Leisure-activities such as gardening or golf are all good ways to promote a person’s fitness level. Furthermore, with a few tweaks, these simple everyday hobbies can become serious calorie-burning exercises.
Here are some tips on how you can turn your favorite activities into more intense workouts.
Tips to turn leisure activities into fitness activities
- When golfing, skip the golf cart and walk from green to green. The average golf course will have you walking four miles.
- If possible, carry and pull your own golf clubs.
- Avoid filling up on a heavy meal mid or post-golf session. Stick to a well-balanced meal instead.
- Prior to golfing, ensure you are stretching to reduce the risk of injury.
- When at home, gardening can burn up to 300 calories.
- Use a push lawn mower rather than a power mower to increase resistance and help tone your upper body.
- Planting a garden will ensure you are getting outside more often. Planting and tending to a garden targets the glutes and thighs—an area that becomes weak due to our prolonged sitting habits.
- It will also ensure that you eat healthier, as you will have ready-to-eat produce at your disposal.
- Always maintain good posture while gardening, and if something doesn’t feel right, avoid that movement or stance.
These tips can help you get more out of golfing and gardening, which are popular habits among older adults. They may not seem like much, but they are actually just enough to get you to burn calories and improve your fitness.
Related: Brief stair climbing is a good way to boost fitness