I have just been out in the garden harvesting some of this year’s crop, which set me thinking, exercise and gardening have a number of things in common.
- They both burn calories, the amount varies, depending on the degree of exertion. An hour of gardening can burn 300-500 calories.
- They are both beneficial for both mental and physical health.
- Gardening and exercise are addictive when you start to see results.
- It’s easy to over complicate matters. Here are some potatoes I harvested recently. I grew them in a bag with minimal fuss and attention.
A friend of mine came to me for advice because he had been told to lose some weight and exercise, but he didn’t want to join a gym of go running. We went for a walk in a local park and talked about keeping things simple and just walking…
Depending on your pace and how steep the path is, walking can burn 200-350 calories an hour. I once wore my Garmin on a walk in Derbyshire, by the time we had only covered a quarter of the distance, I had burned 300 calories (and we hadn’t reached the hill yet).
But you don’t have to walk for hours in the country; a brisk 10-minute walk every day contributes half of the 150 minutes of weekly exercise the NHS recommends. There are many ways to find these 10 minutes; walk rather than drive when possible; use the stairs rather than the lift; get off the bus earlier and walk the rest of the journey or make a date to walk with friends, family or simply the dog.
Walking not only burns calories, it also makes your heart stronger, decreases blood pressure, strengthens your bones and eases joint pain and stiffness. It is low impact placing less pressure on your knees than running. If you take some time to walk outside, in green spaces, walking also helps to improve mental health, particularly if you walk with others.
With all this in mind, I am running a walk and lift group. The idea is partially stolen from the late Michael Mosely, who suggested interval walking, mixing periods of very brisk walking with periods of rest. This burns more calories, can stimulate mitochondrial development (the little batteries which give us energy) and there is some evidence that interval work keeps our brains healthy!
The group will walk together for 30 minutes in a local park and have the option to follow this with some low impact strength work in the gym guided by me, as strength work has also been shown to improve muscle and bone health. The group is free for the next four weeks and will meet twice a week. Sixty more minutes towards that exercise total!
If you live in Nottingham and you are interested in joining the group, the website page below will explain how the sessions work and where and when I am running them
Skeats Strength 