According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on an average day in 2014, 83 percent of women and 65 percent of men spent time in doing household activities. Women spent daily 2.6 hours when men spent 2.1 hours of cleaning. Spending two hours on house chores made me ask myself "What can I do in order to make that time more beneficial for me?". The survey also made me think of the hidden opportunities that I have while I'm cleaning. And here is what I figured out, home cleaning could be a great workout. If you don't have enough time for both cleaning and going to gym. You can definitely turn your regular cleaning into a non-typical gym workout. Admit it, burning calories while dusting or vacuuming sounds great.
Now many of you'll ask "How to turn cleaning into a fat burning exercises?". Just keep calm and keep reading.
Exercise #1: Vacuuming
Vacuuming is one of the regular cleaning chores. You do it at least once a week. Here is what you need to do in order to turn this chore into a workout. Simply do step back lunges when you vacuum your house. For example, do two-three sets of 15 reps. If you are fit enough you can even do more sets (I started with three, now I do five). After I finish with the vacuum cleaner I do some push-ups.
Exercise #2: Ironing
To me, this is the most annoying home chore. However, here is what you can do in order to turn ironing into body-fitting exercise. You only need to put the laundry basket on the floor. This way you have to bend and stretch every time you pick the clothes.
Exercise #3:Window Cleaning
Window cleaning is not a weekly chore. But it still can be performed in a way which will help you to keep your body fit. The only thing you need to do is to use a ladder the least you can. Thus, you'll stretch your arms when you try to reach the top of the windows. Also you can do squads when you're trying to reach the bottom corners. Make more sets and go from top to bottom each time you wash the window.
Exercise #4 Dusting
When you dust, make sure to go in series from top to bottom racks. Also try to do it a little bit faster than your usual. You want to burn more calories, right? Keep in mind that the more effort you put, the greater result you'll have.
Exercise #5 Deep Clean Bathrooms
Cleaning the bathroom is a time-consuming and exhausting task. I believe you'll all agree with me about that statement. But this is a great way to burn some calories. Stretch as much as you can while cleaning the tiles. Divide the tile areas and scrub each small area with a sponge and a proper cleaning product.
When the time for spring cleaning comes, you'll even burn more calories. According to a recent study, spring cleaning burns more calories than a running marathon. Yes, it takes longer, but running doesn't clean your property.
Here is a chart with several cleaning chores and the calories you'll burn performing them for thirty minutes:
- Vacuuming - 119 calories
- Window Cleaning - 102 - calories
- Floor Cleaning (scrubbing, mopping) - 129 calories
- Dusting - 85 calories
- Cleaning, emptying, rearranging cupboards - 119 calories
- Ironing - 56 calories
There are some cleaning chores which don't bring weight loss benefits, like oven cleaning for example. Or some of them are too difficult to do by yourself, like gutter cleaning. But for those tasks you can always call a professional home cleaners. For all other cleaning duties rely on yourself. Because a calorie-burning-house-cleaning is a wonderful motivation to clean more often and put more effort into cleaning at all. This way you'll kill two birds with one stone. Your home will be sparkling and you'll lose some weight.
