Ditch The Gym: 5 Gardening Activities That Give A Better Workout

Exercise is a must for good health, but it’s not always fun, and often feels too hard to make it a habit. One reason many people cite for not exercising enough is lack of time. Spinning endlessly on an indoor bike or walking on a track takes commitment, and it’s hard to justify spending the time on these workouts.

What if you could get great exercise without the spin class, without lifting weights up and down, and while getting something useful done? Gardening is great exercise and gives you a glorious finished product. Swap these typical, often boring, workouts for these gardening chores that will work you just as hard.

Exercise, Gardening, and Health

The health benefits of exercise are widely known. Regular exercise helps you maintain a healthy weight. It reduces the risk of many diseases, including chronic conditions and heart disease. It also helps you manage health conditions you already have. It’s good for the heart and strengthens bones and muscles.

Regular exercise is also great for mental health and acts as a mood booster. It improves energy and sleep quality. Exercise is good for the brain and thinking skills, especially as you age. These are just a handful of the many benefits of exercising.

There are many ways to get exercise. You don’t have to rely on activities dedicated solely to working out. Many types of physical activity provide the same benefits as an aerobics class, brisk walking, or lifting weights. One of these is gardening, which has been proven to be good for physical and mental health.

If you struggle to find the time for workouts, or you just can’t get into it or stick with it, consider an alternative. Gardening chores burn a lot of calories and can be just as effective as many standard workouts.

1. Upper Body Strength Training

Strength training workouts are essential for building and maintaining muscle. Muscle mass is important at all ages, but especially as you get older. We naturally lose mass as we age, which impacts mobility and everyday activities. Losing muscle mass can even put you at risk for harmful falls.

Upper body strength workouts build muscle in the shoulders, arms, chest, and back. Several gardening chores work all of these muscles:

• Digging soil to prepare beds
• Digging holes to put in new plants
• Pruning shrubs and trees
• Pulling weeds
• Lifting and moving pots and gardening tools
• Spreading mulch

2. Core and Lower Body Strength Training

It’s important to strengthen the entire body. While upper body training helps you lift and carry things, lower body and core training has a bigger impact on mobility. Keeping your legs, glutes, abdominals, and back strong helps you remain mobile longer. A strong core is also essential for good balance and reducing the risk of falls.

Many of the exercises you would do in a lower body and core workout can be done while gardening:

• Squat and use your legs, glutes, and core to lift heavy objects while gardening.
• Squat to pull weeds and trim low plants like perennials.
• You can also do lunges (both forward and laterally) while weeding or trimming.
• Stand on one foot and balance while doing chores that require standing to strengthen your glutes and core.
• Filling and maneuvering a wheelbarrow also requires stability that comes from the core.

Just be sure you know how to do exercises like squats and lunges with good form. Proper form is essential for getting the most out of them and reducing injury risk.

3. Replace Spin Class

Spinning and cycling are popular exercises for elevating the heart rate and burning calories. It’s easy to match the calories burned in a spin class with vigorous gardening activities. A person who weighs 155 pounds burns 500 calories in an hour of stationary cycling at a moderate level.

Just digging in the garden for an hour burns between 200 and 300 calories. Raking fall leaves burns between 300 and 400 calories per hour. Weeding burns 200 to 300 calories per hour. You’ll need to work in the garden a little longer to get the same calorie burn as a spin class, but not much.

4. Step Count

Many people use a brisk walk as a way to get their steps in. Walking 7,000 to 10,000 steps per day improves heart health, reduces the risk of chronic disease, and helps you maintain a healthy weight.

According to calculations using average stride lengths, a typical person gardening for an hour will cover nearly 4,000 steps. By walking around your yard, through beds, and back and forth to the shed, you can get your daily steps in with a couple of joyful hours spent gardening.

5. Meditation

Meditation is more of a mental workout, but it has been proven to reduce anxiety, stress, and depression. It can even positively impact physical health by lowering blood pressure, managing pain, and improving sleep.

Meditation involves focusing and calming the mind. One type of meditation, mindfulness meditation, is particularly beneficial. To do it, you focus on your senses and feelings in the present moment.

Gardening is ideal for this. As you do gardening chores, try focusing on what you can see, smell, hear, and feel. Keep your mind in the present. When you notice it wandering to thoughts about the past or future, bring it back to the present.

If you find traditional workouts boring, or you just don’t have the time for them, consider gardening your exercise. You’ll get the same health benefits and see the benefits of your hard work in the garden.

More Gardening Inspiration

• Get to grips with 9 expert gardening techniques you should master in 2025 to raise your growing game.
• Make this your year in the garden with New Year Resolution ideas to enhance your gardening.
• Discover 8 flower seeds to start in January​ for the most glorious garden this year.
• Shop stylish gardening accessories in the Gardening Know How Shop to elevate the everyday.