Getting A Workout In The Garden

This blog is about getting a workout and how gardening can help you get there, no sweat. Or, maybe a little sweat. Like they say, don’t sweat the petty things, and don’t pet the sweaty things.

I read an article the other day and a couple of things came to mind, leading to a couple of other things coming to mind which led to me wasting a lot of time thinking instead of doing something, like exercising. It’s always something . . .

First off, I’m not certain living beyond a hundred is all it’s cracked up to be. The quarter century since I passed fifty hasn’t been all that great. From the Y2K and 9/11 to finishing up with covid, I can’t imagine what the next twenty five will hold in store for us. Bah! Humbug!

I Must Tell You, I’m Not Sure!

I’m not sure the kids who are starting to replace us are up to the task either. I’m sure our predecessors felt the same way, and maybe they were right, but . . . that weakness seems to be exacerbated by the snowflake generation. Heck, they can’t even work all day.

Still, like Woody Allen said, “I know I’m going to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” My wife feels that way too. I told her about this exercise article. It fell on deaf ears. I, on the other hand, read it with interest. It was a scam clickbait article that told me nothing new. That doesn’t mean I got nothing from it. The little bit I gleaned from it had to do with how much exercise one should do each week. It really didn’t seem like much. If you’re not getting three hours of real exercise a week, you’re a couch potato.

My definition of a couch potato is someone sitting on their ass waiting for the good Lord to call them home. I know many people don’t like to exercise for different reasons, among them plain old laziness. Some people find it hard to stick to a routine. Maybe you don’t know what to do or have concerns about what equipment you need to purchase. Here’s where we get to the gardening part.

I Do Work Out

Three times a week, I work out inside with weights. I also do stretches and calisthenics. Once or twice, I wished I would do more aerobics, but I don’t. I’m in pretty good shape. My weight’s good too. Still, a half hour or more in the garden leaves me tuckered out and I feel it the next morning a bit. What’s happening here? Best I can tell is I’m using muscles in a very different way than with my exercise regimen.  It leaves me puffing! It makes me stronger too.

Here are the things I do in the garden. Try turning a small compost bed for a few minutes every other day. You’ll feel it, especially if you have an aging body like I do. Even walking around and hand watering daily will keep you on your feet. Weeding will strengthen your back and your legs. In fact, doing any work on your knees will give you a good workout. Don’t overdo it at first! You’ll be surprised. There is always something that needs to be weeded. It used to be called stoop labor. I no longer stoop, I take it all the way down to the ground and crawl around on my knees.

Moving Stuff Can Be Hard Work

Moving potted plants can make you grunt. I move them around in my yard. Some of the larger ones require a hand truck for moving. Tugging them onto the hand truck and relocating them at the end of the ride takes effort too. I also use a lot of landscape stones and bricks. They give me a great strength workout, believe me. Picking them up and storing them or relocating them to their new point of use will make you strong. This week I was relocating 23 blocks. I moved all of them three times. There was walking involved. Once to the storage area, next to the area where I pressure washed them of old accumulations, then, after they dried, to the new storage place for later reuse on another project. Each weighs about 15 pounds. That’s a lot of lifting. I did not do it all in one day.

I’m sure I am getting more than the minimum recommended exercise to make it to one hundred if it doesn’t kill me first. So far, you haven’t heard me say anything about mowing the lawn. There’s a good reason for that. Sadly, seventy percent of deaths of Americans under forty are due to Fentanyl overdoses. Statistics also show the majority of accidental deaths in Florida of men over fifty are due to heart attacks while mowing the lawn in the summertime. Pay someone else younger to do it for you. They work cheap! I’m serious about that.

No Doubt It Is Great Exercise

Gardening year round is great exercise. It doesn’t matter if you’re growing ornamentals for their aesthetic appeal, or a patch of vegetables to supplement your diet and income. Lifting, bending, stooping, and walking with things in your hands will give you a great workout. Just don’t overdo it. Build up your stamina and strength a little every day. You’ll be glad you did, I promise!