LiveLifeOutside Fitness: Best Outdoor Workouts for You & Your Lawn

Removing snow not only helps you get your heart rate up, it can also reduce the risk of personal injury when you’re living life outside this winter.

• Using a snow blower while walking can burn up to 300 calories per hour 
• Shoveling snow burns anywhere from 400-600 calories per hour? 

Trimming your shrubs and trees helps defend them from winter weather and pests, provides a killer arm workout and can help you torch those holiday desserts. 

Want to maximize your outdoor workout? Exchange the electric hedge trimmers for hand-held clippers. 

Here’s what you’ll burn doing an hour of tree and shrub maintenance:

• Trimming shrubs and trees with a manual cutter burns 238 calories per hour 
• Stacking wood burns 272 calories per hour
• Chopping wood burns 340 calories per hour 
• Hauling branches burns 272 calories per hour 
• Cleaning gutters burns 272 calories per hour

Who knew that planning and prepping your garden for spring could also help you prep for swimsuit season? 

Feel the holiday pounds melt away with an hour of these gardening activities (check out a local growing guide to see the best time to begin): 

• Planting seedlings or shrubs 238 calories per hour 
• Planting a tree 238 calories per hour 
• Picking fruit from trees, picking vegetables 136 calories per hour 
• Tilling a garden 340 calories per hour
• Digging, spading or composting a garden 272 calories per hour

Want to make planting and gardening a little more challenging? When you bring home plants from the garden store, take them back to the yard one at a time instead of moving them all at once. 

Can lawn care help you get a six-pack? Debatable. It can, however, help you get moving and help your lawn look its best. 

Try these tasks for one hour a week to get you and your yard in shape:

• Mowing the lawn with a power mower burns about 300 calories per hour 
• Mowing with a hand walking mower burns 340 calories per hour 
• Raking the lawn burns 350-450 calories per hour 
• Sacking grass or leaves burns 204 calories per hour 
• Pulling weeds from your garden burns 200-400 calories per hour 
• Laying crushed rock burns 400-600 calories per hour
• Laying sod burns around 270 calories per hour

BONUS: Keep Your Kids Active this WinterGet the kids outside and moving with these fun winter activities:

• Ice skating burns about 400 calories per hour 
• Skiing burns about 400-500 calories per hour 
• Sledding burns about 400 calories per hour
• Snowshoeing burns about 500 calories per hour

What are your favorite ways to get fit outside? Share them with us on our Facebook page!

Sources: Calorielab.com and webmd.com