Candice A. Shoemaker

Observing Body Position of Older Adults While Gardening for Health Benefits and Risks

Gardening is a moderate intensity physical activity for older adults. Thus, health benefits are possible, however, body positions while gardening, such as stooping, kneeling, and squatting, may be uncomfortable. The purpose of this study was to characterize both the type of gardening tasks done by older adults and their body positions while performing the tasks so that safe and effective gardening programs for elders could be designed. In this study, 14 older gardeners were observed on two separate occasions and the types of gardening tasks and body positions used during gardening were recorded. Bodily pain during gardening by the older gardeners was self-reported. Seventeen different garden tasks were observed. While conducting these tasks, six body positions were used by 90% of the subjects: gripping, bending, walking, lifting, stretching, and standing. Ten different bodily pains were reported with lower back pain reported the most. These results show that older gardeners use body positions during gardening that can provide both health benefits and risks. Biomechanical characterization of gardening through kinematics and kinetics is needed.

A preliminary investigation on exercise intensities of gardening tasks in older adults.

Heart rate (HR) was measured continuously while men (n = 6) and women (n = 2) ages 71 to 85 years (M = 77.4, SD = 4.1) completed nine gardening tasks. HR and VO2 from a submaximal graded exercise test were used to estimate gardening VO2, energy expenditure, % HRmax, and metabolic equivalents (METs). Tasks were low to moderate intensity physical activity (1.6–3.6 METs); those which worked the upper and lower body were moderate intensity physical activity while those that worked primarily the upper body were low intensity physical activity.