Housework- a great way to burn calories!!

As Closeronline have published, according to a survey by the Discovery Channel the average British woman spends more than 16 hours a week cleaning – that’s over two hours a day! Cleaning for hours each day might be a little extreme, but housework is a great way to burn calories – hoovering alone can burn up to 190 calories an hour. Here are some exercises to do whilst cleaning to get your home and body in tip-top shape.

Hoover lunges
This move is perfect for firming your thighs. Whilst pushing the vacuum cleaner take a big step forward with your right leg. Drop your hips until your right leg is parallel to the ground, but make sure your front knee does not go over your toe. Return to the starting position. Do 15 lunges on each leg whilst moving the vacuum cleaner across the room.

Stairs step up
This exercise will get your heart rate up and tone your bum. Stand in front of a set of steps and step up onto the first one with your right leg, bringing your left leg onto the step as well. Repeat with alternate legs 20 times. If that’s too easy try going up a flight of stairs two at a time using alternate legs, before walking or running back down them.

Kitchen curls
Whilst packing away your shopping, make sure that you leave some heavy bottles or tins till the end so you can blitz your arms. Hold a tin or bottle in each hand with your palms facing forward and stand with your feet hip-width apart. Bend your arms from your elbow bringing the tins towards your chest. Repeat this exercise 15 times.

Iron and squat
To shape your legs place the laundry basket on the floor when ironing and perform this move. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart with your toes pointed forward. Slowly sit back by bending your hips and knees, as if you’re sitting on a chair. Make sure you stick your bum out and lower yourself until your thighs are parallel to the floor. In this position pick up a piece of clothing, then return to your starting position, clench your bum as you stand up and iron.  Repeat 20 times or until the ironing is finished if you’re feeling brave!

Rake and twist
This move can be used for  either sweeping the floor or raking leaves in the garden. The key to this move is to take long, steady strokes whilst raking or sweeping to really work your arms. Make sure you do this exercise on both the left and right side of your body.

Standing side stretch
Make the most of these stretching exercises by adding some weight with milk cartons or bags of shopping. Hold an item in your left hand while standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and slowly bend sideways at the waist. Keep your left arm close to your body while doing this. Hold the position and count to 20, slowly return to your upright position. Switch to the other hand and repeat 10 times on each side.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 10:13 am and is filed under Weight Loss Motivation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.