Exercise in the Garden

Exercise in the Garden

By Garrett Wade

When people think of exercise, most picture indoor places, like the gym, in-home exercise treadmills, and sweaty yoga studios. But this is a fairly recent mindset. If we go back to our roots, “working out” was checked off the to-do list just by living, through everyday activities like gathering food or walking to school or work. So, let’s embrace our ancestral ways and take our physical activity back outside! One excellent way to accomplish this is by undertaking projects in the garden or yard of your home. I will discuss the best way to use your body while gardening or doing yard work, from things I’ve learned from three years of farming.

When you are moving the fastest while exercising, you are not necessarily doing the best for your body. When you work outside in an uncontrolled environment, the heat of the sun, mixed with your exertion, can take its toll. Often, pushing yourself to lift more weight or bending in half to weed quicker, makes it easier to injure yourself. Instead of high speed and a quicker heart rate, when working in the outdoors you should be conscious of form. This is essentially ergonomics, a term relating to design for efficiency and comfort in your work space. Ergonomics doesn’t just mean comfortable tools and office chairs; it also implies correct body posture and streamlined movement.

Let’s start with mulching. Mulching is a common yard activity used to suppress weeds and add organic material to the soil. Usually you see people with a pile of mulch, a wheelbarrow, and a shovel. Shoveling is a task I try and avoid since it can easily strain your back muscles. It is also a time suck because one shovel load at a time is a slow, and therefore inefficient, way to fill a wheelbarrow. I was using this method at my first full time farm job when my boss, Jon, came over to correct my form using his favorite phrase, “this is a teachable moment.” Jon proceeded to teach me this pro tip: tilt the wheelbarrow over so its lid rests on the bottom of the mulch pile. Instead of fighting gravity to shovel the mulch up to a higher level (and thereby straining your back muscles), use a sturdy rake to pull the mulch from the pile into the lowered vessel.

Remember to switch your hand positioning while raking mulch into your wheelbarrow so you use both sides of your body.

Once you’ve packed in the material, it is time to raise the wheelbarrow to its upright position. Situate yourself on the side that is up in the air. Grip the edge and squat to use your body weight to pull the barrow back onto its three-point position, where both legs and the wheel are on the ground. Make sure to even out the material inside the barrow so the weight will be evenly distributed.

When tilting the wheelbarrow back to its upright position, bend your knees so that your legs do the lifting, not your back.

One important aspect to all of these gardening chores is mindful breathing. As you raise your rake to the top of the mulch pile, inhale and let that breath guide your arms upward. As you rake the mulch into the wheelbarrow, exhale loudly and tense your abdominal. It helps if you can hear yourself breathing because it creates a beat, like in music, which your body can then follow. It is also a good reminder to keep breathing. I often find myself holding my breath, tensed, waiting for the task to be done. With these tips, your mulching will not only go quicker, but it will also work the abs more, without tweaking your back.