Workout While You Spring Clean

Posted on May 19th, 2009.

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of spring cleaning around my house… like I’m sure many of you are doing. {The only problem is, by the time I’m completely done with the projects on my “to-do” list, it will be time to start all over for Fall cleaning! Our work is never done!} 

 

Anyway, the other day as I was madly scrubbing down walls, doors and baseboard, my husband came home from work and asked me how my day had been. When I paused a minute to chat with him, I noticed sweat dripping down my forehead, my heart was pounding, I was breathing heavy, and I felt as though I had just finished running a 5K! I didn’t realize how hard I was working until that moment, but I quickly realized that I had just burned a TON of calories with all my heavy-duty cleaning! 

 

That got me thinking about how easily we can turn many of our household chores into awesome workouts! We just need to move fast and put a lot of elbow grease into it! I still have a TON more walls to wash down, and I’m already planning on taking advantage of that opportunity to throw in some squats! When I wash up, I’m up, when I wash down, I SQUAT down! Great for the thighs and butt ladies! {wink, wink!} 

 

And what about cleaning the blinds? Oh my gosh… I HATE cleaning the blinds! But the other day when I was gearing up to clean the blinds in the master bedroom, I thought to myself, “Okay, this really sucks… but I’ll make a workout out of it and it won’t be so bad!” {Like the inner dialog I have with myself? ha ha! My husband tells me that’s not normal, but I don’t agree!} Anyway, I tell you what… by the time I climbed up the stool, took down the blinds, climbed down the stool, carried them to the bathtub, scrubbed each one wildly, dried them off, climbed back up the stool, attached the blinds back up… and I did this FOUR times… with blinds that are just about as tall as me, I’m pretty DARN sure, that I got a better workout than I do on my typical cardio days! And the coolest part about it is that I also got a dang good arm workout in! 

 

So as you gear up to do your spring cleaning this year, {unless you are entirely lucky and get to hire out the job}, think of some ways you can turn it into a workout! And then post a comment and share your ideas! I’d love to know how you plan on multi-tasking and getting TWICE the benefit from such a dirty job! This Saturday is my window cleaning day… and I’m not talking just a squirt of windex and a quick wipe with a cloth. I’m talking, take each window OUT, scrub both sides, spray off the screens and put them back in! Should be fun right? {I guess as long as I don’t fall off my roof when I tackle the second floor windows, it should be alright!}

 

I’m excited to hear what workout plans you have up your sleeve this spring! 

 

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