Working in a garden is very beneficial for your health. Gardening is the same as your daily workout routine and exercises. In addition to this you also get to eat fresh and organic vegetables and fruits from your own home garden. Gardening provides you with both a healthy lifestyle and organic food at the same time. Gardening improves the quality of your diet and your physical health. We will give you some tips and methods on how to grow vegetables and fruits and do exercises by doing gardening to improve your health.
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Exercises in garden:
- Warmup before gardening: Like you warm up for exercise, similarly warmup your body before going to the garden. Stretch your muscles and body for proper functioning. Stretch your arms, legs and shoulders. If you don’t warm up, your muscles are likely to get fatigued and cause cramps. You should warm up your body at least 5 to 10 minutes before gardening.
- Work in the garden regularly: In order to improve your health, try to work in the garden regularly. Daily work in the garden keeps you active and healthy. Work daily in the garden for 30 minutes which is equivalent to regular workout time. These 30 minutes of daily gardening will lower your risk of having Cardiovascular Diseases like atherosclerosis and Musculoskeletal Diseases like Arthritis or osteoarthritis. It will maintain your blood pressure and heart rate. It will also burn your cholesterol and bad fats like HDL or VLDL.
- Vary your movements: The concept of doing different exercises during your workout remains the same here. Try doing different activities in your garden. You have many types of activities to do in the garden, set a selected duration of time and then repeat it until you don’t complete an activity in your set time duration. This change in activities can be very beneficial for you. For example, if you have one activity that is difficult for the body, like kneeling to weed garden beds, you don’t have to repeat it again. Weed for 15 to 20 minutes, then take a break and do another activity that will prevent your body from pain and overexertion.
- Do controlled bending and lifting: When you’re working in the garden you have to be careful about your body lifting and bending. Don’t lift and bend your body too much otherwise it will cause pain in your muscles and joints. For example, for lifting a bag of fertilizer or any equipment use proper lifting technique. Use your legs to bend, not your back muscles. You can also do squats in the garden for weddings. Maintain your natural body posture when lifting and bending.
- Put in some effort: Standing aside for watering the plants isn’t included in the gardening exercise. You have to put in some energy and effort. Do physical activities in the garden such as digging, raking leaves, weeding, mowing, and turning a compost pile to improve your health. Use a body push mower instead of an electrical or fuel mower.
2. Enjoy fresh foods from the garden:
- Grow a variety of plants: You should plant different varieties of vegetables, fruits and herbs in your garden that will improve your health and diet. In this way you will get organic and hygienic foods that boost your immune system. You can grow the following plants in your garden:
- Vegetables: Potatoes, spinach, onions, carrots, mint, lemons, chilies, lettuce, beans etc.
- Fruits: Tomatoes, Mango, Apple, banana, oranges etc.
- Herbs: Chives, thyme, oregano, etc.
- Plan for different growing seasons: Climate has a big impact on your crops. Besides planting the same vegetables and fruits again and again, you can also plan for planting vegetables and fruits according to their season which is very good and beneficial for your garden and your health. Due to this plan you will grow fresh vegetables and fruits throughout the year. Plant foods according to your area’s climate, this will help you to grow your foods faster with great accuracy. Different seasons have different vegetables and foods. For example:
- In winter: Vegetables are spinach, lettuce, radishes, and beets etc. while Fruits are banana, orange and pomegranate etc.
- In summer: Vegetables are tomatoes, squash, and corn etc. while fruits are mango, watermelon etc.
- Cook home-grown food in a healthy way: Use and eat vegetables and fruits in your diet that you grow in your garden. Eating organic and hygienic food will improve your health. It’s necessary to cook home grown foods in the right manner. Don’t add unhealthy things to your food. Good cooking manners preserve nutrients and minerals in your vegetables. Some vegetables are good raw while some are cooked. Try to steam your vegetables instead of frying because it wastes essential nutrients and minerals. Such as cooked asparagus gives you all nutrients in it while beets give you nutrients when it is served raw. Avoid putting oil in your food for frying or sauté the vegetables because it increases your fat levels and body weight.
3. Focusing on Your Mental Health:
- Increase happiness and contentment: Gardening not only improves your physical health but also improves your mental health. It gives you pleasure and peace of mind and provides you a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Because of gardening, your brain produces many hormones that make you feel relaxed and happy.
- Relieve stress: Gardening plays an important role to reduce stress and tension. It also prevents you from anxiety and depression. Staying close to nature provides you mental relaxation and lower your work pressure and also gives you satisfaction and happiness. Plants can reduce your anger and muscle tension. It also lowers your blood pressure.
- Help your long-term brain health: Gardening also helps to improve your brain health and increase your memory. People having a disease of memory loss should focus on gardening, for example people suffering from dementia. Gardening also helps to recover from dementia because it helps to improve your long term brain health.
CONCLUSION:
Gardening has a great impact on your health. It improves your health in both ways, by doing physical activities in your garden and growing your own organic foods. Gardening provides you with the best exercise that is very beneficial for your health. Physical activities help you to improve your both mental and physical health. Warmup before going to the garden and stretch your body muscles to prevent cramps and muscle fatigue. Control your body posture while bending or lifting any bag or any goods. Doing physical activities in the garden like digging, raking leaves, weeding, mowing, and turning a compost pile will help to improve your body health. In addition to this, the garden gives you a healthy lifestyle and home grown organic vegetables and foods at the same time. Cook these vegetables with healthy ingredients to improve your body health. Gardening also improves your mental and long-term brain health and helps you recover from mental disorders like short term memory loss or dementia.