Should gardening and yard work really be considered a good form of exercise?
A. Absolutely. Doing something is always better than doing nothing. A seven-year study of 12,000 middle-aged men at high risk for coronary heart disease showed that those who kept up moderate, leisure time physical activity for an average of about 50 minutes every day were healthier than those who did little or nothing. And one of the top choices of these active men was gardening. The key to good health, according to another study, is expending 2,000 calories a week in exercise, beyond the routines of daily life. Your cardiovascular system will benefit most from running, brisk walking, cycling, and other activities that raise your heart rate sufficiently for at least 20 minutes. But you can still get many benefits from an aerobic exercise such as gardening if you pursue it regularly. Even the less strenuous forms of garden upkeep – weeding, trimming, raking – can burn off about 300 calories an hour. Spading, lifting, tilling, and raking can improve muscle tone and strength. You can mak
