By Mary Lowther
I asked my son how he keeps in shape to play hockey.
“Mom,” he replied gently, “I play hockey to KEEP in shape.”
I feel the same way about gardening. Digging, hoeing, hoisting and pulling are my workout routine, but during off-season I have to keep up some sort of exercise so I can survive the garden next year.
If we don’t want to lose our overall bodies we need to keep up some kind of workout to stay fit during those long days when the weather simply does not cooperate. I suggest keep getting up early as if you’re going to garden before work, but exercise instead. It doesn’t matter what routine you do as long as it gets the heart pumping and the muscles working.
We have one of those VCR machines that my kids insist is neither new nor fangled, but it’s easy to use and thrift shops offer old workout videos real cheap. I have collected so many that I don’t get bored with constant repetition no matter how many reps I do. Most mornings I follow an aerobics classic; in the evening, I alternate stretching with weight-lifting videos. Fortunately David can watch Jeopardy on the Detroit station at 4:30, so we no longer have a scheduling conflict.
Despite his often repeated argument that the mind needs exercise as well, I notice he gets his on the couch, insisting he cannot move because the cat is on his lap. David does not like working out for its own sake and insists on having something to show for his physical efforts. Fortunately he has leaves to rake and wood to split, and when that is done I leave the lights on all over the house so he can run around turning them off behind me.
But enough about David. Another way I keep in shape is basic maintenance, making and assembling those great garden items I never had time for in the summer, like a boot brush scrubber and that box of parts to the mini greenhouse I bought at a garage sale; fixing the compost heap and the corner of the fence that some bear broke in its impatience to reach my apple tree. I could delegate that to someone else, but the cat is on his lap again and I keep forgetting to put the to-do list in the form of a question.
Please contact mary_lowther@yahoo.ca with questions and suggestions since I need all the help I can get.