Spring time is like the Earth’s Sunday morning… a special time to float around idly while cleaning up the mess from the two nights before. However, the Earth doesn’t have any body fat that we’re aware of, so it has never had to choose between cleaning up the house or putting in time at the gym. Lucky for us though, there are ways that we can tweak them so that we can not only burn more calories while doing getting our spring cleaning done, but reduce our risk of injury while doing them as well. Here are five tips on making your house cleaning time feel more like your gym time.
1. Strive for large, circular movements.
For example, when cleaning glass, make the radius of your circle as wide as possible… this not only cleans your glass faster, but larger circles will work out your obliques and deltoids in addition to just your arms. Also, don’t be afraid to press down hard while “waxing on” and “waxing off” (I’m trying to be mature right now), because it will not only burn more calories but create muscle endurance as well, which will allow you sustain the same amount of exertion for longer periods of time, making you more of a spring cleaning machine.
2. Keep good form
One of the easiest things to do while cleaning (besides stopping) is bending your back. This not only will lead back pain, but doesn’t allow your body to work out as many muscles as it would have if you kept your back straight. If you’re mopping, keep one hand on top of the handle. Doing this not only looks more stately, but allows your body to rotate and transfer kinetic energy more smoothly down through your arms, core and legs, reducing strain on your muscles.
3. Use music
You don’t have to do a Tom Cruise from Risky Business, but many experts agree that music distracts your mind from more painful tasks at hand, which will make time feel like it is passing faster. It doesn’t have to be some loud, high energy techno song like you hear at the gym… it could be a slow, mellow song, but as long as it puts you in a trance, it’ll make your workout less painful.
4. Make sure you’re lifting
Almost any type of cleaning involves lifting. Recent studies have shown that moderate to intense workouts burn more calories than moderate to light workouts for an extended period of time. In other words, if you’re doing the laundry, try to carry as much of it as you can at one time instead of little amounts over a longer period of time.
5. Choose which days to do what wisely
If you have a particular set of muscles in mind that you think need a “tone up,” do tasks that work out the same muscles consecutively to maximize exertion. For example, if you’re washing your car, also clean the windows and scrub the floors to build more muscle in your arms and core muscles.
If you were wondering how many calories exactly does spring cleaning burn, a recent study found that a person weighting 150 lbs. doing 30v minutes of exercise would burn about 127 calories doing “general cleaning,” 133 doing the laundry, 123 vacuuming, and 92 cooking. Considering that cooking makes it too tempting to eat food as you do it, it’s probably to say that this is the least optimal household task that one could do.
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