Reel mower for cardio

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I quite like reel mowers. My house came with one when we bought it, a fairly new one. What I'm talking about are the human powered "oldschool" mowers that you just push. First off, as mowers, they're fairly nice. They basically don't cut as well as a gas mower in some aspects, as they have trouble cutting anything other than grass, so if you got weeds, they're gonna stay up. But, they don't "burn" the grass clippings up, there's no noise, or fumes, and best of all, no futzing around trying to start it. Just grab it and go. A lot of people think they're hard to use, if you get an old 1950s one with a dull blade (contrary to popular belief, they only use one blade) that needs oiling/etc, of course it's gonna be hard, but a modern one is quite easy to push. If your grass isn't long, it's easier to push than most gas mowers, simply due to it weighing less. If your grass is long, that's where it gets harder, but today I was cutting like 7 inch or so grass with mine and it worked, just had to push harder and do more passes.

So overall, it's pretty good exercise, according to this calorie chart, http://www.peoplepoweredmachines.com/in ... tm#calorie it burns like 400 calories an hour if you're over 160lbs, so not bad exercise. I like mowing with it, though, it feels almost zen-like in some ways, you can mow anytime you want, even if it's like midnight, as it doesn't make any noise, and I just like it better.

So yeah, if you want some exercise and a sorta more convenient way to mow your lawn, try one out.

This is true, that the reel mower is a good workout, but it won't cut the grass NEARLY as well as a gas mower. I've used them, and after I was done, I looked and seen I had to do entire sections again.

I've noticed that while it's harder to cut through grasses that grow thicker, it cuts better than mowing through grass that doesn't grow as thick. The thinner grasses tend to push over instead of being cut. If you mow through grasses that are thick, you have to start off before the blade meets the grass, so the blade can get some momentum or else the wall of grass will stop it in it's tracks.

If you have a lot of debris in your yard from trees, good luck! You'll have to stop every 10secs because a twig got caught in your blade, and you can't move or cut until you dislodge it.

If you want to keep your lawn short enough for the mower to be effective, expect to mow the yard at least 2 times a week.

I remember reel mowers. When I was very little and we would visit my Nana, I would sometimes be allowed to cut the grass with her reel mower. There was a section out back where I had to watch out for apples sometimes, as she had an old apple tree out there. The apples were small and lousy, so I don't know what was done about them. Perhaps they were made into pies. Nana (paternal grandma) was born in 1900 and made it to 1998. She passed away about a month after her 98th birthday. I was able to go to the party. I wasn't ready to go there when other relatives were, so I drove myself over a little later. That worked out good because everyone else had to go home a lot earlier than I did, so I got to hang out with Nana for a good while longer that day.

I have been thinking about getting a reel mower, or a riding one. Because of health issues relatives have to mow the lawn for me. There was a good mower here when I moved in, but for some reason my father took it to his place and replaced it with a junky self propelled one, that has gotten worse. My younger brother had problems getting it started yesterday, and doesn't like it. He and my father were having an argument about the two mowers, too. I will have to talk to my brother about getting a riding mower or a reel mower. One good thing about a reel mower, is that there isn't much to go wrong with it. Also, it doesn't need fuel, oil, or electricity. At one point in my life I had an electric mower--with a cord! I was still able to mow at that time, and was always wrestling with that cord + the extension cord. Later, when my mother and I moved back with other relatives, one of my brother's managed to mow over and cut the cord.

Yeah, I will suggest a reel mower to my brother. I can afford one. They are cheap in the long run anyway.