National Gardening Exercise Day is Wednesday, June 6, 2008
Chances are you've never heard of me, or my area of expertise. I am the world's leading (and only) expert on gardening and fitness. I originally called it Dynamic Gardening. Let's keep it simple and call it Get Fit Through Gardening. While gardening is as old as civilization, Get Fit Through Gardening is very new. My favorite exercises are the "lunge and weed", the "squat and plant" and the "mini-tiller shuffle."
Get Fit Through Gardening may look funny but this is really good stuff. It includes exercise, sound nutrition, stress relief, social interaction and encourages us to learn more about our environment, science and nature.
Get that out of a Thigh-Master or a diet pill.
We've got problems: we eat too much junk food, we don't exercise enough, we watch too much television and we don't spend enough time with our children. Had enough of people listing problems? How about a solution for a change? Get Fit Through Gardening is not the only solution and it won't eradicate all of our problems, but I believe, with a little support, it could make a profound impact on many of the problems facing our country today.
Get Fit Through Gardening is not your granny planting petunias, or your dad working the farm or Uncle Buck growing the perfect squash for the state fair. Gardening is about plants. Get Fit Through Gardening is about people. This is a subtle yet profound distinction. Gardening is good for you physically only if you do it correctly. And most people don't. I want to show you how to use gardening to stretch and raise your heart rate for thirty minutes every other day. I recommend smaller gardens with "exercise sessions" of no more than two hours. Aerobic gardens are small, manageable and fun. We're not going to worry about creating the perfect rose or the largest watermelon. We're going to focus on a leaner, more fit, happier you.
Cardiovascular disease, the number one cause of death, accounts for 726 thousand deaths a year. Cancer is second with 537 thousand. Diabetes is seventh with 62 thousand. All can be impacted by moderate exercise and a healthy diet. The total cost to society is over one hundred billion per year. All we need to do is adopt a healthy lifestyle. Get Fit Through Gardening is a healthy lifestyle.
Get Fit Through Gardening is not quick. It's not easy. It doesn't promise a perfect body in just ten minutes a day. It won't melt away your cellulite. It's not one simple pill, vitamin or gadget that will solve all your health problems.
It requires a mix of old-fashioned values such as patience, persistence and personal responsibility with new ideas such as stretching both during and after gardening, alternating raking stance from right to left, and changing weeding technique every five to ten minutes. You warm up, stretch and exercise just as in an aerobics class, but now you're doing something meaningful. Wow, isn't that a new fitness concept? Now you improve yourself while planting trees, composting leaves or establishing a gardening program at a local senior citizens' center.
Get Fit Through Gardening could be a source of exercise, education and pride for those who cannot "slam dunk" a basketball, are bored by traditional exercise or cannot afford a personal trainer. What a great alternative for those who are not sparked by competition, vanity or thirty minutes a day on some monotonous exercise machine. There are no rules. You're only competing with yourself and the vagaries of nature. You can exercise as little or as much as you want. Get Fit Through Gardening is a "sport" where slow, small, and clumsy are all just fine. A flower will bloom just as beautiful for a small child or a master gardener. The plant doesn't know or care.
We've taught our children to say "No to Drugs." Now let's teach them Get Fit Through Gardening. Our children spend too much time playing video games and watching television. Let's get them outside exercising and growing fresh fruits and vegetables. Beyond the health benefits, it could lead to a landscaping career, or an interest in biology or botany. At the very least, it's something families could do together, regardless of age, size or athletic ability.
If you have bad knees, raise the garden beds to waist height. If you like to play golf on weekends then make your garden smaller so you spend no more than three, thirty minute sessions each week. Does gardening hurt your back and make you sore? Shorten your gardening sessions and bend from your knees, not your back. Throw out any tool that causes you to stoop over when using it.
There is so much to say, so much to do. My greatest challenge is changing the perception that gardening is "work", yet aerobics class is "exercise." I want to reach and educate everyone: doctors, teachers, parents and most of all, our children.
It may take years or decades for my idea to catch on. I know that my "success" will never be a large bank account or millions of devotees. But every time I hear from a retired couple in Birmingham, a master gardener from Boise, or an educator from Virginia Tech and they tell me, "Thanks, this is just what I've was looking for!" I know, in my own unique, crazy way, I've made a difference.
National Gardening Exercise Day is Tuesday, June 6, 2008. Let's all spend the day "exercising" in the garden.
Jeffrey Restuccio lives and lunges and weeds in Cordova TN.
For more information, my books, Get Fit through Gardening and Fitness the Dynamic Gardening Way, are available now!
Get Fit Through Gardening Home Page | In a Nutshell | Sign my Guestbook! | Overview | Misconceptions | National Gardening Exercise Day | Get Fit Through Gardening links | vs sports | /Swap for a thighmaster offer | Top Questions | Traditional Gardening | Jan2000 article | Feb2000 article | My Turn article | Top Questions | What You Can Do Today | Stretching Program | Dynamic Gardening | Biography | Politics | E-Mail
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| Home Page | This page updated March 17, 2008 |