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How can cleaning your house contribute to a healthier lifestyle? Well, after any amount of cleaning, you soon realize that it takes a lot of energy and time to keep your house clean. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans ages 15 and over spend an average of 1.4 (men) and 2.3 (women) hours doing household chores and upkeep. Add that on top of working, commuting, dinner, and children’s activities, and your day is over before your know it. In our busy lives, it is hard to maintain a fitness plan while doing everything else life brings our way. So instead of allowing cleaning to take up precious time, why not use this time to implement some extra exercises into your daily chores and kill two birds with one stone?
Vacuuming: Vacuuming daily can be a redundant task, so next time you vacuum try doing it on the “balls of your feet”, so that your calf muscles are being worked. It will also, improve your balance by strengthening your leg muscles and core. Take quick breaks between rooms to relax and then get back to it. By the end of your vacuuming session, you’ll surely feel the burn in your legs.
Dusting: Dusting, as well as wiping counters and scrubbing sinks or bathtubs, is a good opportunity to work out your arms. The best way to increase the calories you are burning and work out your arms is to speed up your hand movements. When wiping a surface, exaggerate your movements and wipe farther and faster than you normally would. You can also wipe/scrub with small rapid movements back and forth. Be sure to take turns do this with both hands so that you get an even workout to both arms. For a more challenging exercise, push down harder or even flex your arm while wiping or scrubbing a surface, you will really feel the burn.
Standing: Whenever cleaning brings you to a standstill, like when you are washing dishes for example, try lifting one foot off the ground for a minute at a time. This will help to improve your overall balance. If that is too easy, you can also try leg lifts by lifting your leg to the side 7-10 times. Remember to switch legs after each exercise so that you get an even workout on both sides.
Generally, speeding up your movements while doing any cleaning activity will increase your heart rate, so just adding speed is a good plan when all else fails. Plus, the faster you move the quicker you’ll be done, and who can argue with that? When trying to exercise while cleaning, it is important to remember that there are many options and you can be as creative as you want. You will find that by just consciously thinking about your body movements and how cleaning uses your muscles, you can push yourself and make cleaning good exercise.
Information comprised from:
“Charts from the American Time Use Survey.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 23 Feb. 2011. Web. 09 June 2011. <http://www.bls.gov/tus/charts/>.
Stanley, Carol. “How to Exercise While Cleaning | EHow.com.” EHow | How to Videos, Articles & More – Trusted Advice for the Curious Life | EHow.com. Web. 09 June 2011. <http://www.ehow.com/how_4962592_exercise-cleaning.html>.
who knew? now i just need to make time to clean!