Pump up your playtime

Garden with gusto

• Use hand tools, especially if gardening is your main physical activity. You can cut your grass with a push mower and trim with clippers.
• Exaggerate your motions while raking or hoeing to elevate your heart rate.
• Split raking, hoeing and cultivating into three sets of 15 to 20 repetitions to build muscle and consume calories. Alternate your grip to balance the muscle groups you use.
• Lunge and weed. Lunge forward with your left leg, keeping your right leg behind you with the knee almost touching the ground. Try 10 seconds; alternate legs. It's a good warm-up for more-aerobic activities such as raking and planting.
• Keep a steady rhythm and change your grip while weeding for maximum aerobic benefit.
• Double-dig the beds, turn the compost and dig some holes for an intense garden workout. Raking burns 200 to 400 calories an hour; digging burn 400 to 600.
• For a total workout, add a chin-up bar to the arbour and a box on the path. Do a couple of chin-ups and step onto and over the box 10 times with each leg every time you walk by.

Get the most from golf

• Walk, don't ride. You'll burn twice the calories by pulling a cart or carrying your clubs.
• Play the course twice. Over 18 holes, golfers who walk burn about 1,000 calories. Think of the workout when you double that!
• Head for a hilly course to add intensity to your game.
• If you have a long wait, do squats and lunges, holding your club horizontally.
• And lousy golfers, take heart -- you get a better workout if you hit the ball more often.

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