November 11, 2020 • 39 mins
Have you ever come in from the yard after planting and pruning actually felt sore? It’s as if you went to a high intensity workout class, but you were actually just turning the compost. You’re not alone! Gardening does a body good. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gardening qualifies as actual exercise and just 30-45 mins tending to the plants in your backyard can burn up to 300 calories. Gardening can be the gateway to fitness and in this episode, host Mangesh Hattikudur chats with fitness and travel journalist Annie Daly about her reporting on gardening as a workout. Mango also does some stretching with author and founder of Yoga on the Lane Naomi Annand as they discuss the connection between yoga and gardening.
For more helpful tips on growing and gardening, check out the Miracle-Gro Website and learn from articles like, How to Plant Almost Anything. Your friends at Miracle-Gro are collaboration partners with iHeart Radio for "Humans Growing Stuff."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Over the past few months, the way we do everything
has changed, including our workouts. Gyms and fitness centers closed
their doors, leaving us this perfect excuse to pause our memberships.
And while I'm sure some of you have kept training
for those marathons, for an indoor cat like me, I
quickly took to the more sedentary life binging Netflix, mixing
(00:24):
up mock tails with my kids, cooking up large pots
of delicious foods. And while the coziness gave me this
certain type of comfort in these stressed times, it hasn't
done wonders for my paunch. So I've been trying to
figure out how to slip a little exercise into my world,
and how do I do it without it feeling like
a chore. Lucky for me, I've heard that gardening can
(00:48):
be a great substitution for spin classes or that breakdance class.
Ruby keeps trying to convince me to take our new
come on, come on, let's do right dancing class. Plus
the commute to my backyard. It feels like when I
can manage Hey there, I'm Mongays Articular, a co host
(01:10):
of Part Time Genius, one of the co founders of
Mental Plus, and this is Humans, Growing Stuff a collaboration
from my Heart Radio and your friends at Miracle Grow.
My goal is to make this the most human show
about plants you'll ever listen to, and along the way,
we'll share sweet, inspiring stories, tips and tricks to nurture
(01:31):
your plant addiction, and just enough science to make you
sound like an expert. In today's episode, we're examining gardening
is a form of exercise, from targeting specific muscle groups
to burning calories to stretching your body. So put down
your kettlebells and pick up that shovel. We're about to
get biddle leaf bit chapter eight, Growing Plants and Muscles.
(02:00):
As a kid just bouncing a basketball on the driveway,
it was like a bat signal in my neighborhood. You'd
go onto your driveway, dribble the ball around a little,
and suddenly you'd see window shades part little eyes would
peer out, and any kid who could sneak away from
their homework or their chores, which show up to play
and in an instant games would just materialize. Weirdly enough,
(02:25):
that isn't how it is. As a four year old,
I can sit on my stoop with a soccer ball
or dribble a basketball on the sidewalk, and no one
my age is running over to play. The truth is,
unless there's a game involved, I'm a little lazy about
going to the gym. But there's something wonderful about incidental exercise.
If I happen to get fit from doing things I
(02:46):
want to do anyway, well, I'm all for it. And
it turns out gardening can be just that. You didn't
hear this from our conversation last week, but when I
was chatting with Jim Gaffigan, the comedian and writer and act,
he told me about how gardening has actually helped him
achieve fitness goals on his Apple Watch. I have an
(03:06):
Apple Watch, me mentioning it on this podcast, they should
send me a new one which keeps track of energy
burned and calories burned and all that. And when I
was doing gardening, I was burning a lot of calories.
But I felt what was really kind of weird was
at one point I kind of injured myself and I
was like, am I the first person to ever get
(03:28):
injured gardening? You know, It's like it's like, where, how
did you get injured? While I was running a marathon?
How did you get injured. But I was trying to
plant some tulips and it's but yeah, I do reach
some of my fitness goals by gardening, which is great.
And he gets you outside so you get the vitamin
(03:50):
D and all that stuff, so there is some exercise
value in it. Jim's right. Over the course of the series,
I've read that gardening is good for the body. In
just a couple of hours, you can burn two hundred
to six hundred calories through a mix of work. And
that's because gardening is a whole body exercise that impacts
large muscle groups like your legs, back, shoulder abs. Tasks
(04:13):
like mowing and raking leaves are more intensive and have
a better payoff increasing your heart rate with repeated rhythm
of activity, but smaller tasks, things like pruning that targets
smaller muscles like deltoids and the upper and lower trapezis
or adults and traps. For all your gym riots out there,
so much of being a busy working adult is managing
(04:35):
your time, and I think sometimes for me at least,
I get caught up in the idea that fitness or
working out has to be a separate activity entirely that
if it isn't an hour of focused exercise distant from
my family, it doesn't count. But clearly the opposite can
be true. I want to dig deeper into this idea,
(04:57):
so I called up Any Daily. He's a Brooklyn based
journalist and the author of a new book, Destination Wellness.
In it, she explores various health and well being practices
from across the world. But I wanted to ask Annie
specifically about her article in Women's Health does gardening really
count as exercise? And learn more about what her reporting uncovered.
(05:22):
Hey Annie, Hey, how's it going. It's nice to be
chatting with you. You too, So I've been reading your
upcoming book, and I am fascinated by this idea that
we're obsessed with fancy gym memberships and trendy workout classes,
but in reality, wellness is all around us. Can you
tell me a little bit about what you've learned? Sure,
(05:44):
you know, as a journalist you get sent all of
these products all the time, And it was one of
those things where I realized that wellness is not really
about all these products. It's not really something that you
can buy. It's more something that of within you. And
I am also a travel journalism. So I've been doing
(06:04):
all this traveling around the world, and I noticed that
this whole commercial wellness culture isn't really like that in
other places in the world. They don't have these insane,
crazy boutique fitness classes, and they don't have these you know,
expensive smoothies and all the lotions and the potions and
the powders and the tinctures. It's it's more just baked
(06:27):
into the general way of living. And so I sort
of adopted that belief for myself and tried to live
that way in New York, where it's harder to do
because you're surrounded and just inundated by all of this stuff.
But once you realize that it's not really about that,
it's easier to just get back to the basics and
(06:49):
get back to a more simple way of going about
your day in a healthy way. I mean, it's pretty
easy to do. It's like walk outside, eat some bull
healthy foods, hanging out with your friends. Social connection and
communication is a huge part of all this. So it's
really just about getting back to the basics, and we've
(07:10):
just gotten so far away from that. But once you're
conscious about it, it's actually easier than you think too,
sort of adjust your lifestyle. So I saw that you've
written a piece of while back on house plants that
are easy to take care of, and I was curious
our gardening or or taking care of plants a part
(07:30):
of your sort of wellness practices. Oh, for sure. I
definitely am a plant mom, a member of plant parenthood,
all of those plant jokes, that's definitely me. I think
at one point in my I think in my Twitter
bio or some social media bio, I had that I
live at home with my husband and our fifteen house plants,
(07:54):
because that's the thing is that you have to think
of them as living, breathing the things. They take a
lot of work to make sure that they stay healthy
and strong, and I'm always thinking about watering them. Our
living room is a absolute jungle. Another thing that I
talked about in my book actually is when you plant
a seed and watch it grow, that actually watching something
(08:17):
grow from nothing into something just reminds you so much
of your connection the mother Earth. And then when you're
reminded of that connection, it just strengthens your mental health
overall because you know that you're part of something so
much bigger than yourself. And that's different from just watering
your plans. I'm talking about actually like planting a seed,
(08:41):
like growing something, as opposed to just keeping something going. Yeah,
that's really beautiful. You know. One of the things that
we've been talking a lot about is just how surprised
we are that gardening is talked about as exercise, and
you've actually written a piece on this, uh kind of
question whether or not gardening is exercise. Would you talk
(09:02):
a little bit about your findings there, Oh? Sure, So
that piece, I believe. I wrote it for Women's Health,
and I used to write these stories about the studies
that had just come out, and so this piece was
a study that had just come out from South Korea,
and essentially researchers had they had given a bunch of
(09:23):
trackers to college age students and told them to perform
all of these various gardening tasks, and then they measured
them at the end, and they found that the tasks
that they had asked them to do actually did qualify
as moderate to high intensity physical activity. So the task
(09:44):
that came in as the highest intensity was digging, and
then the other tasks that they asked them to do
were raking, weeding, mulching, owing, sowing, harvesting, watering, mixing, and
then the lowest intensity one was planting transplants of other plans.
(10:05):
I think that the overall theme of that study is
that these are things that people don't necessarily think of
as quote unquote exercise in the way that a lot
of people think of exercise today, getting back to the
boutique fitness studio trend, but that these are all things
that are so baked into your day that if you
just go about your day in a more natural way,
(10:28):
then these things get worked into your day and you're
exercising essentially without even thinking about it or without even
doing it so intentionally. What can we do that that
sort of mimics a regular workout routine out there? Is
there anything that you think of that that specifically sort
of mimics what we do in a fitness class In
(10:50):
terms of gardening, I mean, I honestly think that so
much is just being out there. I think that we
tend to focus on the physical aspects a lot in
our society, and yes, while we're gardening, like maybe you
could do some extra digging. Since that study found that
digging was the it was the thing that was found
(11:12):
to be the most the highest intensity workout. But I
don't know. I feel a little bit weird about giving
that as my advice, just because that seems to be
a little bit of a free for the forest. But
I tend to go for the forest more. And I
would just say that getting out there and recognizing your
(11:33):
connection to nature and gardening is such a great way
to help you do that, and actually planting something is
just such a big, huge and easy way to remember
that you're a part of this natural life cycle and
you're a part of something so much bigger than yourself.
And I know that this is just taking it in,
(11:55):
like turning into a much heavier thing than just like, oh,
brake for thirty seconds. It will help you burn calories,
But I just I don't know. I'm not I just
can't really subscribe to that idea as much as I
can to the fact that gardening is such an easy
and primal way to remind you of your connection to
(12:16):
the bigger universe. If you go into gardening and you
try to think of it like I'm only doing this
so that I can burn like t k x x
amount of calories so that I can then go have
that thing, it's like you're missing the point. Just it's
so important to me to remember that these are things
that have been around for generations. Think of the Hawaiians.
(12:36):
They have always taken care to respect their relationship to
Mother Earth. The Rasa's in Jamaica. They believe that planting
something reminds you of your connection to your greater whole.
It's like these things, these are so deeply ingrained in
our history. Ay, thank you so much for being here.
I really appreciated our conversation. Oh, thank you so much
(12:59):
for having me. This was so fun. Now I feel
like I need to go water my plants. Gardening, like
any form of exercise, can be intense and take a
toll on the body, and in the heat of the moment,
it's hard to remember to keep your back straight like
your mom always told you, and to hope with your legs,
which I'm sure she also said. Here are four quick
(13:21):
tips to make sure you don't tweak your back or
get sidelined for the whole harvest. Stretch it out. Like
any physical activity, the keys to avoiding injury are to
stretch beforehand and maintain your posture while doing so. Warm
up before you get out there for five to ten minutes.
Touch your toes or give it your best shot. Stretch
(13:42):
your calves and hips to make sure your body feels
loose and limber, and do that before you pick up
that shovel. Use your knees, bend your knees, and keep
your back as straight as you can while lifting anything heavy.
If you're going to be dumping big bags of soil
or mulch to and from your yard, you absolutely have
to use your legs and keep the way close to
(14:03):
your body. If you try to use your back alone
or hold heavy objects away from your body, you put
more pressure on your shoulders and back, which can lead
to injury. Don't arch your back. If you need to
reach something far from you, move closer to it and
squat down. Arching your back puts your body in a
compromised position, and the movements you make can cause strain.
(14:27):
Pace yourself, stay hydrated, and take lots of breaks. If
you feel sore, tired, or in pain, take a load
off and sit down. Your garden is not going anywhere.
The worst thing you can do is push through a
muscle egg. You can lead to greater damage and to
a longer recovery. Period humans growing stuff will be right
(14:54):
back after a short break. As a lot of us
find ways we can work out in and around our home.
I've noticed that a lot of my friends have ditched
those heavyweights for yoga mat which makes a lot of
sense given the time we find ourselves in. And that's
(15:14):
because yoga is as much about the connection of mind
and body as it is about sweating out last night's
pints of beer or ice cream. You're breathing aligns your
body and mind and ways that contribute to your body's
well being, and it creates a calmness in your thoughts,
which is basically what gardening does for me. But what
(15:34):
if you can double dip and find extra peace and
tranquility by grounding your yoga practice in the garden. From
what I've read, garden yoga can create a more positive,
fulfilling connection to all the work you've done in the
yard while challenging your body in new ways. That uneven
terrain can help you push through your yoga plateaus, and
(15:55):
it can create a new challenge in your practice. And
instead of listening to a playlist of ambient nature sounds,
you get to listen to the sounds of real nature
in person. Plus all those stretches can help you strengthen
muscle groups like your core to make you less prone
to gardening injuries. Later, I wanted to learn more about
(16:17):
this partnership of yoga and gardening, so I wanted to
call up Naomi on Naomi wrote the book Yoga Emmanuel
for Life, and she's the founder of Yoga on the
Lane in East London. She's also hosted a virtual practice
for the Royal Horticultural Society called Yoga for Gardeners. Hi Naomi, Hi,
(16:40):
how are you doing so well? So this is very
much a gardening show, but we try to make it
as human as possible. And I was curious, what are
some of the changes you've seen in your students when
they practice yoga? Oh well, yeah, I noticed ships very quickly,
because once you aside to do yoga. The thing that
(17:02):
I think is quite curious about this is it often
takes people, i'd say, on average, like two years of
thinking about doing yoga before they turn up in a class.
It's a long time. You know that it's been on
their New Year's resolutions for a while, and then another
year passes and then they just kind of lose their nerve.
(17:23):
So when people do finally show up, one of the
things that I notice is they really show up, and
you know, that's that's the willingness is a huge part
of the practice. Um. And then I just kind of
guide them through hopefully accessible ways to access their bodies
and you know, they they relax. I mean, it's really
(17:46):
it's really nice to see people relaxing. That's that's the
thing that I love more than anything. And just to
remind them that resting takes practice, UM, and I think
that's something that isn't necessarily taught in our school system,
and they are really discussed, never really discussed, and it's
a huge part of being alive. It's a huge part
(18:09):
of where you know, our immune system is is really
banking on us resting, not just doing doing doing. Yeah.
So I notice people their nervous systems over time, but
are just much more elastic. You know, they're able to
bring themselves back that they do experience all the normal
(18:30):
varied emotions which are really important, you know, anger and
frustration and all these things as well, but they're able
to bring themselves back to their kind of baseline steady breath,
you know, a little bit quicker so yeah, I see
that happen in people's lives as well as on the
yoga mat. Do you feel that there's a connection between
yoga and nature? Absolutely? Absolutely, I think you know, when
(18:53):
I meditate, it very much shifts the way that I
see the world in that when I close my eyes
and I sense into my body and I'm breathing into
my body with my inner landscape is hugely is vast,
and it's diverse. And you know when I reopen my
(19:14):
eyes and I look into a green space, I can
see more. I think, Um, it shifts how heightened your
senses are, so sense of smell, taste, um, touch, how
you see. You know, there are so many poses in
yoga that are named after plants and animals. Do you
(19:35):
feel a difference when you're doing these poses surrounded by
real nature? Like, what's it feel like to do a
tree pose when you're surrounded by actual trees? Oh, my goodness,
it certainly does. If you're in a in a tree
pose in your hands or in your chest, and then
you're reaching up and you're feeling that you know that
wide open sky above you and the ground beneath you,
(19:55):
it's it's very is very transferre warming. Actually, you know,
you're suddenly you feel like you're more than just a body,
that you're part of this fantastic mystery. Who knows what
on earth are we doing here? You know when you
reach up to the star and you feel the ground
beneath your feet and you feel like there's some kind
(20:15):
of yeah, there's some kind of connection with it all,
rather than just moving around like a pedestrian, which is
what we do most of the time. So yeah, I
think and feeling more animal. That's certainly in Mary Oliver
the Beloved Poets. It's amazing and she talks about like
the soft animal of your body, and I think it's
(20:36):
in the Summer's Day poem, and um, I love this
idea of like tuning into the soft animal of your body,
so you know, when you're in then it's like the
softness of it rather than like rigid again pedestrian human
stick that you can actually feel some like juice in
your joints. I don't know if that makes sense, but
it really speaks to those words really speak to me,
(20:58):
and I think about that a lot when i'm practice.
Think that you know, we noticed on Instagram that you
have a lot of plants both that you're going lane
and in your own home, and we're wondering, how does
caring for plants impact your help? Well, hugely, hugely, And
people when we when we put the plants into yoga
on the lane, the response was amazing. You know, people
(21:21):
really not this, and particularly those plants that kind of filter,
like the lilies, the piece lilies, and we've got a
passion fruit vine growing up the window and just it
you know, it really put a smile on people's faces. Um,
so yeah, I mean taking care of them is lovely.
The studio is very much a collective responsibility, so we
(21:44):
have an amazing team of people that are kind of
in and out of the space and we all give
the plants quite a lot of love. But yeah, I
have I have a fair amount of plants at home.
And also we have a garden and we actually pulled
up some Jerusalem artichokes yes to a which was just
to get my hands in the soil and to like
(22:04):
pull with all my might these beautiful, like big, like
knuckle shaped vegetables out of the ground and roast them
in loads of butter. I was like, this is so
good for my mental health. It is joyous. Yeah, I'm
curious about what's in your garden besides the Jerusalem chucks,
But what what do you enjoy from gardening? So we
(22:28):
have we've inherited a garden in the you know, the
people that we bought our house off. But we have
really amazing little cherry tree which brings a lot of
joy every spring so my kids, Yeah, I mean we
picked over a hundred cherries this year, really juicy. We
also have a plum tree, and I'm sort of chuckling
(22:51):
because last year it seemed to be an apricot tree,
so it has some like identity issues, but we don't
mind whether it was apricots. Were delighted um and then
we grew peas with the kids. This year we've got
rosemary and sage basil, and then in terms of flowers,
(23:11):
we've got things in pots that we've done, like camelias
and cosmos and like little daisies in our front garden.
When people walk past on our fairly busy Hackney street,
they're always asking what is this? What is this? Because
it's a real show off of her plant. It's an
accounthus it's it's like a medieval plant, and I'm sure
(23:35):
it's got some medicinal quality, you know. I bet it,
I bet it goes back. I don't know the origins
of it, but it's really it's got these big, lush
green leaves and then quite spiky, kind of like tendrils
with seeds in the middle. It's really it's look it up.
It's a real show up. Yeah. I love the idea
(23:55):
of a medieval show off. Me too. What kind of
yoga poses would you recommend for gardeners? So mainly, um
I noticed, particularly with friends who garden me even more
than me, is just this tension. And for my mom
as well, who gardens a lot, this tension around the shoulders,
(24:18):
the upper back, even quite a lot of jaw clenching,
you know. Um So all of all of that hunched over,
bending forwards, and then kind of not too much consideration
to the upper back, shoulders and jaw. So I wanted
to work a little bit on that because of the
(24:38):
role that those areas play in the nervous system as
well in terms of how we breathe and feel better
in ourselves. Why do you think gardeners clenched their jaws
so much? I think it's just a concentration thing. Because
it's obviously they're having fun, they're enjoying it, you know,
they're out on the garden. But also, I mean this
is just me speculating, but perhaps when we're doing things
(25:03):
that relax us, it's where our mind has an opportunity
to process some of the difficult things in our lives
and um, you know, garden gardening. I guess, like you know,
practicing yoga is a bit of a moving meditation. It's
a place where you can kind of release some stuff.
But in sort of releasing discharging some of that stuff,
(25:23):
I think there's a display of tension sometimes. Also the
tools in the way that you if you're using tools,
you know, the way you grip and clench your hand,
and the role that has plays on the rest of
the arm and the upper back. So it's this kind
of matrix. Our body is made up of not just
(25:45):
bones and muscles, but also of tissues, connective tissues of
which there are many. What are some of the benefits
of doing yoga is a way for recovery from a
day's work in the garden. Yeah, so I think one
of the first things to mention is that asymmetry, so
you're working very much with this bias of your strong side,
(26:05):
you know, it always working with that, you know, strong arm,
strong legs, standing with the strong foot in front. And
so I think just bringing your body into a little
bit of natural balance. And that's not to suggest that
you should be symmetrical, because none of us are. Nobody
is symmetrical inside out, and so it's not to get
obsessed with that, but it's just to bring maybe a
(26:26):
bit of effort to that side of your body that
you have worked all day, and then perhaps to release
and stretch the side of your body that you have worked. Um.
And then I guess there other things I'd say is
you know, just in terms of your muscles being tight. Um.
You know, the first thing I think people do is
when their muscles are tight, they immediately go into the
(26:46):
muscle and try to stretch it, or they poke the
body in a way to kind of like really deeply
release it. Um. So often I'll hear sort of friends
who have done a day on their allotment and then
they'll go and get a massage, and actually what's happened
is that the therapists might have really gone in so
strong so that their body is left more inflamed than
(27:08):
than it feels nourished and hydrated. So I think yogur
is that really lovely way of accessing the body in
a much more kind considered way because you decide how
deep you go. And then also just to bring some
awareness to your breath. You know you might have been
concentrating and holding your breath a little bit, so release
(27:28):
your diaphragm and side bends can really help with that.
I love side bends. New one. We should do a
side bend. Do you want to do? Definitely? Um So,
if you if you bring your hands to your elbows,
stretch your arms up over your head and then breathing
(27:48):
like you're trying to reach your elbows up towards the ceiling,
and then bend over to your right, and then as
you bend over to the right, breathe into the left
side of your body, almost like you're trying to breathe
into your left alarm force was still breathing into both lungs,
but the emphasis is on the left side. And as
(28:11):
you do this, just noticing the quality of the stretch
down the left side of your body. We'll just do
a mini one and then come back to the center
and change the cross of your arms, breathe and reach
up and then bend over to the left side, and
you might be struck at how different it feels, but
try to be with the difference without judgment, breathing up
(28:36):
and down the right side of the body, and then
in how come back up and excel release your arms down.
It feels good, doesn't it. It feels really good. Yeah.
Side bending so good because the lateral flection of the
(28:56):
spine is really important, and in gardening so much of
the emphasis on forward bending forward bending. I mean, I
I feel like I don't I don't take the time
or or think about stretching enough, but it always feels
so good to do it. Yeah, it does feel good.
And I think that was part of trying to to
(29:18):
write a book that people could be with on their
own times, in their own on their own terms. Was
about suggesting that yoga doesn't need to be this big, long,
our thing that then you're relying on a yoga teacher
for that. It can be something small and it can
be frequent. Sort of idea of micro habit I think
is really popular in neuroscience right now, but it really
(29:41):
applies in yoga to these small changes make such a
big difference. Often those sort of deeper practices are about
doing less, listening more. You know. Some of sometimes my
yoga practice is literally lying down on my back doing
a few tiny little wiggles or stretches or rolling on
a ball and then resting. Naomi, thank you so much
(30:03):
for leading you through that stretch and giving me all
these answers. And it's been such a pleasure just chatting
with you. It's been really lovely to talk to you,
my gush. Thank you so much for having me. All right,
you gardening guys and gals, Welcome to Fitness by Molly,
the only audio exercise routine that works your glutes as
(30:25):
much as it works your garden. I'm your favorite podcast
producer slash gardening fitness instructor Molly, and today we're doing
a weeding circuit workout. We're gonna get rid of those
weeds and we're gonna get your heart right up. All right, now,
let's start out by moving your head slowly side to side.
(30:49):
Taken that backyard and get excited about the planting possibilities.
Now slowly look up and down. Look out for those
birds above and those bugs below. You can say hello
and then tell them to kindly stay out of your
vegetable garden. And next up, let's do some twists with
(31:10):
your torso like you're the trunk of a braided money tree. Whoop.
Now that we're nice and loose, it is time to
dig digging up those nasty weeds. Get your favorite shovel
or trial and start digging. Aim for around the weeds
so that we're not just tearing those garden invaders out
at the stems. Look at you go getting stiff. That
(31:33):
means it's time to switch sides. Move that trial to
your less dominant hand. This may feel a little awkward
at first, but it will give your non dominant shoulders
and arms the same workout as your dominant side. Keep going,
you've got this. Yeah, it's all about balance. This is
the workout for the body and the mind. Now we're
(31:54):
done digging, and it is time to pull those weeds. Okay, Now,
squat down, that's right, that's right. Keep that back as
straight as a corn stalk, and pull those weeds. Look
at you and now dump each clump of weeds into
a paper yard waste bag and do not arch that back. Okay. Now,
(32:17):
this is the last thing we are all most done.
We are going to take that yard waste and we're
going to dump it over into those compost bins. Use
your legs and push yourself up off the ground. Don't
bend at the back. Now hold onto those yard waste
bags close to your chest. Love that future malt and
(32:37):
all that it will do, and now walk over slowly.
This is a cool down. There you go, feeling cool,
feeling good, and that is it. You are done. You
are a gardening fitness prow That was Fitness with Molly.
See you next time when we'll be doing finger exercises
(32:59):
for runing those rose bushes. A few weeks ago, someone
asked me which of my plants brings me the most joy?
And it's a funny question to ask because I don't
have that many plants, But I was surprised by how
quickly I blurted out in answer. Of all the plants
(33:21):
in our little apartment, my monstera is the one that's
the most fun and unruly and wild and it just
makes me smile. But I'm also impressed with its coping strategy.
One of my favorite facts about monsterras is that when
they're in dark rooms, they grow towards that darkness. It's
(33:42):
a phenomena called negative phototropism, and there's a reason the
Monsterra does this. In tropical places, the darkness indicates the
presence of a larger tree, so the plant assumes if
it leans into that darkness, it can wind itself up
around the trunk of something bigger to eventually reach the sunlight.
(34:04):
It's an incredible fact, but I think there's a sort
of lesson there too. This last year has been all
sorts of anxiety making, from an endless quarantine to forest
fires to protests in the face of social injustice. It's
all felt so dark. And when Naomi mentioned seeing so
(34:26):
many students come in with clenched jaws, that's immediately what
I thought about. That we've kept our jaws clenched for
so long. But I imagine, just like the monstera, there's
a way to keep your head down and lean into
that darkness and trust light will come. People often ask
(34:47):
me why did I do a gardening show. As Ruby
told you, I've killed lots of plants, but as quarantine hit,
I needed the distraction. I started the gardening because it
fell fun, it was something I wanted to get better at,
and because I had this familial connection to it. But
I don't think I realized how much I'd be moved
(35:09):
by this show when I heard that kids in Ohio
at the Highland Youth Garden treated their little patch of
garden like this oasis, and that when they weren't chasing
snakes and butterflies, they were reading beneath these sunflowers. Our
show stocked their little library with books. When I heard
how the Bronx Green Up brings communities together, I not
(35:32):
only look for a local garden to join, but we
bought a bunch of their hot sauce. Because of buying
hot sauces a way to support communities, I'm all for it.
When I heard how the Sankofa Farms works with high
schoolers to not only teach them science, but also lease
bee hives, I splurged to get a share of honey
from them because I like honey. But I can't wait
(35:55):
to tell their story. It sounds like we have so
much money to spend, but we don't. I just love
how the people on the show were doing so many
things for kids, for farmers, for the hungry, for their neighbors,
for friends. How every one of them is sharing knowledge
and using growing to make the world a little better.
(36:19):
Over the course of eight weeks, we talked to so
many authors and activists. There's so many farms and gardens
that I now feel like I have to visit, and
so many new friends I hope will bring me up
when they come to New York City just so we
can visit a nursery together. But the show ended up
doing a lot for me too. Over the course of
the season, my jar relaxed a little. I'm not suddenly
(36:43):
fit from gardening, but being out in the yard, stretching
as I prune and plant, it feels so good. I've
witnessed the magic of watching things sprout from nothing, a
pile of dirt turning into something you can water and
be so proud of. I forced my kiddos to hang
out with me and convince my wife to seed our
(37:03):
living room to twelve or thirteen plant friends. And I've
gotten to write a lot of bad poetry, which also
feels good for the soul. But perhaps the best thing
I've gotten to hear is all the stories, and not
just for my guess. Suddenly people want to tell me
they're ridiculous tales from the backyard about squirrels and yonkers
(37:25):
who have developed a taste for cherry tomatoes, Or how
someone's kid got so obsessed with gardening he'd walk into
his parents zoom meetings with giant buckets of water just
splashing all over the floor, announcing it was time to
water the plants. Or how someone sparred the lemon tree
in a sacred site in Jerusalem and then brought those
(37:47):
seeds back to plant in his grandmother's yard so many
countries away, and how those lemons that grow there are
now infused with so much meaning. Somehow, in some very
hard times, I told you a few stories about the
plants I've killed and return I've gotten stories of humans
(38:08):
growing hope, humans growing kindness, humans growing community, growing love
and laughter, and also green beans, humans growing stuff. I'm
mongas together. Thank you so much for listening. That's it
(38:39):
for today's episode. Don't forget. Whether you're a beginner like me,
a pro trying something new, or someone in between enjoying
your community garden, they're incredible resources waiting for you. When
the Miracle Grow website. We'll be back next year for
a season two of Humans Growing Stuff, So don't forget
to check back for more updates about the new season
(39:00):
and for new episodes. Our show was written and produced
by Molly Sosha and me Mongi Chatigler in partnership with
Rhyan Ovadia, Daniel Ainsworth, Hailey Ericsson, and Garrett Shannon of
Banter Till next Time, Thanks so much for listening.
Over the past few months, the way we do everything
has changed, including our workouts. Gyms and fitness centers closed
their doors, leaving us this perfect excuse to pause our memberships.
And while I'm sure some of you have kept training
for those marathons, for an indoor cat like me, I
quickly took to the more sedentary life binging Netflix, mixing
(00:24):
up mock tails with my kids, cooking up large pots
of delicious foods. And while the coziness gave me this
certain type of comfort in these stressed times, it hasn't
done wonders for my paunch. So I've been trying to
figure out how to slip a little exercise into my world,
and how do I do it without it feeling like
a chore. Lucky for me, I've heard that gardening can
(00:48):
be a great substitution for spin classes or that breakdance class.
Ruby keeps trying to convince me to take our new
come on, come on, let's do right dancing class. Plus
the commute to my backyard. It feels like when I
can manage Hey there, I'm Mongays Articular, a co host
(01:10):
of Part Time Genius, one of the co founders of
Mental Plus, and this is Humans, Growing Stuff a collaboration
from my Heart Radio and your friends at Miracle Grow.
My goal is to make this the most human show
about plants you'll ever listen to, and along the way,
we'll share sweet, inspiring stories, tips and tricks to nurture
(01:31):
your plant addiction, and just enough science to make you
sound like an expert. In today's episode, we're examining gardening
is a form of exercise, from targeting specific muscle groups
to burning calories to stretching your body. So put down
your kettlebells and pick up that shovel. We're about to
get biddle leaf bit chapter eight, Growing Plants and Muscles.
(02:00):
As a kid just bouncing a basketball on the driveway,
it was like a bat signal in my neighborhood. You'd
go onto your driveway, dribble the ball around a little,
and suddenly you'd see window shades part little eyes would
peer out, and any kid who could sneak away from
their homework or their chores, which show up to play
and in an instant games would just materialize. Weirdly enough,
(02:25):
that isn't how it is. As a four year old,
I can sit on my stoop with a soccer ball
or dribble a basketball on the sidewalk, and no one
my age is running over to play. The truth is,
unless there's a game involved, I'm a little lazy about
going to the gym. But there's something wonderful about incidental exercise.
If I happen to get fit from doing things I
(02:46):
want to do anyway, well, I'm all for it. And
it turns out gardening can be just that. You didn't
hear this from our conversation last week, but when I
was chatting with Jim Gaffigan, the comedian and writer and act,
he told me about how gardening has actually helped him
achieve fitness goals on his Apple Watch. I have an
(03:06):
Apple Watch, me mentioning it on this podcast, they should
send me a new one which keeps track of energy
burned and calories burned and all that. And when I
was doing gardening, I was burning a lot of calories.
But I felt what was really kind of weird was
at one point I kind of injured myself and I
was like, am I the first person to ever get
(03:28):
injured gardening? You know, It's like it's like, where, how
did you get injured? While I was running a marathon?
How did you get injured. But I was trying to
plant some tulips and it's but yeah, I do reach
some of my fitness goals by gardening, which is great.
And he gets you outside so you get the vitamin
(03:50):
D and all that stuff, so there is some exercise
value in it. Jim's right. Over the course of the series,
I've read that gardening is good for the body. In
just a couple of hours, you can burn two hundred
to six hundred calories through a mix of work. And
that's because gardening is a whole body exercise that impacts
large muscle groups like your legs, back, shoulder abs. Tasks
(04:13):
like mowing and raking leaves are more intensive and have
a better payoff increasing your heart rate with repeated rhythm
of activity, but smaller tasks, things like pruning that targets
smaller muscles like deltoids and the upper and lower trapezis
or adults and traps. For all your gym riots out there,
so much of being a busy working adult is managing
(04:35):
your time, and I think sometimes for me at least,
I get caught up in the idea that fitness or
working out has to be a separate activity entirely that
if it isn't an hour of focused exercise distant from
my family, it doesn't count. But clearly the opposite can
be true. I want to dig deeper into this idea,
(04:57):
so I called up Any Daily. He's a Brooklyn based
journalist and the author of a new book, Destination Wellness.
In it, she explores various health and well being practices
from across the world. But I wanted to ask Annie
specifically about her article in Women's Health does gardening really
count as exercise? And learn more about what her reporting uncovered.
(05:22):
Hey Annie, Hey, how's it going. It's nice to be
chatting with you. You too, So I've been reading your
upcoming book, and I am fascinated by this idea that
we're obsessed with fancy gym memberships and trendy workout classes,
but in reality, wellness is all around us. Can you
tell me a little bit about what you've learned? Sure,
(05:44):
you know, as a journalist you get sent all of
these products all the time, And it was one of
those things where I realized that wellness is not really
about all these products. It's not really something that you
can buy. It's more something that of within you. And
I am also a travel journalism. So I've been doing
(06:04):
all this traveling around the world, and I noticed that
this whole commercial wellness culture isn't really like that in
other places in the world. They don't have these insane,
crazy boutique fitness classes, and they don't have these you know,
expensive smoothies and all the lotions and the potions and
the powders and the tinctures. It's it's more just baked
(06:27):
into the general way of living. And so I sort
of adopted that belief for myself and tried to live
that way in New York, where it's harder to do
because you're surrounded and just inundated by all of this stuff.
But once you realize that it's not really about that,
it's easier to just get back to the basics and
(06:49):
get back to a more simple way of going about
your day in a healthy way. I mean, it's pretty
easy to do. It's like walk outside, eat some bull
healthy foods, hanging out with your friends. Social connection and
communication is a huge part of all this. So it's
really just about getting back to the basics, and we've
(07:10):
just gotten so far away from that. But once you're
conscious about it, it's actually easier than you think too,
sort of adjust your lifestyle. So I saw that you've
written a piece of while back on house plants that
are easy to take care of, and I was curious
our gardening or or taking care of plants a part
(07:30):
of your sort of wellness practices. Oh, for sure. I
definitely am a plant mom, a member of plant parenthood,
all of those plant jokes, that's definitely me. I think
at one point in my I think in my Twitter
bio or some social media bio, I had that I
live at home with my husband and our fifteen house plants,
(07:54):
because that's the thing is that you have to think
of them as living, breathing the things. They take a
lot of work to make sure that they stay healthy
and strong, and I'm always thinking about watering them. Our
living room is a absolute jungle. Another thing that I
talked about in my book actually is when you plant
a seed and watch it grow, that actually watching something
(08:17):
grow from nothing into something just reminds you so much
of your connection the mother Earth. And then when you're
reminded of that connection, it just strengthens your mental health
overall because you know that you're part of something so
much bigger than yourself. And that's different from just watering
your plans. I'm talking about actually like planting a seed,
(08:41):
like growing something, as opposed to just keeping something going. Yeah,
that's really beautiful. You know. One of the things that
we've been talking a lot about is just how surprised
we are that gardening is talked about as exercise, and
you've actually written a piece on this, uh kind of
question whether or not gardening is exercise. Would you talk
(09:02):
a little bit about your findings there, Oh? Sure, So
that piece, I believe. I wrote it for Women's Health,
and I used to write these stories about the studies
that had just come out, and so this piece was
a study that had just come out from South Korea,
and essentially researchers had they had given a bunch of
(09:23):
trackers to college age students and told them to perform
all of these various gardening tasks, and then they measured
them at the end, and they found that the tasks
that they had asked them to do actually did qualify
as moderate to high intensity physical activity. So the task
(09:44):
that came in as the highest intensity was digging, and
then the other tasks that they asked them to do
were raking, weeding, mulching, owing, sowing, harvesting, watering, mixing, and
then the lowest intensity one was planting transplants of other plans.
(10:05):
I think that the overall theme of that study is
that these are things that people don't necessarily think of
as quote unquote exercise in the way that a lot
of people think of exercise today, getting back to the
boutique fitness studio trend, but that these are all things
that are so baked into your day that if you
just go about your day in a more natural way,
(10:28):
then these things get worked into your day and you're
exercising essentially without even thinking about it or without even
doing it so intentionally. What can we do that that
sort of mimics a regular workout routine out there? Is
there anything that you think of that that specifically sort
of mimics what we do in a fitness class In
(10:50):
terms of gardening, I mean, I honestly think that so
much is just being out there. I think that we
tend to focus on the physical aspects a lot in
our society, and yes, while we're gardening, like maybe you
could do some extra digging. Since that study found that
digging was the it was the thing that was found
(11:12):
to be the most the highest intensity workout. But I
don't know. I feel a little bit weird about giving
that as my advice, just because that seems to be
a little bit of a free for the forest. But
I tend to go for the forest more. And I
would just say that getting out there and recognizing your
(11:33):
connection to nature and gardening is such a great way
to help you do that, and actually planting something is
just such a big, huge and easy way to remember
that you're a part of this natural life cycle and
you're a part of something so much bigger than yourself.
And I know that this is just taking it in,
(11:55):
like turning into a much heavier thing than just like, oh,
brake for thirty seconds. It will help you burn calories,
But I just I don't know. I'm not I just
can't really subscribe to that idea as much as I
can to the fact that gardening is such an easy
and primal way to remind you of your connection to
(12:16):
the bigger universe. If you go into gardening and you
try to think of it like I'm only doing this
so that I can burn like t k x x
amount of calories so that I can then go have
that thing, it's like you're missing the point. Just it's
so important to me to remember that these are things
that have been around for generations. Think of the Hawaiians.
(12:36):
They have always taken care to respect their relationship to
Mother Earth. The Rasa's in Jamaica. They believe that planting
something reminds you of your connection to your greater whole.
It's like these things, these are so deeply ingrained in
our history. Ay, thank you so much for being here.
I really appreciated our conversation. Oh, thank you so much
(12:59):
for having me. This was so fun. Now I feel
like I need to go water my plants. Gardening, like
any form of exercise, can be intense and take a
toll on the body, and in the heat of the moment,
it's hard to remember to keep your back straight like
your mom always told you, and to hope with your legs,
which I'm sure she also said. Here are four quick
(13:21):
tips to make sure you don't tweak your back or
get sidelined for the whole harvest. Stretch it out. Like
any physical activity, the keys to avoiding injury are to
stretch beforehand and maintain your posture while doing so. Warm
up before you get out there for five to ten minutes.
Touch your toes or give it your best shot. Stretch
(13:42):
your calves and hips to make sure your body feels
loose and limber, and do that before you pick up
that shovel. Use your knees, bend your knees, and keep
your back as straight as you can while lifting anything heavy.
If you're going to be dumping big bags of soil
or mulch to and from your yard, you absolutely have
to use your legs and keep the way close to
(14:03):
your body. If you try to use your back alone
or hold heavy objects away from your body, you put
more pressure on your shoulders and back, which can lead
to injury. Don't arch your back. If you need to
reach something far from you, move closer to it and
squat down. Arching your back puts your body in a
compromised position, and the movements you make can cause strain.
(14:27):
Pace yourself, stay hydrated, and take lots of breaks. If
you feel sore, tired, or in pain, take a load
off and sit down. Your garden is not going anywhere.
The worst thing you can do is push through a
muscle egg. You can lead to greater damage and to
a longer recovery. Period humans growing stuff will be right
(14:54):
back after a short break. As a lot of us
find ways we can work out in and around our home.
I've noticed that a lot of my friends have ditched
those heavyweights for yoga mat which makes a lot of
sense given the time we find ourselves in. And that's
(15:14):
because yoga is as much about the connection of mind
and body as it is about sweating out last night's
pints of beer or ice cream. You're breathing aligns your
body and mind and ways that contribute to your body's
well being, and it creates a calmness in your thoughts,
which is basically what gardening does for me. But what
(15:34):
if you can double dip and find extra peace and
tranquility by grounding your yoga practice in the garden. From
what I've read, garden yoga can create a more positive,
fulfilling connection to all the work you've done in the
yard while challenging your body in new ways. That uneven
terrain can help you push through your yoga plateaus, and
(15:55):
it can create a new challenge in your practice. And
instead of listening to a playlist of ambient nature sounds,
you get to listen to the sounds of real nature
in person. Plus all those stretches can help you strengthen
muscle groups like your core to make you less prone
to gardening injuries. Later, I wanted to learn more about
(16:17):
this partnership of yoga and gardening, so I wanted to
call up Naomi on Naomi wrote the book Yoga Emmanuel
for Life, and she's the founder of Yoga on the
Lane in East London. She's also hosted a virtual practice
for the Royal Horticultural Society called Yoga for Gardeners. Hi Naomi, Hi,
(16:40):
how are you doing so well? So this is very
much a gardening show, but we try to make it
as human as possible. And I was curious, what are
some of the changes you've seen in your students when
they practice yoga? Oh well, yeah, I noticed ships very quickly,
because once you aside to do yoga. The thing that
(17:02):
I think is quite curious about this is it often
takes people, i'd say, on average, like two years of
thinking about doing yoga before they turn up in a class.
It's a long time. You know that it's been on
their New Year's resolutions for a while, and then another
year passes and then they just kind of lose their nerve.
(17:23):
So when people do finally show up, one of the
things that I notice is they really show up, and
you know, that's that's the willingness is a huge part
of the practice. Um. And then I just kind of
guide them through hopefully accessible ways to access their bodies
and you know, they they relax. I mean, it's really
(17:46):
it's really nice to see people relaxing. That's that's the
thing that I love more than anything. And just to
remind them that resting takes practice, UM, and I think
that's something that isn't necessarily taught in our school system,
and they are really discussed, never really discussed, and it's
a huge part of being alive. It's a huge part
(18:09):
of where you know, our immune system is is really
banking on us resting, not just doing doing doing. Yeah.
So I notice people their nervous systems over time, but
are just much more elastic. You know, they're able to
bring themselves back that they do experience all the normal
(18:30):
varied emotions which are really important, you know, anger and
frustration and all these things as well, but they're able
to bring themselves back to their kind of baseline steady breath,
you know, a little bit quicker so yeah, I see
that happen in people's lives as well as on the
yoga mat. Do you feel that there's a connection between
yoga and nature? Absolutely? Absolutely, I think you know, when
(18:53):
I meditate, it very much shifts the way that I
see the world in that when I close my eyes
and I sense into my body and I'm breathing into
my body with my inner landscape is hugely is vast,
and it's diverse. And you know when I reopen my
(19:14):
eyes and I look into a green space, I can
see more. I think, Um, it shifts how heightened your
senses are, so sense of smell, taste, um, touch, how
you see. You know, there are so many poses in
yoga that are named after plants and animals. Do you
(19:35):
feel a difference when you're doing these poses surrounded by
real nature? Like, what's it feel like to do a
tree pose when you're surrounded by actual trees? Oh, my goodness,
it certainly does. If you're in a in a tree
pose in your hands or in your chest, and then
you're reaching up and you're feeling that you know that
wide open sky above you and the ground beneath you,
(19:55):
it's it's very is very transferre warming. Actually, you know,
you're suddenly you feel like you're more than just a body,
that you're part of this fantastic mystery. Who knows what
on earth are we doing here? You know when you
reach up to the star and you feel the ground
beneath your feet and you feel like there's some kind
(20:15):
of yeah, there's some kind of connection with it all,
rather than just moving around like a pedestrian, which is
what we do most of the time. So yeah, I
think and feeling more animal. That's certainly in Mary Oliver
the Beloved Poets. It's amazing and she talks about like
the soft animal of your body, and I think it's
(20:36):
in the Summer's Day poem, and um, I love this
idea of like tuning into the soft animal of your body,
so you know, when you're in then it's like the
softness of it rather than like rigid again pedestrian human
stick that you can actually feel some like juice in
your joints. I don't know if that makes sense, but
it really speaks to those words really speak to me,
(20:58):
and I think about that a lot when i'm practice.
Think that you know, we noticed on Instagram that you
have a lot of plants both that you're going lane
and in your own home, and we're wondering, how does
caring for plants impact your help? Well, hugely, hugely, And
people when we when we put the plants into yoga
on the lane, the response was amazing. You know, people
(21:21):
really not this, and particularly those plants that kind of filter,
like the lilies, the piece lilies, and we've got a
passion fruit vine growing up the window and just it
you know, it really put a smile on people's faces. Um,
so yeah, I mean taking care of them is lovely.
The studio is very much a collective responsibility, so we
(21:44):
have an amazing team of people that are kind of
in and out of the space and we all give
the plants quite a lot of love. But yeah, I
have I have a fair amount of plants at home.
And also we have a garden and we actually pulled
up some Jerusalem artichokes yes to a which was just
to get my hands in the soil and to like
(22:04):
pull with all my might these beautiful, like big, like
knuckle shaped vegetables out of the ground and roast them
in loads of butter. I was like, this is so
good for my mental health. It is joyous. Yeah, I'm
curious about what's in your garden besides the Jerusalem chucks,
But what what do you enjoy from gardening? So we
(22:28):
have we've inherited a garden in the you know, the
people that we bought our house off. But we have
really amazing little cherry tree which brings a lot of
joy every spring so my kids, Yeah, I mean we
picked over a hundred cherries this year, really juicy. We
also have a plum tree, and I'm sort of chuckling
(22:51):
because last year it seemed to be an apricot tree,
so it has some like identity issues, but we don't
mind whether it was apricots. Were delighted um and then
we grew peas with the kids. This year we've got
rosemary and sage basil, and then in terms of flowers,
(23:11):
we've got things in pots that we've done, like camelias
and cosmos and like little daisies in our front garden.
When people walk past on our fairly busy Hackney street,
they're always asking what is this? What is this? Because
it's a real show off of her plant. It's an
accounthus it's it's like a medieval plant, and I'm sure
(23:35):
it's got some medicinal quality, you know. I bet it,
I bet it goes back. I don't know the origins
of it, but it's really it's got these big, lush
green leaves and then quite spiky, kind of like tendrils
with seeds in the middle. It's really it's look it up.
It's a real show up. Yeah. I love the idea
(23:55):
of a medieval show off. Me too. What kind of
yoga poses would you recommend for gardeners? So mainly, um
I noticed, particularly with friends who garden me even more
than me, is just this tension. And for my mom
as well, who gardens a lot, this tension around the shoulders,
(24:18):
the upper back, even quite a lot of jaw clenching,
you know. Um So all of all of that hunched over,
bending forwards, and then kind of not too much consideration
to the upper back, shoulders and jaw. So I wanted
to work a little bit on that because of the
(24:38):
role that those areas play in the nervous system as
well in terms of how we breathe and feel better
in ourselves. Why do you think gardeners clenched their jaws
so much? I think it's just a concentration thing. Because
it's obviously they're having fun, they're enjoying it, you know,
they're out on the garden. But also, I mean this
is just me speculating, but perhaps when we're doing things
(25:03):
that relax us, it's where our mind has an opportunity
to process some of the difficult things in our lives
and um, you know, garden gardening. I guess, like you know,
practicing yoga is a bit of a moving meditation. It's
a place where you can kind of release some stuff.
But in sort of releasing discharging some of that stuff,
(25:23):
I think there's a display of tension sometimes. Also the
tools in the way that you if you're using tools,
you know, the way you grip and clench your hand,
and the role that has plays on the rest of
the arm and the upper back. So it's this kind
of matrix. Our body is made up of not just
(25:45):
bones and muscles, but also of tissues, connective tissues of
which there are many. What are some of the benefits
of doing yoga is a way for recovery from a
day's work in the garden. Yeah, so I think one
of the first things to mention is that asymmetry, so
you're working very much with this bias of your strong side,
(26:05):
you know, it always working with that, you know, strong arm,
strong legs, standing with the strong foot in front. And
so I think just bringing your body into a little
bit of natural balance. And that's not to suggest that
you should be symmetrical, because none of us are. Nobody
is symmetrical inside out, and so it's not to get
obsessed with that, but it's just to bring maybe a
(26:26):
bit of effort to that side of your body that
you have worked all day, and then perhaps to release
and stretch the side of your body that you have worked. Um.
And then I guess there other things I'd say is
you know, just in terms of your muscles being tight. Um.
You know, the first thing I think people do is
when their muscles are tight, they immediately go into the
(26:46):
muscle and try to stretch it, or they poke the
body in a way to kind of like really deeply
release it. Um. So often I'll hear sort of friends
who have done a day on their allotment and then
they'll go and get a massage, and actually what's happened
is that the therapists might have really gone in so
strong so that their body is left more inflamed than
(27:08):
than it feels nourished and hydrated. So I think yogur
is that really lovely way of accessing the body in
a much more kind considered way because you decide how
deep you go. And then also just to bring some
awareness to your breath. You know you might have been
concentrating and holding your breath a little bit, so release
(27:28):
your diaphragm and side bends can really help with that.
I love side bends. New one. We should do a
side bend. Do you want to do? Definitely? Um So,
if you if you bring your hands to your elbows,
stretch your arms up over your head and then breathing
(27:48):
like you're trying to reach your elbows up towards the ceiling,
and then bend over to your right, and then as
you bend over to the right, breathe into the left
side of your body, almost like you're trying to breathe
into your left alarm force was still breathing into both lungs,
but the emphasis is on the left side. And as
(28:11):
you do this, just noticing the quality of the stretch
down the left side of your body. We'll just do
a mini one and then come back to the center
and change the cross of your arms, breathe and reach
up and then bend over to the left side, and
you might be struck at how different it feels, but
try to be with the difference without judgment, breathing up
(28:36):
and down the right side of the body, and then
in how come back up and excel release your arms down.
It feels good, doesn't it. It feels really good. Yeah.
Side bending so good because the lateral flection of the
(28:56):
spine is really important, and in gardening so much of
the emphasis on forward bending forward bending. I mean, I
I feel like I don't I don't take the time
or or think about stretching enough, but it always feels
so good to do it. Yeah, it does feel good.
And I think that was part of trying to to
(29:18):
write a book that people could be with on their
own times, in their own on their own terms. Was
about suggesting that yoga doesn't need to be this big, long,
our thing that then you're relying on a yoga teacher
for that. It can be something small and it can
be frequent. Sort of idea of micro habit I think
is really popular in neuroscience right now, but it really
(29:41):
applies in yoga to these small changes make such a
big difference. Often those sort of deeper practices are about
doing less, listening more. You know. Some of sometimes my
yoga practice is literally lying down on my back doing
a few tiny little wiggles or stretches or rolling on
a ball and then resting. Naomi, thank you so much
(30:03):
for leading you through that stretch and giving me all
these answers. And it's been such a pleasure just chatting
with you. It's been really lovely to talk to you,
my gush. Thank you so much for having me. All right,
you gardening guys and gals, Welcome to Fitness by Molly,
the only audio exercise routine that works your glutes as
(30:25):
much as it works your garden. I'm your favorite podcast
producer slash gardening fitness instructor Molly, and today we're doing
a weeding circuit workout. We're gonna get rid of those
weeds and we're gonna get your heart right up. All right, now,
let's start out by moving your head slowly side to side.
(30:49):
Taken that backyard and get excited about the planting possibilities.
Now slowly look up and down. Look out for those
birds above and those bugs below. You can say hello
and then tell them to kindly stay out of your
vegetable garden. And next up, let's do some twists with
(31:10):
your torso like you're the trunk of a braided money tree. Whoop.
Now that we're nice and loose, it is time to
dig digging up those nasty weeds. Get your favorite shovel
or trial and start digging. Aim for around the weeds
so that we're not just tearing those garden invaders out
at the stems. Look at you go getting stiff. That
(31:33):
means it's time to switch sides. Move that trial to
your less dominant hand. This may feel a little awkward
at first, but it will give your non dominant shoulders
and arms the same workout as your dominant side. Keep going,
you've got this. Yeah, it's all about balance. This is
the workout for the body and the mind. Now we're
(31:54):
done digging, and it is time to pull those weeds. Okay, Now,
squat down, that's right, that's right. Keep that back as
straight as a corn stalk, and pull those weeds. Look
at you and now dump each clump of weeds into
a paper yard waste bag and do not arch that back. Okay. Now,
(32:17):
this is the last thing we are all most done.
We are going to take that yard waste and we're
going to dump it over into those compost bins. Use
your legs and push yourself up off the ground. Don't
bend at the back. Now hold onto those yard waste
bags close to your chest. Love that future malt and
(32:37):
all that it will do, and now walk over slowly.
This is a cool down. There you go, feeling cool,
feeling good, and that is it. You are done. You
are a gardening fitness prow That was Fitness with Molly.
See you next time when we'll be doing finger exercises
(32:59):
for runing those rose bushes. A few weeks ago, someone
asked me which of my plants brings me the most joy?
And it's a funny question to ask because I don't
have that many plants, But I was surprised by how
quickly I blurted out in answer. Of all the plants
(33:21):
in our little apartment, my monstera is the one that's
the most fun and unruly and wild and it just
makes me smile. But I'm also impressed with its coping strategy.
One of my favorite facts about monsterras is that when
they're in dark rooms, they grow towards that darkness. It's
(33:42):
a phenomena called negative phototropism, and there's a reason the
Monsterra does this. In tropical places, the darkness indicates the
presence of a larger tree, so the plant assumes if
it leans into that darkness, it can wind itself up
around the trunk of something bigger to eventually reach the sunlight.
(34:04):
It's an incredible fact, but I think there's a sort
of lesson there too. This last year has been all
sorts of anxiety making, from an endless quarantine to forest
fires to protests in the face of social injustice. It's
all felt so dark. And when Naomi mentioned seeing so
(34:26):
many students come in with clenched jaws, that's immediately what
I thought about. That we've kept our jaws clenched for
so long. But I imagine, just like the monstera, there's
a way to keep your head down and lean into
that darkness and trust light will come. People often ask
(34:47):
me why did I do a gardening show. As Ruby
told you, I've killed lots of plants, but as quarantine hit,
I needed the distraction. I started the gardening because it
fell fun, it was something I wanted to get better at,
and because I had this familial connection to it. But
I don't think I realized how much I'd be moved
(35:09):
by this show when I heard that kids in Ohio
at the Highland Youth Garden treated their little patch of
garden like this oasis, and that when they weren't chasing
snakes and butterflies, they were reading beneath these sunflowers. Our
show stocked their little library with books. When I heard
how the Bronx Green Up brings communities together, I not
(35:32):
only look for a local garden to join, but we
bought a bunch of their hot sauce. Because of buying
hot sauces a way to support communities, I'm all for it.
When I heard how the Sankofa Farms works with high
schoolers to not only teach them science, but also lease
bee hives, I splurged to get a share of honey
from them because I like honey. But I can't wait
(35:55):
to tell their story. It sounds like we have so
much money to spend, but we don't. I just love
how the people on the show were doing so many
things for kids, for farmers, for the hungry, for their neighbors,
for friends. How every one of them is sharing knowledge
and using growing to make the world a little better.
(36:19):
Over the course of eight weeks, we talked to so
many authors and activists. There's so many farms and gardens
that I now feel like I have to visit, and
so many new friends I hope will bring me up
when they come to New York City just so we
can visit a nursery together. But the show ended up
doing a lot for me too. Over the course of
the season, my jar relaxed a little. I'm not suddenly
(36:43):
fit from gardening, but being out in the yard, stretching
as I prune and plant, it feels so good. I've
witnessed the magic of watching things sprout from nothing, a
pile of dirt turning into something you can water and
be so proud of. I forced my kiddos to hang
out with me and convince my wife to seed our
(37:03):
living room to twelve or thirteen plant friends. And I've
gotten to write a lot of bad poetry, which also
feels good for the soul. But perhaps the best thing
I've gotten to hear is all the stories, and not
just for my guess. Suddenly people want to tell me
they're ridiculous tales from the backyard about squirrels and yonkers
(37:25):
who have developed a taste for cherry tomatoes, Or how
someone's kid got so obsessed with gardening he'd walk into
his parents zoom meetings with giant buckets of water just
splashing all over the floor, announcing it was time to
water the plants. Or how someone sparred the lemon tree
in a sacred site in Jerusalem and then brought those
(37:47):
seeds back to plant in his grandmother's yard so many
countries away, and how those lemons that grow there are
now infused with so much meaning. Somehow, in some very
hard times, I told you a few stories about the
plants I've killed and return I've gotten stories of humans
(38:08):
growing hope, humans growing kindness, humans growing community, growing love
and laughter, and also green beans, humans growing stuff. I'm
mongas together. Thank you so much for listening. That's it
(38:39):
for today's episode. Don't forget. Whether you're a beginner like me,
a pro trying something new, or someone in between enjoying
your community garden, they're incredible resources waiting for you. When
the Miracle Grow website. We'll be back next year for
a season two of Humans Growing Stuff, So don't forget
to check back for more updates about the new season
(39:00):
and for new episodes. Our show was written and produced
by Molly Sosha and me Mongi Chatigler in partnership with
Rhyan Ovadia, Daniel Ainsworth, Hailey Ericsson, and Garrett Shannon of
Banter Till next Time, Thanks so much for listening.
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