Get Fit in the Garden

Our gardens can be a place to relax and unwind or even a place to keep active. Saturday 6th of June is garden exercise day. A day that celebrates the therapeutic and physical benefits of gardening.

With the mornings and evenings getting lighter and warmer, it's the perfect excuse to get outside and get moving - can’t forget your daily dose of vitamin D.

Here are some great workouts you can do in your garden...

Pilates

Pilates is a form of low-impact exercise that aims to strengthen muscles while improving postural alignment and flexibility. Pilates moves tend to target the core, although the exercises work other areas of your body as well. It will also reduce stress, calm the mind and boost the immune system.

You can do Pilates with or without equipment, but no matter what, expect the moves to involve slow, precise movements and breath control.

The Girl With The Pilates Mat is a great youtube channel that has a selection of easy to follow Pilates exercise routines.

Circuits

You don't need to head to the gym to get a whole-body workout, circuit training is great for everyone, regardless of abilities. It incorporates a variety of exercises at separate stations. It is a great way to help you get in shape and pick a selection of workouts that will work for you.

The trick with circuit training is to use whatever you have handy and mix it up - choose upper body exercises, lower body exercises and some cardio. Once the first round is done take a minute to rest and let your heart rate come down before going again.BBC have a great aerobic circuit workout that you can do in the comfort of your back garden.

Garden Games

From playing on the trampoline to a kick about with the football, one of the best ways to get those endorphins pumping this week will be getting outside and playing some garden game in the sunshine.

Another great game for all the family is the Human Board Game. For this, all you’ll need is paper, pens, a dice and your imagination. Make your very own board game that the whole family can play with turns like ‘Do a cartwheel’, ‘Find three flowers’ or ‘Do two laps of the garden’ - how imaginative can you get?

Online workouts

From Zumba to HIIT, the selection of workouts online are endless - there's something for everyone out there to help you stay in shape amid the coronavirus lockdown. Even Mr Motivator is back doing his aerobics.

You won’t need to spend much time online to find an online fitness class that you can get involved with. See our previous blog post for some of our suggestions: https://www.willerby.com/blog/stay-home-stay-safe-stay-fit

Running

Not everyone will be able to do this in their garden and if you can’t then get out in the public spaces - getting out for a run is a fantastic way to stay fit – physically and emotionally

And if you're heading out the house for your run you'll have to make sure you're running solo and staying at least two metres from other people. It helps to pick less busy times and routes.

Why not set yourself a series of goals to stay motivated, join Couch to 5K which is a running plan for absolute beginners. You could even enter a Virtual Race, the Fix have launched a “Beat The Boredom Run”, with various distances from 5k to the marathon.

Gardening

If none of these take your fancy, then why not spend some hours on your garden. According to the experts a few hours hard gardening can work wonders for your health and wellbeing - as well as burning calories.

Gardening makes your body do all sorts of movements – squatting, bending, walking, lifting, digging and so on. Spend half an hour doing any of the following activities and expect to use up: Digging and shovelling: 250 calories Lawn mowing: 195 calories

Tell us what workouts you’ve been doing and how you’ve been enjoying the sunshine, email marketing@whh.co.uk