Gardening is inspirational, empowering, creative, and exhausting. I weed, prune, rake and mulch all in anticipation of what I really want to do - plant. If I am not already achy when I come in, I will be the next day or two or three. I know to drink plenty of water while I work, to wear sun protection and to stretch before gardening. I also thought I knew all the ways to move correctly to help lessen the stress on my body. I was wrong.
While listening to a garden podcast (while gardening, of course), I heard about a new show on PBS that showcases all kinds of gardens around the country (13 in this season) and addresses the ways we can move while maintaining our gardens to help alleviate the not-so-inevitable aches and pains. The show is called “GardenFit”. The show's hosts are Madeline Hooper, a very fit, lifetime gardener from the East coast, and Jeff Hughes, a fitness trainer for over 30 years for regular folks as well as celebrities. He observes each gardener working, sees his or her aches and pains and mistakes in movement while gardening. He then suggests and demonstrates and explains the correct moves to take the stress off the body. He helps you to recognize the fixes – the correct muscles that should be used to develop stamina and balance while gardening. The garden is the gym. The hosts revisit the garden and gardener four weeks after the tips and demonstrations to see if there is improvement. (It takes about four weeks of repetition to engrain a new habit.) The gardens are gorgeous, and each gardener addresses what plants worked and which flopped for them.
I streamed the first episode on PBS.org on the day the show was released, the first day of spring, March 21. It is not currently playing on our local KVIE. You can also check it out on GardenFit.fit. The next episode will be on a favorite of mine: Zen gardening at a Connecticut garden.