Comparison of the Metabolic Costs of Gardening and Common Physical Activities in Children
- Authors
- Park, Sin-Ae; Lee, A-Young; Lee, Kwan-Suk; Son, Ki-Cheol
- Issue Date
- Feb-2014
- Publisher
- KOREAN SOC HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE
- Keywords
- Cosmed K4b(2); energy expenditure; exercise intensity; horticultural therapy; socio-horticulture
- Citation
- KOREAN JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, v.32, no.1, pp.123 - 128
- Journal Title
- KOREAN JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
- Volume
- 32
- Number
- 1
- Start Page
- 123
- End Page
- 128
- URI
- https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/hongik/handle/2020.sw.hongik/16762
- DOI
- 10.7235/hort.2014.13122
- ISSN
- 1226-8763
- Abstract
- This study investigated the exercise intensity and energy expenditure involved in two gardening activities (planting transplants and sowing seeds in a garden plot) and four common physical activities (running, skipping rope, walking, and throwing a ball) in children. Eighteen children aged 11 to 13 years (mean age, 12.3 +/- 0.7 years) participated in this study. The children made two visits to a high tunnel in Cheongju, Chungbuk, South Korea and performed randomly selected activities. Each activity was performed for 10 min, with a 5-min rest period between activities. The children wore a Cosmed K4b(2) (Cosmed K4b(2); Cosmed, Rome, Italy), which is a portable calorimetric monitoring system, to measure indicators of metabolic cost such as oxygen uptake and energy expenditure. The children's heart rates during the activities were measured by radiotelemetry (Polar T 31; FitMed, Kempele, Finland). We found that the two gardening and four physical activities performed by the 11-13 years old children in this study were moderate- to high-intensity physical activities [i.e., 5.4 +/- 0.7 to 9.1 +/- 1.4 metabolic equivalents (METs)]. Running (9.1 +/- 1.4 METs) and skipping rope (8.8 +/- 1.1 METs) were high-intensity physical activities, whereas walking (6.1 +/- 0.9 METs), planting transplants (5.8 +/- 1.1 METs), throwing a ball (5.6 +/- 1.1 METs), and sowing seeds (5.4 +/- 0.7 METs) were moderate-intensity physical activities. Running and skipping rope were significantly more intense than the other activities (P < 0.0001). The gardening tasks such as planting transplants and sowing seeds in a garden plot showed similar exercise intensities and energy costs as walking and throwing a ball. This study indicates that gardening can be used as a physical activity intervention to provide health benefits similar to more common physical activities such as walking and running.
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