment, no shame.