Aerobic gardening

My best aerobic exercise 'machines' - all sweat powered!

Among the many things I love about gardening is that it is hard work. Since I spend so much of the day sitting down doing research and writing it is a treat for me to get out in the garden and do something with my body that requires more effort. Enough effort to keep me reasonably fit and trim – and the beauty of getting one's exercise by gardening is that not only is the 'outdoor gym' right at one's back door, it also doesn't cost anything to belong to it and it saves you money on food. What's not to like about it?

But how does one know whether one is working hard enough in the garden to get fitness benefits? I do the heart rate test – checking the pulse on my right wrist while looking at my watch on my left wrist to see how many beats it is beating every 10 seconds. Then I multiply those beats by 6 to get beats per minute, and if that comes to between 110-130 per minute I know I am in the aerobic fitness zone, where my heart is pumping oxygen at 70-80% capacity. The numbers of beats in the aerobic fitness zone depends on one's age, gender and even the type of exercise one is doing. It is a bit more complicated than I thought it was when I first learned to count my pulse - which you can read about here and here – but I am not fussed about this as there are other indicators that one is in the zone, such as slightly faster or deeper breathing and a slight sweat, not to mention a definite feeling of exerting oneself.

It took me two hours to dig over the two small bare patches in the photo at right - in the process unearthing the rocks in the photo above. Getting them out with a crowbar was VERY aerobic.








Now obviously there are some gardening activities, such as dead-heading roses, potting up seedlings, and watering with a hand-held hose, that require very little effort at all. At the other extreme are mowing with a push mower (especially on a slope), grubbing rough ground, turning or spreading compost, and digging beds or holes for trees (especially if the ground has lots of twitch grass and rocks in it, like every bed and hole I have ever dug in the Eco Garden). In between these extremes are activities such as weeding by hand, using a fork or rake, and pushing a wheelbarrow around.

I wouldn't say that I enjoy the more aerobic forms of gardening in the way that I enjoy expending the same amount of effort in walking, cycling, or swimming in the sea, but I like them much more than I like artificial forms of exercise, such as gym machines or sport. I especially like the results at the end of of my efforts – another tree planted, another bed ready to be planted, a neat lawn.

A Maori colleague once joked with me that the reason that pre-colonial Maori did not go in for mountaineering as a form of sport or recreation was that it made no sense to them to put in all that effort if there was no tucker to be gained at the end of it. A sentiment which I heartily endorse when it comes to a choice of sport or gardening.