The Research Is In: Yes, Gardening Totally Counts As Exercise

By this point, it's well understood that spending time in nature directly boosts physical and mental well-being. Gardening, therefore, is a super healthy habit. But just how healthy is it? Is spending an hour in your tulip bed the equivalent of spending it at the gym? Here's the latest research on how you can make sure your next gardening session serves as exercise for your body and mind.

Gary L. Altman, M.S., CRC, HTR and associate director of the Horticultural Therapy Program at Rutgers University School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, explains that gardening incorporates all four types of exercise: endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility and can be much more vigorous than people may realize. "Gardening should be thought of as a whole-body exercise that works all of the major muscle groups including legs, buttocks, back, abdomen, neck, arms, and shoulders," he says.

Ann Kulze, M.D., wellness expert and author, also notes that gardening can encourage you to eat more greens! When you grow your own vegetables, fruits, or herbs, you are constantly reminded of how tasty fresh, nutritious produce can be.

Jeffrey Restuccio, author of two books on how to transform gardening into a comprehensive fitness program, notes that there are things you must keep in mind when it comes to approaching gardening as a physical activity. "Gardening, the wrong way, as exercise can cause muscle soreness, back pain and is inefficient and not effective as an exercise program," he says. In Aerobic Gardening, Restuccio highlights numerous ways people can indeed make gardening more of an effective way to get moving. "Every addition increases the calories burned, exercise benefits, and reduces muscle soreness and potential for injury," he says. Here are a few of his favorite ideas for making gardening more vigorous:

This is an important technique borrowed from martial arts as well as weight training. Essentially, you'll want to increase your "range of motion" as wide as possible when raking or hand-weeding by increasing the sweep or arc from your starting position to your ending position. "At first, this will take some continuous effort and practice, but it will increase the stretch, caloric expenditures, and the muscles used," notes Restuccio.

Restuccio says he came up with the lunge-and-weed stance idea after observing people at the gym lunging forward with one leg bent while holding dumbbells with both hands. To do this stance, you want to rest your left arm on your left knee when weeding with your right hand. Alternate this motion if you're left-handed. A tool with a long handle is essential for this one, as you need to be able to dig in the dirt from a crouching position with your knee bent and back muscles straight. Restuccio says that performing gardening tasks in this stance for 30 to 40 minutes can be roughly equivalent to walking or riding a bike in terms of calories burned.

Always strive to engage your largest muscles (think quadriceps, buttocks, and torso) when gardening. Transferring the effort from the small muscles of your arms and lower back to the large muscles of your legs and buttocks will help you burn more calories and feel less sore the next day.

As you garden, pull one arm in as the other moves out, like you would if you were curling dumbbells. This technique can help balance the muscles used, increase your power, and raise your heart rate into the aerobic training zone.

While raking and digging a hole aren't the same as doing a leg press, the concepts are pretty similar. Restuccio suggests grouping raking and cultivating motions first into repetitions and then sets. For example, raking 10 to 15 sweeps briskly can be one set. Rest or continue doing something else for a minute, then continue raking. This type of thinking is most effective for difficult activities like picking up bags of soil, digging, raking, or turning a compost pile.

The next time you're feeling lethargic, overwhelmed, or just in need of a quick sweat fix, try getting a little dirt under those nails, and see what happens.