Gardening Workouts

Last summer my husband, a professional photographer, was
game when I asked him to come up with some portraits of our
community garden crew at work along Little Traverse Bay one
Saturday. As he looked through the viewfinder,the results were
not what he expected. There we were two dozen of us, in poses
that defied gravity, all backsides and very few faces in sight.
Occupational hazard, I told him.
Well, it's that time of year again, almost. Spring is coming.
If I google "garden"  and "exercise", what I find are a lot of
sites on gardening AS exercise, but also a lot that talk about
exercise FOR gardening. And yes, there is a difference.
I personally discovered the difference the hard way last season.
It began when my too enthusiastic Spring raking led to a case of
tennis elbow that still flares up occasionally. Then  my first
Saturday back on the community garden crew, I was so excited to
be renewing old friendships with both plants and people that
I weeded for an hour-and-a-half straight.
Big mistake.  I tried to stand up and promptly fell to my knees
with a terrible bout of sciatica.
While my fellow gardeners commiserated, I crawled over to a bench
and lay there.  Finally, after a few excruciating leg lifts, I
managed to limp home.  A solid week of stretching and heating
pads later,  I was able to rejoin  the  crew.  Only this time I
got smart and dead-headed, avoiding major bending and kneeling
until I got in better
shape.
According to Gardenfitness.com, experts say that gardening can
involve as much stretching, bending, muscle and aerobic exertion
as activities like walking and cycling.  Regular 35-40 minutes of
gardening per day can help joints and muscles remain flexible,
as well as stave off diabetes and high blood pressure.
A lot of magazines these days are featuring cover stories on the
countdown to summer beach time and are offering blitz plans to
get fit before climbing into our swim wear. I humbly offer a
few suggestions for getting ready for out time in the garden
instead. Gardenfitness.com lays out a 6-week regimen, starting
each session with a 5 minute stroll through your garden to
warm up.  Fun, right there.
Week 1 of the tune-up emphasizes core rotation and arm lifts
to loosen up and strengthen muscles needed to sustain all that
twisting, lifting and bending.  Then come the back and shoulder
stretches. Week 3 introduces “wall” push ups that deal with
shoulders and chest.  Next comes a week that emphasizes leg
and hamstring stretches. Weeks 5 and 6 are more of the same
only tougher.
My favorites are “flower pot” lifts, much more fun and to the
point than hefting barbells.  All of these stretches should be
done slowly and deliberately, the website says, with a 30-second
hold point. And of course, no one should try these exercises
without consulting a doctor.
My lower back is aching just thinking about moving after a
relatively sedentary winter.  But as the plants begin to pop
out of the ground, the urge to get out there and dig is irresis-
tible. And a repeat of last summer’s fiasco is definitely not
on my spring planting calendar!