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.