Mind and Body Benefits of Gardening

Looking for a great way to get exercise while enjoying what your doing? Gardening is a great way to do both. Research shows that gardening is an ideal form of aerobic exercise because, in addition to its physical exertion values, it has many other merits. You can burn calories, exercise your muscles, partake in mental relaxation and end up with a beautiful garden to show for it!

Different types of gardening can help the body in various ways. Gardening is usually a moderate exercise that incorporates many important elements of accepted exercise regimes, such as stretching and stance, repetition and movement, and even resistance principles similar to weight training, all while expending calories. Major muscle groups can be worked, and all usually without strenuous activity. Activities such as weeding, trimming, or raking can burn up to 300 calories an hour when done at a constant pace. The use of manual, instead of power tools, also contributes to additional calorie burn. Of course, proper warm-up and stretching is always recommended as with any exercise.

Gardening is also great for the mind as well as the body. Gardening can divert your mind from everyday routines such as work stress and family issues, hence relieving tension and providing mental relaxation. Providing care for your garden also satisfies the human instinct to nurture and eases the mind. Intrinsic pleasure and reward is realized when the plants you have fostered as a gardener come to fruition and blossom into a healthy form!