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Published on GoldenTimes.com on March 21, 2007
Gardening – Good Exercise Or “Oh, My Aching Back?
By Lynette Loomis

For our next several issues we would like to hear from our readers what they do to stay healthy (and wish they had done differently). We thought it made sense to look at a popular form of exercise – gardening.

Master Gardeners to the Rescue
As we begin to feel hopeful that Spring will arrive (sooner than later we hope), we think about getting our exercise outdoors. For many of us that means gardening. I turned to master gardener Ellie Cope for some suggestions and she directed me to a wonderful resource “How Grows It?” from the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Monroe County which offers hundreds of publications and master gardeners are available to answer your questions. Call 473-5335 for more information.

“How Grows It?” is divided into activities for each month for our climate gleaned from the experiences of our own local master gardeners. These men and women have been trained in a nationwide education program and donate their time to teach the rest of us what, when, where and how to create beauty and bounty.

For examples, in March they suggest starting flower seeds indoors and remind us to keep mulch on our perennials until April. There are a number of things that can thwart our woody plants including spider mites, gall mites, and pine bark adelgid which require horticulture oil (after the threat of freezing has passed.) Walking around the yard and inspecting our plants for limb and stalk damage and looking for tent caterpillar eggs eases our way back to our lawns and gardens. It’s also a time to lift our arms and wave to our neighbors who we may not have seen since the first snow fall.

Muscles and Mulch
Most of us say that one of the benefits of gardening is exercise but we forget that some of our muscle groups have been as dormant as our flowers over the winter. March is a great time to begin stretching the muscles we’ll need to use this Spring. We need to treat our bodies as if gardening were a sport and prepare ourselves for the game.

Back pain is a common complaint. One exercise that helps to stretch the back is to lie on the floor on your back, pull your knees to your chest and wrap your arms around them. (This one feels good 12 months a year.)

When you are pruning, digging or planting, try to keep your back straight. Hunching over and bending at the waist strains your back. If you are lifting bags of mulch or grass seed, bend your knees and use your legs - spare your back as you lift. (Have you ever noticed how you become your grandfather when you have knelt for three hours and can’t seem to straighten yourself out again? He had an excuse – no one told him to stretch before, during and after gardening.)

Don’t lift and twist at the same time. By doing so you can pull a muscle that can immobilize you for days whether it is a heavy object or a single gallon container.

Pace yourself – it is not a marathon. Gardening is a hobby you can do all season – everything does not have to be done in a day. I like to start with the most labor-intense projects first – moving railroad ties, digging holes for new trees etc. As I tire, I pursue the easier tasks. Even in cool weather it is important to keep yourself hydrated – drink water.

One helpful website is gardenfitness.com which describes exercises for “6-Weeks to Gardening Fitness!” They state, “Research shows that gardening for 30-45 minutes most days of the week has significant health benefits, such as decreasing the risk of high blood pressure and diabetes, as well as contributing to healthier bones, muscles and joints. Elements of gardening such as digging, weeding, trimming shrubs and mowing the lawn can require the same energy requirements as other physical exercise activities such as walking, cycling, swimming and aerobics.”

Next time your friend the jogger challenges you to do some “real exercise” quote this and offer your friend some home-grown vegetables.

Lynette M. Loomis is former vice president of Preferred Care Gold and is a long-standing advocate of mature consumers.