According to the American Council on Exercise, if you do your own housework or yard work, you're doing yourself a fitness favor. The stretching and lifting involved in boring chores like vacuuming, mopping and lugging laundry are beneficial to your body. Yard work uses many muscle groups, especially activities like planting and working in the garden. Raking uses arm and back muscles. Digging gives arms and legs a workout. 

But which chores burn calories the fastest? 

A Cardiovascular Research Center team from the Medical College of Wisconsin has been able to isolate the specific impact of tedious household activities like vacuuming, ironing and window washing. Study subjects were asked to perform various chores while wearing a special breathing device which measured energy expended and calories burned. Their heart rate and blood pressure were monitored while they worked. 

The research showed that, in order for a healthy 120 to 150 pound person to burn 100 calories, he or she would have to: 
 

"In 1996, when the U.S. Surgeon General recommended that adults burn at least 150 calories per day in physical activity, over half of all Americans were not achieving that level." says Lois Sheldahl, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin and principal investigator in the study. "This expenditure represents a total of only about 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a day and could lower their risk for heart disease, cancer and osteoporosis." 

"Once this level is achieved, health professionals encourage further participation in an aerobic exercise program to expand work capacity and endurance," Sheldahl said. "In fact, there is probably an added benefit in disease prevention if some of these normal activities are done at a little higher intensity, giving them aerobic value." 

Dr. Sheldahl cautions that these guidelines are for healthy individuals. Heart disease patients should confer with their physicians before starting any new exercise regimen. 

Some experts have suggested that housework is healthy for the spirit as well as the body. In the January 1999 edition of Psychology Today, Vivien Wolsk, Ph.D., a New York psychologist, stated that, "simple household tasks such as ironing or doing the laundry can offer drug-free ways of coping with stress." 

In Sweeping Changes: Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks, author Gary Thorp explains that the home is an extension of oneself; therefore when one's home is in turmoil, one's life is in turmoil. Conversely, when one takes care of the house, he is taking care of himself. 

Similarly, Margaret Horsfield, a journalist and author of Biting the Dust: The Joys of Housework feels that housework can help in dealing with frustration and even grief. By completing even the most mundane of 
household chores, "you can feel that you've accomplished something in this uncontrollable world." 

In other words, ironing a shirt can help smooth out the wrinkles in your life. Scrubbing your oven can be a soul-cleansing experience. Washing a window can give you a clearer outlook on life. So get out your sponges, mops, dust rags and rakes and add spring cleaning to your fitness regimen. 
 

  Sources 

  Sweep Your Way into a Swimsuit   www.savvyhealth.com

  Healthy Cleaning Alternatives: Safe, Effective Household Products    www.healthhouse.org

  The Five Basics for Non-Toxic Cleaning   www.care2.com

  Burning Calories with Everyday Activites   healthlink.mcw.edu 

  Spring Cleaning Chore Checklist   organizedhome.com

  Making Time for Exercise is Easy   acefitness.org/fitfacts/

  Housework is as Tough Today as 60 Years Ago   www.eurekalert.org
 
 
 

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