Gardener’s Friend

I have a few friends that are really avid gardeners. They love to be out there and time flies by for them while they work away in their gardens. You can really appreciate the hard work that goes into a beautiful garden and if you garden at all you know it is work indeed! Depending on the tasks you wish to accomplish in your yard the calorie burn can be pretty significant in an hour. Weeding and planting flowers, mowing the lawn and the bigger jobs of hauling dirt or stone can burn from 150-450 calories in an hour….hmmm that makes me like it a little more!

If you are someone who loves your yard so much that for you it’s almost a full time job, than you really need to make sure you stretch. Just like any job that requires a lot of bending and lifting when muscles get tight from lots of work, they need some precise stretching! Muscles that are tight, or shortened from work need to be lengthened again to keep the body balanced and prevent possibly injury.

So I have a few simple stretches you can do after some hard work in the garden. If you are not familiar with these, I’m sure you can find a good tutorial on the internet. (there are more than one name for the same stretch, if you are not certain or don’t feel safe, than skip it!)

Mid Cobra; T-Roll; Knees to chest: 1 at a time then both; savasana; staff pose; cobbler’s pose; Pretzel ITB; child’s pose and cat and cow

That would be a great start to a good habit of stretching after working the body. Some jobs should be followed by a stretch, you only get one body….take care of it!