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