Body Shaping Exercise and Workout Tips Using Routine Housework

These are the magic words that we have all been longing to hear: cleaning your house counts as exercise.

Many health and fitness experts and researchers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the Surgeon General are all in agreement that your everyday exercise of picking up dirty laundry, scrubbing floors, and slaving over a hot stove qualifies as a moderate sort of physical activity that you need to stay healthy and fit.

Spending 15 to 20 minutes vacuuming a few rooms doesn't count too much, but people who do quite a lot of household chores will eventually reap the benefits in terms of calorie expenditure, fitness and health. It is because housecleaning engages all of your major muscle groups over time this will prove to build strength, endurance, and flexibility.

Here are a few of the body shaping benefits you can expect from your every day routine of housework.

Picking up clutter and carrying it from one room to the other, or even more challenging, taking your clutter up and down stairs works out the muscles in your arms, shoulders, legs and buttocks.

The common household chore of vacuuming will primarily work your upper body while increasing the muscle strength and toning in your legs and midsection as you walk back and forth during the cleaning process.

Scrubbing a floor or washing windows helps maintain strength in your arms and back while the stretching motion assists in strengthening your flexibility.

The more effort you put into cleaning your house will also prove to efficiently burn calories, especially if you engage more in strenuous tasks such as scrubbing floors or heavy lifting.

You can make an exercise plan for your every day house hold chores by starting to take it slow by doing strenuous housework over a more extensive period. Most people make the mistake of becoming a spring cleaning athlete once a year rather than doing their chores regularly all year long. It is much more beneficial to your health to keep a regular household chore routine daily in order to ensure that you are keeping your activity level up enough to receive the benefits of these exercises.

Remember to do your stretches. None of us are going to do any stretching activity before grabbing a broom or scrubbing a floor- that would be nice but it is not practical. The best way to approach your stretching activity is to make it a morning routine once you get out of bed every morning. That way it becomes its own exercise ritual rather than a prep activity before cleaning the house.

Try to avoid overworking your muscles by switching from one task to another. It's a good idea to move the work and stress around to other various muscle groups by doing a little bit of vacuuming, then put in a load of laundry, and then scrub the bathroom or kitchen sink.

Always make sure to bend and lift carefully. Everyday housework can put a major strain on your lower back. By using the proper technique of bending with your legs and not your back will protect you from over exerting this muscle group.

Think thirty minutes a day. Many experts on weight loss suggest that thirty minutes or more of moderate physical activity on a day to day basis will increase calorie and fat burning. Activities such as pushing a vacuum, washing windows, scrubbing floors all qualify as cardio-fitness activities.

Just remember that with any form of exercise, especially if you have been sedentary up until this point, start out with ten to fifteen minutes of housework for two to three times a week and then slowly begin to build up to thirty minutes per day. As you build endurance, gradually push yourself to higher levels by working faster and more continuously, without starting or stopping in between chores. Try not to exceed 85 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate by executing every activity with slow and consistent movement.

Now that you know that housework actually constitutes physical fitness you can involve yourself in your chores with a purpose rather than mindless and unappreciated activity.