Saturday, November 22, 2008

A Healthy Pastime - Gardening

By Gary Pearson

When most people think of exercise, they think of things like jogging, aerobic dancing, weight lifting, or stationery cycling. Gardening is not usually even considered when it comes to exercise - but it should be. Gardening is a great form of healthy exercise, and it has the extra added bonus of being a productive undertaking. Instead of sitting on an exercise bike, pedaling and going nowhere, you are growing things!

Various groups of muscle are at work at the time of gardening. It also works like an aerobic exercise when you do the same job like weeding and hoeing over and over.

When gardening, some muscles are used that are not often used in other daily activities. Most people have heard the old saying "muscles hurt that I didn't even know I had". There is some truth to this saying when it comes to gardening. For overall fitness, all muscles should be exercised, and gardening is a very healthy way to accomplish this.

There is a way of making it more effective. Concentrate on the muscle you are using and make an effort to emphasize on the movement. For example if you are bending and making holes to put in seeds you can do it with more effort and keep down for a longer time. Keep doing the actions for some time.

You can lift up the hoe higher and swing it a little more when you put it in the garden. It is a good idea to be aware of the muscles you are using to do the job, and also change the actions as far as possible every day. Stretching before you start gardening will save you from injuring the muscles. You will be able to see a change in the way you look as well as feel, after you have been gardening for some time.

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