5x30, more active more often :: Type

Types of activity: Daily Routines

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Daily routines can play a considerable role in keeping your body and mind healthy. If you have a hectic lifestyle and do not enjoy organised physical activity programs, housework is a great way to improve muscle strength, coordination and flexibility. It is also another way of encouraging members of your family to keep the house tidy!

Dusting, hoovering, mopping, making beds and carrying laundry all add up to using a lot of different muscle groups, which can help you stay active and burn calories. They are also the sorts of jobs that never seem to go away.

Here is just a taster of the different types of active daily routines you can do.

Hoovering
Vacuuming burns between 75 and 125 calories in 30 minutes depending on how vigorous you are. It is also a good activity to include ‘lunging’ and stretching exercises to keep muscles moving.

Washing the car
Washing your car by hand can be very good aerobic exercise and can burn quite a few calories

Mowing the lawn
Using a hand push mower or raking up the leaves can increase your heart rate if a little extra effort is used whilst doing it.

Walk more
Get off the bus one stop early and walk the remainder of the way. This will increase the amount of exercise whilst not adding too much extra time onto your journey.
Invite a friend or colleague to go out for a walk at lunchtime or go out and play with the children in the garden/park.

Shopping
Carrying the groceries from the shops (even just from your car) and putting them away can involve quite a bit of lifting and stretching. If you have to drive to the shops, try parking a little further away from the shops to get in some extra activity.

Walking up the stairs for 15 minutes is a more strenuous activity than washing and waxing the car

= less time spent doing activity

Washing and waxing a car for 45-60 minutes
Washing windows or floors for 45-60 minutes
Gardening for 30-45 minutes
Raking leaves for 30 minutes
Shovelling snow for 15 minutes
Stair walking for 15 minutes

Source: Modified from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (1997)

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