How Much Exercise Do You Get From Push Mowing? Fitbit Edition

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Mowing season is just around the corner, and according to our experts, it’s going to be a big one. For our customers that are trying to stay fit by push mowing their lawn this can mean some great workouts. The latest fitness craze, fitbit, has made fitness calculable and easy to digest, but what results can you see just from mowing? The fitbit technology now allows us to hypothesize and track our results. The math is easy, especially easy for you because we’ve already done it. Check it out:

What is fitbit?

If you haven’t heard of fitbit, you soon will. The product monitors your activity through a nifty bracelet that stores your health data on a website that makes your progress easy to see. It’s a great product for getting into shape and to stay on track toward whatever fitness goal you’re after. On a very basic level the product measures your steps, calories burnt, calories taken, etc. Then helps you develop and reach goals that you set for each, that in turn effect your overall level of fitness, by breaking out each component. The main tracking unit used by fitbit is the number of steps taken per day. This is where mowing comes in.

What results can you see from mowing?

This is where the math comes in. In order to make generalizations we need to make some assumptions. All of these estimations were obtained by Google, and of course are very general averages. Your results will vary but this gives us a baseline:

  • Average foot per step = 2.5ft
  • Average walking speed for an adult= 3mph
  • There are 43,560 sq ft in a sq acre
  • There are 5,280 ft in a mile

We sell push mowers that range from 20”-30” but our most popular model has a 22” deck.

So lets start...

By the Size of your yard:

In order to get to the number of steps per acre, we need to figure out how much grass we’re cutting with each step.

1 step (with a push mower) = 2.5 ft X 1.83 ft (22” Mowing Deck)= 4.583 sq ft

There are 43,560 square feet in an acre so we can divide that number by our mowing step to see how many steps we’ll get per acre.

43,560 sq ft /4.583sq ft = 9,504.69 mowing steps per acre.

So a 22” Toro push mower will add roughly 9,505 steps per every acre you push mow.

Just for kicks lets see how many steps our 30” Self-propelled push mower will save you.

30” = 2.5ft

2.5ft (average step) X 2.5 ft (deck width) = 6.25 sq ft

43,560 sq ft/ 6.25 sq ft = 6,969.6 mowing steps per acre

Therefore a 30” Toro Push Mower will add roughly 6,970 steps per every acre you push mow. Which is 2,535 less steps than a 22” Toro Push Mower.

Fitbits come pre-programmed to require 10,000 steps a day, which means that if you yard is an acre or more you’re set on walking for the day with a 22” mower and well on your way with a 30” Toro push mower.

But say you don’t know how big your yard is, maybe you just know about how long it takes you to push mow.

We’ve got you covered there too.

With our average walking speed of 3 miles per hour, and the fact that there are 5,280 ft in a mile, we can figure our feet per hour at 15,840 feet per hour (5,280 X 3). This divided by 2.5 (feet per step) will give us the overall steps per hour at a constant rate.

On average you’ll be moving at a pace of 6,336 steps per hour while mowing.

This can be helpful as you’re trying to figure out how many steps you’re going to add to your fitbit count when you mow.

Helpful Hint: If you keep your fitbit on your wrist when you mow, it might not register the activity, because your arm won’t be swinging. Try out putting your fitbit device on your belt loop to make sure you track all your steps.

Whether you’re using fitbit or not, push mowing can be a great source of exercise. We’ve already proven that you’re getting a lot of feet covered when you mow. Your physical build and metabolism will determine how many calories you actually burn, but it’s safe to say that some exercise is better than no exercise.

Helpful Hint: To get more steps out of your mow job, think about trimming with a line trimmer after you push mow. This will add some steps to your work out and polish up your yard.

 

 

Sources:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_long_does_it_take_to_walk_one_mile?#slide=1