Gardening isn’t just a hobby, there are plenty of advantages people can benefit from. There are legitimate findings from well-documented research that link a healthy connection between a person’s well-being and gardening. Since gardening can be labor intensive, it is considered a form of exercise and thus, helps with maintaining a healthy weight and blood pressure. It’s also a great mood booster, when you get to sit back and enjoy the beauty.
It’s a very satisfying and rewarding thing when you take the time to cultivate your own food. Anyone can take part in the enjoyment as this is very inclusive, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities can all participate in gardening activities. You could be a casual gardener or a dedicated horticulturist, no matter what, you can benefit from spending time outside, getting a little dirty, and caring for your beloved plants. Our team at Five Star Tree Services want to go over all the amazing benefits gardening has.
Physical Benefits
Burns A Lot of Calories
Since gardening is a form of exercise, no matter if you are performing mild yard work, you are burning up to 330 calories (about 26 minutes of running) per hour. Imagine when you end up spending an entire day gardening? This is how you can actually lose weight from just gardening. What could be a better workout? You get to have fun and get exercise.
Builds Strength
While gardening, you need to have accurate and consistent movements. These repetitive motions help with the development of dexterity and strength. While working in a garden, you are actually actively engaging every major muscle group in your body. Which makes this a great rehabilitation strategy for patients who have suffered a stroke and want to improve their range of motion while enhancing their leg and hand functioning. Things like cutting grass and raking are ranked as light to moderate exercise activities. Whereas shoveling, excavating, and chopping wood are ranked as hard exercise activities. Which should not be surprising if you have ever noticed body soreness the day after gardening.
Lowers Blood Pressure
People who have high blood pressure have a high risk of having a stroke or heart attack. Without the use of medicine, gardening has the ability to lower blood pressure. Which is a huge positive benefit for anyone at risk. Focusing on tending to your plants is how it accomplishes automatically lowering your stress levels. Research has shown that people over 60 years old who actively take part in gardening have a 30% lower risk of having a stroke or heart attack than people who do not participate. Which means, the more time you spend gardening, the more improved your cardiovascular health becomes. The strain on your arteries decreases as your blood pressure drops.
Helps You Sleep Better
Taking the time to be outside gardening for a few hours will leave you tired from all the exercise. This, in turn, is going to help you sleep better. Since gardening is a stress reliever, it can help you clear your mind and help you fall asleep faster while in this peaceful state. Your weeding workout can wear you out, resulting in being able to fall asleep faster, sleeping longer, and allowing you to wake up refreshed. Regular, daily gardening can significantly improve your quality of sleep.
Mental Benefits
Is A Mood Booster
Positive emotions can be triggered while gardening and thus boost your mood. When you give yourself time to garden, this decreases your anxiety levels, letting you feel calmer. It has even been proven in studies assessing depression and how it improves their symptoms.
Reduces Stress
Gardening can be very relaxing and therapeutic. People recovering from a traumatic incident can benefit. It helps the body produce less cortisol, resulting in faster stress recovery.
Helps With Anxiety
Eco-anxiety is a newer term used to describe a feeling of powerlessness and lack of control people experience in regard to the damaging effects of climate change, instilling a sense of guilt in people. To combat this anxiety, people are choosing to make greener choices which is helping them keep their eco-anxiety at bay. This can mean you garden and reduce your carbon emissions. Just being outside can help minimize eco-anxiety and give you a personal connection to your environment.
Dietary Benefits
Healthier Diet
When you have healthy choices readily available at our doorstep, it’s easier to choose to eat them. Plus, the added satisfaction of knowing you grew it all by yourself. For months, you have fresh, healthy produce to pick and eat whenever you want. Thus, helping to promote long-term healthy eating of fruits and vegetables. The desire for fresh, organic, and pesticide/herbicide fruits and vegetables are growing. Everything tastes better when you grow it yourself and you also have the added satisfaction too.
How Five Star Tree Services Can Help
You can take part in all these amazing health benefits this summer by gardening. If you don’t already, start this new hobby/exercise project now! Our team at Five Star Tree Services is here to help you! Give us a call today at (416) 990-3355 for our tree care services in Richmond Hill!