Working out... in the garden?

Do you have a garden? Then you are very lucky! Do you know that working in the garden is the equivalent of a good exercise?
If you work in the garden at least 5 hours a week you can burn up to 750 calories! Not to mention these other great benefits:

• you spend time in fresh air, improve your skin tone and colour plus getting your vitamin D intake that is essential for healthy bones and teeth;
• to be surrounded by nature (even a small part of it) is considered to be a stress and depression reliever as it's really soothing and calming.
• it helps to prevent heart and respiratory system diseases, promotes joint mobility, increases flexibility and decreases cholesterol level and high blood pressure;
• you don't check your watch every five minutes as if you were in the gym, time flies.
• while working out, you can have very healthy and fresh snacks, basically, everything that is growing around you;
• you don't spend time and money driving to gym and gym itself;
• plus you'll be getting endless supply of fresh, seasonal and organic produce. Just calculate how much you are going to cut your groceries bill!

While gardening you are working out:

• biceps: raking, mowing and forking;
• arms and shoulders: digging, hoeing, raking, weeding, carrying weights, mowing, pruning, forking;
• thighs/bottom: digging and weeding;
• stomach area/abdominal area: weeding, picking, turning hay, compost or just soil with forks.

However, work in the garden considered to be from low to medium type of activity and if you are looking for advance fitness, as in my case, you'll need to continue after garden work with more exercises. Just drop the mat on a lawn and you have you own gym on a fresh air.
Easy rules to follow:

• Always start with warming up, like 15 minutes of brisk walk.
• If you've never done gardening before, start with a small project, work no more than 15 minutes in your first day and increase your hours slowly.
• Every 15 – 20 minutes change your activity, for example, if you were digging, do pruning as your next task.
• Your tools should be correct height and grip size (no short handles!).
• While working, drink plenty of water.
• Take a break every hour or so, seat in the shade, have a cup of herb tea with a dash of honey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJsoKTVOWz4&t=8s (by the way, the honey extraction is a huge exercise with a lot of sweat also).
• Be careful with you back! Bend with your knees, not with your back. Ask for help if you need to lift something heavy.
• And here is my personal know – how: to lower impact on my back I always use special motorbike belt as it gives a great support.
• Try to make as many raised beds as possible as you'll bend much more less, here is the link how to make a raised no - dig – bed.
  
• Do thorough stretching after gardening, usually it takes me around 20 minutes (and I also do meditating after).
• Then, if you'd like to continue with beauty procedures, make organic scrub https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5u57m73eSw&t=3s and apply it all over the body, then rinse. Use Julia's Organic Garden and Kitchen serum after for face and body then rinse. Use Julia's Organic Garden and Kitchen oil after for face and body nourishing with combination of my anti - age cream and rinse with home – made tonic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ISPx29Dqzw
• And just to finish your “gardening” day in a healthy and detoxifying note, have for dinner any of dish from my healthy recipes.