Gardening has always been one of our favourite occupations. Happily, social distancing and lockdown have allowed us a bit more garden time. And of course, the fabulous weather has certainly helped. However, are you familiar with this little equation?
(lockdown x gardening) + sunshine = increase in garden-related injuries.
We really wanted to make sure that you can enjoy your gardening safely. Of course, you can also use gardening as a way of increasing your exercise with mobilisation, strength and conditioning high on the agenda. Indeed, there’s nothing like pruning a large shrub to get the shoulders in tip-top condition. Or how about digging a new trench for your veggies? Just think of the core and leg work involved there? As for weeding the back of the border and wrestling with the Ground Elder, what more can you need for mobilisation and flexibility?
Don’t forget to do your gardening warm up
A couple of years ago we published some helpful warm-up tips for you budding Percy Throwers in our magazine. We know it might seem like a bit of overkill to warm up before getting out the garden tools. However, gardening is exercise. When you come to an FLexercise class, what is the first activity? A warm-up of course.
So, here is our top tips gardening warm-up fact sheet which you can print off and pin in your shed!!!
https://fl-exercise.com/wp-content/uploads/gardening.pdf
Do you want to get your body stronger to prepare for all the tasks in the garden? Then why not have another look at our functional fitness video’s and blogs
https://www.fl-exercise.com/mowing-the-lawn-functional-fitness/
https://www.fl-exercise.com/garden-shears-and-functional-fitness/
https://www.fl-exercise.com/functional-fitness-climbing-a-ladder/
Beware of plants!!
In addition to the potential damage we can do to ourselves by not warming up, we mustn’t forget the hazards of plants in general. Spikes, poison, irritation..the list is endless. We have found a really helpful information sheet from RHS which is another one to print and pin up in the shed. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=541
Enjoy your garden, stay safe and send us some pictures – We love to see what other people are up to