Get fit in your garden: Gardening can boost fitness, nutrition and mental health

Whether you have a green thumb, or you just like the sun, now is the perfect time to get a garden going, and planting and tending to it could yield more than a plateful of tasty veggies.

Emily Scifers, who co-owns Laughing Stalk Farmstead with husband Ross Peterson, says there's nothing quite like working in the garden to get your body moving.

"It's the best exercise," she says. "It's not like going to the gym."

Carlen Mulholland, a fitness expert and personal trainer at Fitness Plus in Cape Girardeau, says gardening does provide a workout that she likens to weight lifting, more than cardio.

"You're picking things up; you're moving things around," she says. "It's more resistance training. You can definitely burn some calories. It's not like running, biking or swimming."

The workout gardening provides can be a precursor to getting started with a more rigorous workout.

Dr. Sharon Braun, a licensed professional counselor and director of public relations at the Community Counseling Center, says working in the garden makes her more likely to do a more structured exercise program.

"The bending and stooping makes me overall more agile and keeps me limber," she says.

Scifers, Mulholland and Braun all agree that one of the most beneficial elements of gardening is its ability to improve a person's mood.

"It's very distracting, so you pretty much forget your troubles and stay in the present," Braun says. "It also reduces anxiety and depression."

Stock photo

Gardening, and the results it produces, can even make people feel better about themselves.

"It gives you a sense of accomplishment, which can raise self-esteem," Braun says.

These benefits are natural byproducts of gardening.

"You're working on your mental health without realizing it," Mulholland says.

Sometimes the motivator to get a garden going is as simple as wanting to know the source of the food one's family is eating.

Scifers is the community garden coordinator for the public health system in Cape Girardeau and works through a grant called Health Eating Active Lifestyle (HEAL).

With a six-month growing season, there's plenty of time to use this fun and productive method to get a workout, while enjoying the freshest produce.

Getting the vegetables from the field to the table provides the body with top-notch fuel loaded with nutrients.

"The less amount of time from harvest to plate is really important," Scifers says. "You're really getting the maximum amount of nutrients -- the fresher the better."

According to Calorielab.com, the act of general gardening burns about 50 calories in 15 minutes.

While that may not seem like a significant amount, Dr. Mark Langenfeld, exercise science expert at Southeast Missouri State University's Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation, says it's important to look at the bigger picture.

"The calorie cost might not be so big, but you're getting exercise," he says. "It doesn't have to be high intensity."

Langenfeld shows a video to some of his classes, "23 and 1/2 Hours." The point it makes is that one of the best things people can do to improve their overall health is to spend less than that much time being sedentary.

Stock photo

Members of the health and fitness community at large agree it's a good idea to get at least a half-hour of physical activity a day.

"The good news is that when we strive to get at least 30 minutes of activity a day, it doesn't mean it has to be all at one time," Langenfeld says.

Evidence suggests breaking down that 30 minutes into little segments of time, like 10 or 15 minutes at a time, when done regularly, may even be more beneficial.

"Gardening certainly lends itself to that," Langenfeld says. "Accumulating activity throughout the day is really valuable for our health. Look at how many minutes you're avoiding being sedentary. One of the things I emphasize is that what you do today, tomorrow, next week and next month, doesn't have that much to do with how healthy you are 20 years from now."

Consistency is important, and the point is to find an activity you enjoy and stick with it.

"If gardening is that for you, then that's fantastic," he says.