Weight loss made easy: Can chores, mopping floors and scrubbing window panes be good exercises?

Holistic health expert Dr Mickey Mehta on the best place to begin a fitness routine

Doing chores like mopping, sweeping and scrubbing floors raises heart rate and works the heart similar to brisk walking or running. (Photo: Freepik)

If you didn’t know where and how to begin your weight loss journey and have never exercised, you could start looking at wiping down the glass on the slider doors of your apartment. Or mopping the floor. These mundane tasks have shown great promise as a foundational exercise. And no less than the Lancet Public Health research now shows how short bouts of incidental activity, the kind done as part of daily living and including household chores, has shown to reduce risk of heart attack, stroke and even premature death.

Spring cleaning drills like mopping and dusting have significant health advantages as exercise and are good for those who may not want the intensity of a gym routine from the word go. Cleaning involves left side, right side movements, duck walk, bear walk, bending, twisting and stretching up movements. It also involves awkward positions in which your body learns to balance itself in the effort to do that. Regular cleaning involves a kind of a functional training by which you can engage unused parts of the body. Of course, it also ensures mental well-being following the effort to clean your environment. An hour’s cleaning drill almost equals a 20-minute low impact exercise.

WHICH CHORE WORKS FOR YOU?

· Cardiovascular workout: Weight loss made easy: Can chores, mopping floors and scrubbing window panes be good exercises?

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· Strength training: By requiring strength and muscular activation during the lifting and shifting of furniture, boxes, and other household goods, strength training helps improve muscles generally.

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· Range of motion and flexibility: Reaching up high shelves, bending to pick up objects and extending to tidy small areas improve range of motion and flexibility in the joints.

· Calorie burn: Cleaning requires constant movement, which burns calories and promotes better metabolic health and weight management.

· Stress releasing: Cleaning is more than just keeping cabinets clear of clutter and floors spotless. It also gets rid of stress. One’s senses are overloaded and you feel heavy with clutter otherwise.

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· Clarity of mind and improving memory: Focus and mental clarity can be enhanced by reducing physical clutter in the home. This will increase productivity and mental clarity. With increasing focus and concentration, it helps build new memories. It increases neural firing, motor neuron activity and synaptic connections.

Mood Enhancement: Organizing and cleaning stimulates the release of endorphins, a neurotransmitter that elevates mood and promotes feelings of well-being.

THE CALORIE BURN

Pushing your vacuum cleaner around every room for 30 minutes can burn 125 calories if you weigh around 70 kg. Washing a car by hand for 30 minutes uses up 200 calories if you weigh over 80 kg. Changing sheets and dusting off beds and couches or cleaning a kitchen for 30 minutes can burn up to 200 calories easily.

Please make sure to maintain correct postures while doing any activity. Manage it by dividing into small tasks to maintain momentum. Make cleaning a celebration, play upbeat music or reward yourself after completing the task. Once you are into the drill, it will be easy for you to venture outdoors and the gym. For in the end you will be needing moderate intensity exercises to sustain favourable health parameters.

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weight loss

Nagamallaiah, the victim, who is originally from Karnataka, was attacked by his co-worker-- Yordanis Cobos-Martinez at the Downtown Suites motel where he worked.

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