Tend to Your Garden and Your Health Too
Leslie Fredrickson can’t abide formal exercise programs.
“They’re a bore,” says the 72-year-old retired Agriculture Department program manager. “I used to do a half-hour exercise routine of push-ups and sit-ups and the like at home, but it got to be so darned boring that I quit. And it’s too much of a pain in the neck to drive to some gym.”
Instead, Fredrickson keeps himself in top shape by spending several hours a day gardening at his Germantown, Md., home.
“Planting, weeding, splitting wood and all that is excellent fitness work,” says Fredrickson, who’s been gardening since he was “a wee tad” in Oregon. “I just dug a 2-foot hole and planted a weeping cherry, and that’s the kind of thing that keeps me fit.”
In addition to the physical benefits, he says, “I get beautiful flowers, lots of vegetables, and my place looks nice. I know gardening’s good for me, I enjoy doing it and it’s never boring. So I win on all counts.”
Fredrickson is among a growing number of Americans--many of them 50 and older--who have discovered the physical, mental and spiritual benefits of gardening. At a time when public health officials are touting the advantages of regular moderate exercise, gardening is gaining recognition as a healthy activity that can provide significant benefits to people of all ages.
The U.S. Surgeon General’s 1996 Report on Physical Activity and Health concluded that accumulating 30 minutes a day of moderate activity, such as gardening, can reduce risk for numerous chronic conditions, including heart disease, type-2 diabetes, hypertension and colon cancer, and aid in weight maintenance and overall physical health.
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Depending on the activity, gardening can be as tough a workout as kayaking or weightlifting, says Melicia Whitt, an epidemiologist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. Whitt has compiled a comprehensive list of the metabolic equivalents, or METs, of more than 500 physical activities. (A single MET is the amount of energy a person expends at rest, while a 2-MET activity uses twice that much energy.)
“Any activity that is 3 to 6 METs is considered moderate intensity and will confer health benefits,” she says. Gardening tasks such as digging, composting, raking and planting are 4- to 5-MET activities, making them equivalent to table tennis, volleyball and skateboarding.
Tougher gardening workouts include mowing the lawn with a push mower and chopping wood. At 6 METs, these activities are on par with hiking, downhill skiing and wrestling.
More than muscles get a workout in the garden, say proponents, who point to the psychological boost conferred by accomplishing a task and taking time to literally smell the roses. In a complex, technological world, where many people sit in front of computers all day, gardening offers the simplicity of soil, seeds and seasonal cycles--a reconnection with nature that also can nourish the spirit.
“A special relationship occurs when people nurture plants, which makes gardening a very therapeutic activity,” says Lana Dreyfuss, president of the Chesapeake chapter of the American Horticulture Therapy Assn. “Enjoying the outdoors, getting your fingers dirty and seeing the rewards of something beautiful you’ve tended can be very stress-reducing in our hectic lives.”
For many older adults, gardening is their primary physical activity, says Dreyfuss, who works with seniors in adult day-care facilities in Silver Spring, Md.
“It’s a wonderful activity for people of all abilities because you can go at your own pace,” she says, “and do as much or as little as you’re able.”
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But just as gardens evolve over the years and require adjustment, “gardeners too must adapt to changes wrought over time,” writes Rita Pelczar in “Maturity in the Garden,” a recent article in the American Gardener magazine. “Many seniors have discovered that by adopting a few modifications in garden style and using some innovative new tools designed to accomplish tasks without causing excessive strain, they are continuing to find great rewards in the garden.”
Because seniors tend to have patience, experience, more leisure time and maturity, “gray hair often equals a green thumb,” says Bruce Butterfield, research director for the National Gardening Assn. in Burlington, Vt. “The highest incidence of gardening occurs in households of people age 50 and older.”
Even with the boom in adaptive tools to make gardening easier for seniors, older adults--and younger ones--can invite injury if they don’t “garden smart,” says Jeffrey P. Restuccio, a Tennessee gardener who promotes the fitness aspect of the activity. “One of the most common problems is that people often bend from the waist and use their backs to dig and weed, which can result in back strain,” he says. “Instead, you should bend your knees and use your leg muscles to do the work.”
Like any form of exercise, gardening should be preceded by a warmup and stretch, and followed by a cool-down and stretch, Restuccio says. Break gardening sessions into two- or three-hour periods to avoid six- to 10-hour marathons. Be sure to alternate your grip when raking, digging or hoeing, and vary the tasks to avoid repetitive motion injuries.
“But most of all, have fun exercising in the garden,” he says. “Gardening is a lifestyle that promotes health and wellness, not just for a few weeks or months, but for a lifetime.”
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Figuring the Benefits of a Green Thumb
Working out in the garden can provide health benefits similar to those of more traditional exercise. Here’s a sampling of how many calories a 180-pound person would burn during 30 minutes of various gardening activities. Generally, a person who weighs less will burn fewer calories and a person who weighs more will burn more.
Activity Calories Burned Per 30 Minutes
Sleeping: 36
Sitting quietly: 40
Watering lawn or garden: 61
Mowing lawn, riding a power mower: 101
Trimming shrubs with power tool: 142
Raking: 162
Bagging leaves: 162
Planting seedlings: 162
Mowing lawn, pushing a power mower: 182
Planting trees: 182
Trimming shrubs with manual tool: 182
Weeding: 182
Clearing land: 202
Digging, spading, tilling: 202
Laying sod: 202
General gardening: 202
Chopping wood: 243
Gardening with heavy power tools: 243
Mowing lawn with a push mower: 243
Double digging: 344
Source: National Gardening magazine
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Resources
More information on gardening and fitness is available from:
* The National Gardening Assn., https://www.garden.org or (800) LETSGRO.
* The American Horticulture Society, https://www.ahs.org or (800) 777-7931.
* “Gardener’s Fitness: Weeding Out the Aches & Pains,” by Barbara Pearlman (Taylor Publishing Co., 1999).
* “Accessible Gardening: Tips & Techniques for Seniors & the Disabled,” by Joann Woy (Stackpole Books, 1997).
