The start of spring is the perfect time to rethink our exercise goals. The warmer weather, the light mornings, the reintroduction of seasonal fruits and veggies into our diets.

But it’s also the season when it pays dividends to get your garden ready for summer. So why not combine the two? Here’s our top 5 list of jobs you can do in your garden this spring that will help your body get into shape.

While planting seedlings or watering a vegetable patch are pleasurable ways to spend an hour in the garden, they aren’t exactly high intensity.

But moving a couple of cubic metres of mulch from your driveway to your garden beds? It’s seriously better than boot camp. 

Here are our top picks for a workout:

1. Shovelling soil, mulch or gravel into a wheelbarrow, then moving it to wherever it’s needed. You’ll definitely feel those muscles the next day.
2. Removing a stump. Whether you use a pick, mattock or axe, cutting out a stump requires flexibility, perseverance and some serious upper-body action.
3. Double digging a garden bed. This high-intensity workout becomes extreme if you’ve got clay soil. Upper body and hips and thighs will get a great workout.
4. Pruning a hedge. Put aside the electrical hedge-trimmer and dig out the old pruning shears for a bicep workout dialed up to the max.
5. Sweeping and raking. Your upper body will thank you for this moderate workout. And your garden will look neat and tidy too.

Gardening is also a great calorie burner. Do one of the following for a hour in the garden and you’ll get some serious benefits:

• Heavy yard work (landscaping, moving rocks, hauling soil): 400-600 calories per hour
• Raking and bagging leaves: 350-450 calories per hour
• Gardening: pulling weeds, planting flowers, etc.: 200-400 calories per hour
• Mowing the lawn: 250-350 calories per hour

Regular gardening is great for increasing for increasing flexibilty, strengthening joints, and decreasing blood pressure and cholesterol. And what’s more, exposing your body to sunlight after a long hibernation through the winter is an awesome way to banish those moody SAD blues to the place where you keep your winter coat.

If your garden needs a serious workout but you prefer to get your exercise at the gym, perhaps you better call in some expert muscles. You can find a local gardener here.