Many people know that yard work can burn calories, but gardening as exercise offers even more benefits than just a good sweat. It can build strength, strengthen muscles, and lower blood pressure levels in some cases.

Gardening can also increase vitamin D in your body as you spend time outdoors. This helps you feel healthier and boosts your immune system.

Whether we’re working at a desk or watching TV from the couch, many of us spend a large portion of our day sitting down. This is often unavoidable, but by staying in the same position for such a long time we risk seeing our muscles tighten and our core weaken due to a lack of use.

To prevent this, it pays to introduce a bit more movement into your day. This sequence of seated stretches from yoga teacher Adriene Mishler (Yoga With Adriene (opens in new tab)) offers impressive benefits for your mind and body, and it can be done at your desk in just six minutes. 

Frontiers in Sports and Active Living (opens in new tab) journal shows. This is because your back and core muscles are largely inactive when you’re supported by a backrest. 

Your hip flexors can also become tight, and your legs and glutes may weaken, for the same reason. However, the same study found that regular muscle contractions (using your muscles) can prevent these effects. 

So, whether you’re trying this session, going for a walk during the working day or taking time to stretch, it’s well worth finding time to move your body every once in a while.

To see the benefits for themselves, our writer tried doing yoga every day for 30 days (opens in new tab), and they were amazed to find they felt “stronger inside and out” by the end of the experiment. 

If you want to break-up your habitual sitting adding some yoga into your weekly routine, take a read of our feature on anti-aging yoga moves (opens in new tab). Or, if you’re new to the practice, try these beginner’s yoga exercises (opens in new tab) for building strength.

Source: fitandwell.com