It is not necessary to hit the gym 5 times a week, if you embrace the mini workouts presented to you around your house and garden.
You may have felt before that housework is a very thankless task. I know I have. As soon as the floor is clean the cat walks in with muddy paws, and the kitchen sink gets filled again with dirty plates right after you have put all the dishes away. All that bending, scrubbing, picking, folding, chopping, dusting and tidying, is truly a chore.
It’s like an endless cycle of assignments, where the end of each task just marks the beginning of yet another round. It can feel disheartening, but despair not, because despite the monotony and repetitiveness housework harbours secrets to health and longevity that deserve to be highlighted!
Housework, just a chore, or a key ingredient to health?
By the way, I am not saying that because it has benefits it is OK, to load all of the housework always onto the same person, and pretend that you are doing them a favour! Instead I would like to uplift you with this information on the awesome benefits of this work when you do find yourself confronted with a mountain of mess, or have not managed to go to the gym in a while.
GENERAL HEALTH BENEFITS
Housework by all means counts towards the recommended minimum of 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day, 5 times a week which has many immediate and long-term health benefits. See the CDC infographic for the details:
YOU BURN CALORIES
An active lifestyle can easily burn 300 extra calories per day. This could mean for example that you try to take the stairs when possible, take the bike to work, have a lunchtime stroll and do your own house cleaning.
If done with purpose housework accounts for an impressive hourly calorific expenditure. For example:
Changing bed linen = 160 calories
Vacuuming = 200 calories
Cleaning a bathroom = 240 calories
YOUR MIND-SET MATTERS
The above activities were the subject of a study in 2007 by Crum and Langer, where the researchers found that a group of chamber maids started to loose a significant amount of weight and inches off their waist after they had been told about the physical benefits related to their daily work. Before the study they had not classed themselves as physically active. With this new information their mind-set was changed and their bodies benefitted with healthy improvements despite them not changing their daily habits in any way.
So do remember that you are actively contributing to your fitness and health while you pick up the dirty laundry and run the vacuum-cleaner from room to room!
(And if you know anyone, who you think would benefit from this information, then please feel free to share this article with them.)
WHERE HOUSEWORK BEATS THE GYM
The research of NASA scientist Joan Vernikos was focussed on the effect of weightlessness on the body. The health markers of astronauts in space would continually decline. The lack of gravity was found to contribute to:
diabetes,
high blood pressure,
heart problems,
stroke,
balance and coordination problems,
muscle wasting, and
severe bone loss or even fracture.
She further found that to recreate the conditions of weightlessness here on earth she had to get her subjects to lie down, or even sit down for long periods of time.
Vernikos concluded that we need to move against the resistance of gravity in order to maintain good health. This means the more we get up from sitting down or lying down the more we stimulate healthy responses in our bodies.
With housework you might find that you don't cram all your activities into a single block of time, and that is good, because the beneficial effects of moving against gravity such as getting up from kneeling on the floor, bending down to empty the dishwasher or getting the dinner out of the oven will each create a stimulus that the body processes within 15-20 mins. Changing your posture at these regular 15-20 minute intervals throughout the day has a more beneficial effect than an condensed workout at the gym.
IN CONCLUSION
Housework forms part of your weekly physical activity recommendation.
Practised vigorously it burns a significant amount of calories.
The health effects of housework are enhanced simply by knowing that you are essentially working out.
Housework has the added benefit that it tends to be practised at intervals throughout the day, which optimally stimulates gravity induced health effects, and reduces the risk of diabetes and other common ailments associated with ageing.
Resources:
https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3196007/Langer_ExcersisePlaceboEffect.pdf
Vernikos, J. 2011. Sitting kills, Moving heals
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