What is now called “green gym” was created by the British doctor William Bird about fifteen years ago, with the intention of combining health and physical benefits with a renewed contact with the environment and with mother nature, also accompanied by activities that can be defined as belonging to ecological volunteering.Growing the vegetable garden is as healthy as going to the gym.
This is demonstrated by the diffusion of a new discipline to keep fit, which you can meet called as “Green Gym” or “Garden Gym” and which, starting from Great Britain, is now going around the world. Will sowing, digging, hoeing, raking and tearing weeds soon represent new fitness trends?
That outdoor physical activity was healthy has never been questioned, provided that the necessary precautions are taken to avoid falls or accidents. It can also be carried out without problems in a comfortable, safe and handy place such as your own garden or home garden , but it can also find space as a group activity, naturally in a bucolic environment.
British doctors are keen to highlight the benefits that each of us can derive from such physical activity, to be carried out even by simply cultivating a small vegetable garden. It plans to simultaneously train legs and arms, to promote the activity of the cardiovascular system, to improve breathing and to help tone the muscle tissues. Movement will also ensure that the body burns more calories, as well as having a positive effect on mood, with a calming and anti-depressant effect .
From Great Britain, where the discipline now has a following made up of thousands of gardening and movement enthusiasts, green gymnastics first spread to Australia, reaching Italy in recent months . We had pointed out in this regard the appointment with the Garden Gym held in the spring of this year in Calabria, where physical activity was accompanied by the cultivation of the vegetable garden and the approach to a healthier diet, based on the products of the earth.
