What Size Nut Fits The End Of A Garden Hose

Digging deep in the garden can do wonders for your fitness and health - and it won't even cost a penny!

Need convincing? Well, the cost-saving benefits are a bonus, but gardening really is good for you. It's great for your mental health and wellbeing, it stimulates your brain and is a good chance to embrace nature and the great outdoors. As you prepare to overhaul your garden in time for the summer months, your weekly projects of planting, painting the shed and mowing the lawn won't even seem like a chore anymore.

Emma Clarke, nutritionist at calorie experts, Nutracheck, explains: 'An hour of general gardening can burn around 250 calories. Keep moving and turn your gardening into a reasonable intensity workout. Try to keep rests to an 'as-required' minimum and leave your green garden waste bin at the other end of the garden – shuttle back and forth with armfuls of greenery.'

Here are three of the best ways to get fit in the garden:

1. Mowing the lawn burns 175 every 30 minutes

Mowing the lawn for 30 minutes can burn around 175 calories. And if your lawn mower doesn't collect the cuttings, that's good news as raking up grass burns around 125 calories for half an hour. Every little helps.

Lawnmower: Moving a fresh spring lawn with a manual lawnmower.

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2. Digging burns 300 calories every 30 minutes

Digging is great cardio gardening activity – just 30 minutes can burn around 300 calories. It will be more if you have heavy clay soil or hard ground. Keep going at a steady pace without a break for maximum calorie burn.

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3. Weeding burns 80 calories per hour

You can also ditch the weed killer and do it yourself. It's cheaper, produces no chemicals and burns around 80 calories per hour. Weeding can be hard on the knees so try to use a soft pad to protect yourself from knee-related injuries. Also, try to adjust your body as you move from weed to weed to prevent over-reaching: leaning beyond our centre of gravity creates stressed posture and sore bodies.

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Remember...

Gardening tends to find those muscles we don't use too often! So, as with any physical exercise, it's important to remember to prepare our bodies before and after. Try gentle stretching or yoga-style moves in preparation for the work ahead.

Final tip!

Reduce potential suffering and muscle stiffness the next day by having a hot bath or shower once you've finished for circulation and muscle flushing. The good news is that the benefits of an ice bath over a hot bath are fairly minimal, so unless you're an elite athlete, opt for the hot bath!

If you want to track your process, why not wear an activity tracker like Fitbit to count the extra gardening steps?

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Olivia Heath Executive Digital Editor, House Beautiful UK Olivia Heath is the Executive Digital Editor at House Beautiful UK where she's busy uncovering tomorrow's biggest home trends, all whilst delivering stylish room inspiration, small space solutions, easy garden ideas and house tours of the hottest properties on the market.

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