CAN GARDENING BE GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH?

With many of us liking to take pride in our gardens, the prospects of it being beneficial towards our health makes it even better. Gardening can be a great form of workout, whilst also being highly beneficial towards mental health too.

Fun fact: Did you know that pulling weeds and planting flowers can burn anywhere between 200 – 400 calories

Here we will explore the various health benefits that can be the result through gardening.

HELPS TO BURN THOSE CALORIES

Depending on the task and how long you are conducting it for, gardening can be a full-fledged workout. 1-hour of gardening could help you burn around 300 calories, which is mind blowing to say the least. However, more extensive gardening for a period of between 3-4 hours would enable you to burn more calories than you would through a 1-hour gym session!

Therefore, it is recommended across many gardening experts and articles that 30-45 minutes of gardening for three to five times per week is great for our overall health.

MAKES FOR A FANTASTIC STRESS RELIEF

Gardening can be the perfect form of exercise to help release endorphins, primarily the hormone which helps people feel relaxed and content. In addition, being outside in direct sunlight is a fantastic way to help lift your mood for longer periods. This is often why people suffer from seasonal blues, as for example the winter months showcase cold and darker weather.

IMPROVING YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM

Providing you do not expose yourself to too much sunlight, it does have some medically proven advantages. The sun is our main form of Vitamin D and is imperative towards our overall health. Vitamin D helps our bodies to absorb calcium, which in turn, maintains the strength of our bones whilst helping to keep our immune systems strong.

CROP WHICH CAN IMPROVE DIET

Growing fruit and vegetable crops can be a fantastic method in ensuring a balanced and healthy diet. Through the growth of tomatoes, carrots and apples etc. it well and truly boosts the possibility of sustaining your five-a-day. Another positive factor of growing your own produce means that you will no longer have to purchase the products during your weekly shop. In turn, this would help keep your bank balance healthier too!

HELP TO GET RID OF NEGATIVE/ANGRY EMOTIONS

If you have experienced a bad day, grabbing a shovel for some heavy digging or a pair of secateurs to remove unwanted roots can be a fantastic way to release negative emotions. Moreover, removing unwanted matter in your garden is a great method in ensuring your garden doesn’t get destroyed.

IT REALLY CAN IMPROVE YOUR SENSORY ABILITIES

Spending adequate time in your garden is a great way to enhance all the sensory aspects within us. With a gargantuan amount of differing smells, plants, textures and colours for us to explore, it enables us to make the most of our sensory abilities.

It can also be a superb exercise to get young children to start learning about their body’s sensory abilities as they will be exposed to a vast array of differing smells and textures.

CAN HELP REDUCE MUSCLE FATIGUE AND OSTEOPOROSIS 

Osteoporosis is a condition that significantly weakens bone structure and unfortunately increases the probability of breaking bones in the body. Therefore, through the activity of gardening, repetitive tasks will help increase strength of muscle mass across the body. This would also help to reduce the risk of developing osteoporosis.

HEALTH BENEFITS CONCLUSION

Overall, regular gardening activity has many fantastic health benefits which should not be ignored. For example, it is highly likely to reduce the risks of a heart attack whilst also helping to relieve stress and negative emotions at the end of a busy working day. It can be heavily argued that there is no better feeling than maintaining a healthy life style and getting fit. However, these things coming from the result of maintaining a beautiful garden for all to admire, makes it feel that much better.