Jun

Cleaning Exercises for Busy Moms

Having an entire household and kids to take care of really takes up a lot of time and effort. Naturally, free time is something you don’t have. So how then can a busy mom stay in shape while juggling between work and home?

The answer, however surprising it may be, is cleaning. Most mothers, I’m sure, don’t like cleaning because, well, because it’s cleaning. It takes up the little spare time you’ve got for yourself and it’s tedious. But don’t give up hope just yet, with the right mindset you can make it fun and more importantly, it can really improve your physical fitness.

Studies show that even small spurts of moderate intensity activities, such as cleaning for instance, can improve your fitness, especially if you aren’t very physically active. And if you’re able to spare half an hour for traditional exercises, such as jogging or biking, three or four days a week, and combine it with 30 minutes of doing chores, you’ll have a full hour of exercise. According to many experts, an hour of exercise is quite enough for people trying to lose weight.

How to Get Into Workout Mode

First and foremost, motivation is key. It’s not at all surprising that you’re not keen on washing the windows or mopping the floors so just don’t think how much you hate it. Instead, turn up the music and really commit to what you’re doing. Also, try speeding up the process. It is crucial that you pick up the pace if you want to get results out of it. Something I find extremely useful is to leave all cleaning supplies in the cabinet. All the mini trips you have to make to get what you need really adds up to your routine and makes it efficient.

Here are some other tips you’ll find useful:

Dance to the music. For maximum effect, choose some fast music and dance to it. That way you’ll really break a sweat.

Try to implement some conventional exercises to your routine. Do some lunges while vacuuming the floor for example (toes pointing forward, knees right above the ankles, straighten your back and keep your core tightened).

Use a stepladder whenever you can. It’s a great way to incorporate some aerobics moves into your cleaning routine. Just be careful, stepladders can be dangerous.

When washing the windows or scrubbing the table make long, sweeping movements. That’s a great tip for increasing shoulder strength. Also, instead of bending, squat. That helps you train your entire lower body.

The idea here is to move as much as possible, so make as many mini trips as you can, and do them fast. Be careful though, falling while running around the house defeats the whole purpose of the exercises.