The Health Benefits Of Yard Work

Aside from having a great-looking yard and the good opinion of one's neighbors, there are significant benefits to doing your own yard work. An hour spent doing yard work burns as many calories as 45 minutes of moderate exercise in the gym. Yard work provides aerobic exercise that delivers a full-body workout to improve cardiovascular health, burn calories, build muscle, improve flexibility in joints, strengthen core muscles and improve lung capacity. Yard work is also a way to add weight-bearing exercise that increases bone density, particularly by increasing the amount of vitamin D your body receives to help your body absorb calcium more efficiently.

Moreover, yard work is also a great stress-reliever. Coming into intimate contact with nature, absorbing the beauty and tranquility of a garden and losing yourself in some repetitive task like raking or weeding can free your mind to focus on problem-resolution in some other area of your life or simply to daydream. It lowers blood pressure and releases endorphins, the feel-good hormones that your body produces naturally.

Those are all some mighty compelling reasons to get out into the yard and start getting busy. As a final benefit, you get the immediate gratification and personal satisfaction of seeing how your efforts have improved your home surroundings, the well-groomed lawn, the newly-weeded flower bed or vegetable garden and the planters brimming with an explosion of color and life.

Exercise common sense when it comes to gardening tasks that are beyond your capabilities. Hire an expert to climb a ladder to prune trees or tall shrubs, for instance. Hire a neighborhood teen to help with the heavy lifting and hauling. Stay well hydrated and use sunscreen to protect your skin from UV rays.