Spring clean your house and health
Whether you love it or hate it spring cleaning is good exercise. However, we are over half way through April and I’ve yet to even make a start! I can only put this down to my lack of motivation and that was down to the long winter. I admit I’m a bit of a hoarder I find myself giving things to charity shops and then buying from charity shops. So we’ve skipped spring and gone straight into summer. But finally, it’s here! You know that big fireball in the sky, and it has been scorchio!
Goal setting
I’ve set a goal to do 2 good hours a week to get on top of my house and the best thing is I get 2 hours of exercise whilst doing it. Any type of movement leads to additional calories burned, so housework is considered exercise. Just because you might not have the latest fitness gear on or be wearing the latest sports shoe, it’s still exercising. Now you probably won’t develop muscle mass or experience a lot of cardiovascular benefits, but your efforts will be contributing to your weekly exercise goals.
Put some good tunes on
The key is to raise your heart rate and to incorporate different movements within the cleaning. Rather than doing just a little bit of light dusting try organising a room by moving things around. This could be a much better workout than fluffing a duster around. Do lunges whilst you hoover, and think big movements for activities like cleaning mirrors, shower screens, windows and glass doors. Instead of making small circular movements try to making long sweeping movements.
Squat with down movements and go up onto the balls of your feet when reaching up. This will give you more of a whole body workout. 
If you can alternate which arm you use you could actually turn your whole spring cleaning chores into an exercise programme. To increase the intensity or speed at which you work, try putting on some fast tempo music that you really enjoy and dance while cleaning. You could also give yourself a time limit in which you have to clean a pretty big task.
Consistency
If spring cleaning is going to be part of your physical activity program, you’ll need to work out more than once every spring. Get a routine down, such as every Sunday you could do some gardening, Saturday mornings clean the car. You’ll start to see a real difference not only in your body and energy levels but also in your home and your mind. Getting rid of things is actually very therapeutic.
So I’m off now to make a start on my loft, a job that I’ve been putting off for months. I’m sure if I had bats up there they would be telling me to declutter. Happy Cleaning!
FLexercise teachers work the whole body, so if you’re looking to get fit for summer go to our website and find a class near you.