Fitness and exercise, especially if you have a sedentary job like me in an office is important. More so if like me your also trying to lose weight and regain your fitness, at the same time. Right now with gyms closed and most if us confined to quarters its not such an easy task.

It’s an area of working and living at home 24/7 for the past 4 or 5 weeks that I have personally had a real struggle with.

I like to learn but cannot emphasise enough how much I hate to be taught, so following classes or a workout tutorial online is not for me.

Stretching, yeah sure I give it a go, my partner is very much into stretching and yoga, but as much as i enjoy it, I find myself switching off after 15 minutes.

I use an ironing board as a desk which sounds insane but it actually great because it means i have a height adjustable desk where I can alternate between sitting and standing, and of course i make sure i take a regular break to walk around the house during the day.

Still though its not really enough, we dug out an old 80’s exercise bike and its not so good to use and so I’ve lost interest in that as well.

In short no gym, no activity and I’m struggling. While I’m certainly not the fittest person you will ever meet, I do walk 10k spots a day minimum and I do cycle, swim and weight train, albeit not with a fixed and regular routine.

I was for many years a manual worker and for me i have always enjoyed hard physical work, in fact I had no need to go anywhere near a gym until my I changed career focus and became an office worker, so for me anything that gets my muscles going and lets me feel like I’m working is something that keeps me interested.

I have though I think found the solution to my workout problem and the sad thing is that it has been here all along… the garden.

Now I usually have zero interest, cars, bikes, mechanical things are more my taste. However my partner love the garden and the opportunity to create and relax in a green space.

Since we have nothing else to occupy is outside of work and Netflix, a lot of time is being spent in the garden.

Shovelling dirt, digging flower trenches, taking up leaves, planting and my absolute 2 favourites, building a brick bbq and using an axe to chop firewood for said bbq are all excellent whole body workouts.

A hour a day of hard physical work in the garden is helping me feel like I have accomplished something with my body, using my muscles and just generally getting everything moving and getting a sweat on.

Now I could be much more efficient about getting my bbq area into shape and helping my partner but that would defeat the purpose of the task, which is for me to get a workout in. So I take the long way round, don’t rely on mechanical aids and well basically just get stuck in.

The axe, the shovel, bags aof cement, bricks they are all great alternatives to brick laying and what’s more, take the long way round when taking them from point a to point b and then attach the task, and you get some cardio in for free.

If you have the same workout issues and have an outdoor space, go attack’s it and I guarantee you will have fun, get fresh air and find the solution your looking for.