We spend about 30 minutes a day cleaning the apartment, plus at least a couple of hours on weekends. Few devote as much time to fitness. And very few can boast that there is too much movement in their life. So why not use your cleaning time more effectively? After all, we make movements with our arms and legs, perform tilts and squats, carry weights - why not fitness at home? It is only necessary to do everything a little differently than we are used to, and the benefits of such movements will increase many times over.
A full-fledged cleaning in terms of the amount of energy expended is comparable to a moderate-intensity aerobics lesson or a three-kilometer walk. “With a body weight of 68 kg, a person spends from 150 to 350 kcal per hour on cleaning an apartment, from 250 to 450 kcal on washing windows,” says Tatyana Lisitskaya, an instructor at the LIVE! club.
General cleaning gives a good load on the muscles of the legs and abs, and also trains the heart muscle. “When you are washing a mirror or other vertical surface, stand with your knees bent. You will feel how the muscles of the buttocks and thighs work!” — shares the secrets of Pilates coach and owner of a huge house Caroline Barnes. She came up with the program Cleanmomma, with which she encourages America's housewives to lose weight with a rag in their hands. From other home fitness tips: "When you unload the dishwasher and arrange the dishes in the cupboard, rise on the balls of your toes and hold this position for 3 seconds", "Use the stairs in the house and walk on them many times a day."
Caroline's rival, according to the method, Steve Markovich, a 60-year-old homebody, calls during cleaning between times to pump up the muscles of the hands by raising one edge of the sofa, and with a floor rag to do the same as with the roller for rocking the press.
I must admit that not all of their advice can be applied in our small apartments, and dishwashers for many are more a myth than a reality. But still, the basic principles of such fitness at home can be adopted from them:
Make lots of moves quickly and forcefully
You will not burn many calories if you walk listlessly around the apartment with a rag or a vacuum cleaner in your hands. Tighten your abs, straighten your back - and forward. Try to complicate your every move when cleaning. Who said windows need to be wiped down in a circular motion with small amplitude? Make the range of motion as large as possible and do not forget to consciously strain the muscles of the hands. Tired right hand- Move the rag to the left. The pace is important too. Do it quickly so that you feel a little boost heart rate.
Avoid household appliances
If you want to exercise while cleaning, ditch dishwashers, robot vacuums, and other tech gadgets that save you time and effort cleaning. Of course, you should not go to extremes - the usual vacuum cleaner and washing machine should hardly be boycotted. But the principle is clear - try to do everything manually.
Turn on the dance track
“Cleaning, as well as training in the gym, will be of no use if you do not enjoy the process,” says Tatyana Lisitskaya. To cheer yourself up, turn on the dance track. By the way, the music will set the pace for your actions and make you dance a little. This will allow you to burn a little more calories than if you did the cleaning in silence or with relax tunes.
Practice your movement patterns
Any fitness at home will be of no use if the exercises are done incorrectly. So in cleaning - try to observe your motor stereotypes and correct them. For example, you need to vacuum with a straight back, and iron clothes on a board, the height of which is slightly higher than your waist line.
Do the exercises alone
Like it or not, but the exercises during cleaning look pretty funny. Imagine a picture: a husband comes home from work, and his wife shakes her muscles with a sofa and wipes the mirror, being in a deep plie. It will probably be fun for children to do such fitness at home with you, but it’s better for other family members to keep their nerves.
Exercises from Tatyana Lisitskaya
1. Cleaning with a vacuum cleaner
How to perform: take the handle of the vacuum cleaner, straighten your back, remove the deflection in the lower back, put your feet wider than your shoulders. Start cleaning with lunges on one leg, do not round your back and make sure that your shoulders are lowered and do not pinch your neck. After the lunge, return to initial position. The farther you need to reach, the wider the lunge. Do not forget to change the supporting leg after 15 repetitions of the exercise. If you need to vacuum under furniture, get on all fours, rest one hand on the floor, straighten your back, and continue cleaning.
What is the benefit: you do not harm your health by moving incorrectly during a fitness cleaning at home. In addition, the quadriceps femoris, the muscles of the inner thigh, the muscles of the arms and back work in a position on all fours.
Not right: round the back and raise the head, pinching the back of the neck.
2. Washing the floor
How to perform: Get down with a straight back on one knee, put the other leg in front of you, bending it at an angle of 90 degrees. Straighten your back and lower yourself on one straight arm, take a rag with the other and wipe the floor. Do not round your back and change the supporting leg after 5 minutes. It is better to put a small pillow under the supporting leg or put on a knee pad.
What is the benefit: the back of the thigh is stretched, the patella is not injured.
Not right: standing on two bent legs and rounding the back wipe the floor and step at the same time. It is also wrong to bend over a bucket of water with a rounded back and try to pick it up with a sharp movement.
3. Walking with bags
How to perform: stand up straight, straighten your back, lower your shoulders. Substitute a stack of books or a small stool under one leg - it will help unload the lower back. Iron with a straight back, using your legs, not your back, to control your movements. You can complicate the exercise by working with the stand as with a step platform - climbing on it and stepping to the sides.
What is the benefit: the lower back is not strained. Fortified quadriceps hips.
Not right: iron clothes, standing on two legs for a long time, stooping.
And yet fitness at home during cleaning is far from a full-fledged workout. It's more of a useful addition to your weekly routine. It is unlikely to help you lose weight (contrary to the promises of American trainers), but it will allow you to keep fit, not gain much weight, and increase your energy and mood. And this is, you see, a lot!
Do you want to do fitness at home?
Create a personal fitness training program and exercise
And yet, motherhood and sport are combined! This is, and I do not get tired of proving it to myself, discovering new options for the interweaving of sports and my mother's life.
I have already , which I consider the basis of the foundations. And now two more useful finds for active mothers, again to strengthen the lower body. As we agreed, the exercises will not require a separate place and time.
Problems with the joints, spine, urogenital area (I will not say anything about childbirth) are more common in European countries than in Asian ones. I already mentioned that oriental women do a lot of things while squatting. Thanks to such a seat, calves and Achilles are stretched, feet, shins are strengthened, pelvic floor, back, belly.
Sit on your haunches with support on the entire foot at least once a day for at least a few minutes, again tying this to some kind of household process
On your haunches, you can, for example, peel potatoes, mix dough, play with a child, talk on the phone. Squatting, you can feed the baby, partially resting your butt on a pillow on the floor, or either squatting, then getting up from it back to your haunches.
Find at least one activity during the day that you can do while squatting. Take a closer look, somewhere there is an action that can be turned from ordinary into useful. Try to make it a habit, bring it to automatism. Over time, the squatting position will become pleasant and natural. If, of course, practice regularly.
Try minimizing chair involvement in your life by replacing it with a fitball or cozy pillows on the floor.
Mom's lifestyle at certain stages is already not particularly active, or active, but not at all as we would like. Due to the constant sitting on a chair, the pelvic bones become enslaved, the vertebrae are compressed, the blood flow in the legs and in the pelvic area worsens, which is potentially fraught, for example, with varicose veins.
Change your chair periodically. On it you can feed and rock, have a bite and dine - here is the will of your imagination. I simply ruled out sitting on chairs at home, leaving them for guests. There is a ball for me, a sofa if I want to relax, and a floor with cushions and a low table. My baby has not crawled yet, it will crawl, I will turn on my fantasy again and share it with you.
Another, perhaps the most "terrible" and at the same time such a useful exercise that it would simply not be reasonable to skip it. I'm talking about ... goose step. Yes, yes, they squatted down, put their hands on their knees and walked like a goose.
Familiar from school, this exercise combines the effects of all the previous ones: it strengthens and tones the legs, stimulates all the same points on the feet, tightens the pelvic floor, abdomen, makes the legs more prominent, slimmer and stronger, fights cellulite and flat feet.
At first, it is very uncomfortable, not pleasant, and even annoying, over time this exercise can become a favorite. And again, tie it to one of the usual activities, try to walk in single file at least once a day, for example, from bed to bath, while no one sees, or vice versa, in front of everyone and in a goose costume - that’s for you your sense of humor decides.
By the way, this exercise has contraindications. They are associated with an increase in the load on knee joints. Don't run it:
◦ If you have knee problems;
◦ If you are not a sports person at all, start by mastering simple options. First, just walk in a semi-squat. Over time, walk with a goose step, but slowly, helping yourself with your hands. And only when you feel confident, do the option with palms on your knees.
◦ Even if you are in a very good physical form and your knees are healthy, it's best not to go overboard with the amount. 10-15 steps a day is enough. This is one pass through the apartment.
◦ All of these rules apply to children as well. Remember that the kneecaps are formed by 2-6 years, and there is no need to wind circles with a goose step, one short series is enough.
I suggest pairing the squat and goose step with mopping the floor. Washing the floor is a topic worthy of a separate article. After all, you can treat this event not as an unfortunate necessity, but as a fitness and women's practice.
With your hands you wash the floor, on which you and your whole family then walk ... Your hands and your actions are your energy that you impose on everything you touch. Even if you don't always clean the floor yourself, do it at least once in a while, with the right mood and thoughts.
As you already understood, we remove the mop away and move on our haunches. To turn fitness into aromatherapy, add your favorite essential oil to the water
Thanks to my friend for this idea! The atmosphere is just fabulous! And if you want, you can light candles and an aromatic lamp. Who said that the usual things are unpleasant and boring?
Get pleasure and payload, feel like a woman, a real keeper of her hearth, filling the house with her feminine energy. And let washing the floor be a pleasant procedure!
Next time I will talk about cardio loads and others. useful exercises that can be incorporated into your daily routine.
I wish you harmonious motherhood!
The spine is literally the foundation of your body that supports it, so it's important to take care of it at any age. However, many everyday, and seemingly innocent activities can damage it. Review the list of daily activities that have been found to harm your spine.
1. Brushing your teeth
When standing, our spine experiences a greater load than during a long walk. If you have to stand for hours every day, you need to find a way to mitigate the harmful effects on the spine. When brushing your teeth, for example, lean against a wall or sink with your free hand.
2. Washing dishes
When washing dishes, our body is usually in a half-bent position, and our arms are tense. Because of this, the intervertebral discs of the thoracic region wear out quickly, which leads to pain between the shoulder blades. When washing dishes, place a chair or stool under your knee. This will help relieve pressure.
3. Replacing car wheels
Every second car owner is faced with this problem, which can lead to back pain. To avoid this, do not lean towards the wheel. Sit on the ground next to him so that your eyes are at the same level as the fender of the car.
4. Carrying shopping bags
Despite the depressing reality that supermarkets make millions every year selling disposable bags, never buy just one. A few extra rubles will help save the spine from pressure.
Remember to lift heavy objects with knees bent. For most women, a bag weighing more than 2 kg will be heavy, for most men, more than 5 kg. Always remember that bags should be carried with their weight evenly distributed on both hands.
5. Mopping
If not every day, then at least once a week we have to clean our house, and this leads to severe anguish for the spine. Tense legs and back, active arm movements, weight lifting - all this can be very dangerous for the spine. To reduce pressure on your back, never wash the floor with your hands and a rag. Instead, use a mop or brush.
6. Shoe lacing
Everything we do in an arched posture harms our intervertebral discs. Under constant pressure, the spine loses nutrients which makes it flatter. This leads to pressure and shock in one area or another. New stock necessary elements appears only when the body feels comfortable, for example, in sleep. In light of this, it is extremely important to monitor the sensations in the back throughout the day and not test your spine for strength. It is recommended that you fasten your shoes while sitting with your leg elevated. Do not do this by crouching on the floor or bending over.
7. Carrying a backpack
Backpacks are popular not only among schoolchildren. We often fill them with a huge number of things in order to use all the free space. But heavy weight negatively affects the spine. To solve this problem, use both backpack harnesses. This will evenly distribute the load. Choose backpacks with wide, padded shoulder straps as they provide better cushioning and reduce pressure on your neck and spine.
8. Removing heavy objects
When you try to reach for something, your spine stretches. Now imagine what happens to your intervertebral discs when all the weight falls on them, for example, a suitcase, even an empty one, which you remove from the closet. It's like throwing a brick at balloon. Of course, the discs will not burst, but the consequences can be unpleasant if you do this regularly. If you need to lift something heavy from above, use a chair to keep the pressure to a minimum. Ideally, the weight of the object you are shooting should be at the level of your chest.
Not that it was an option to combine business with pleasure, but by including active house cleaning in your training plan, you will get slender body and clean rooms. Two birds with one stone, as they say. Life talked with a fitness club coach world class Julia Kolyushkina to learn howburn maximum calories, cleaning up.
Cleaning is a great addition to your gym workout as it helps burn extra calories and boosts your mood! In addition, cleanliness in the house helps to strengthen almost all muscle groups. Of course, mopping your buttocks to the state of a nut will not help you, but it’s quite possible to bring it noticeably closer to the desired indicators.
- With active cleaning, you can use various muscle groups, most importantly, while doing exercises, follow execution technique, - Yulia Kolyushkina reminds about safety.
Legs and gluteal muscles
Start with a warm-up - collect things scattered around the apartment and do squats. To complicate the task and better pump gluteal muscles, you need to stay in the squat for 30 seconds, doing several repetitions. You can squat either completely or just bend low with a straight back, so the leg muscles will be well involved.
While vacuuming, do lunges on one leg, do not round your back and make sure that your shoulders are lowered and do not pinch your neck. After the lunge, return to the starting position. The farther you need to reach, the wider the lunge.
Half an hour of active cleaning with exercise (own weight) is equal to 25 squats with a barbell (weight - 15 kg) in the hall.
Press
To strengthen the abdominal muscles while washing the floor, it is necessary to draw in the stomach and be sure to keep your back straight. For an effective load on the muscles of the core, move the squeegee as far as possible, and then retract. By making cleaning harder, you burn more calories. It is better to wash the floor by hand, actively squeezing out a rag - it will work top part body.
Thorough washing of the floor with the exercise for half an hour will be equated to 20 twists on the bench with your own weight.
Arms and Shoulders
When washing windows, active rotational movements of the hands with a maximum amplitude strengthen the muscles of the upper body well. Everything needs to be done in fast pace to feel a slight increase in heart rate. Thus, in addition to pumped biceps, triceps and deltas, the cardiovascular system is strengthened.
Half an hour of washing windows and mirrors is equivalent to 15 push-ups from the bench.
Back
Ironing is a good way to work on your posture. Keep your back straight, stand up straight and drop your shoulders. Substitute a stool under one leg - it will help unload the lower back. Iron clothes using your legs instead of your back. You can complicate the exercise by working with the stand as with a step platform: climbing it, stepping to the sides and swinging your legs. Your upper and lower body will thank you!
Half an hour of work with an iron in this position is equal to 5 pull-ups on the horizontal bar.
Cardio
When gardening, turn on the music and start moving, dancing, adding exercises such as push-ups, squats and jumps. Thus, in one hour of gardening, you can burn up to 500 kcal! The main rule is that we do everything at a rhythmic pace, actively using the muscles of the arms, legs and cortex.
Cardio load is not worse than on group lessons aerobics!
- Such cleaning can be equated to a full workout, if you practice 1.5-2 hours 2 times a week. Top tip: use extra equipment to a minimum,- Julia advises in the end.
The spine, which has been strained during the day, is very important for night rest, which can be provided by an orthopedic mattress. It provides anatomical correct position of the body, distributes the load on the spine and makes it possible to relax overstrained muscles.
The best way to check the selected orthopedic mattress is to put on it plastic bottle with water and sit down at a distance of 30-40 cm from it, if the bottle does not fall - the mattress will support your back well during a night's rest.
But with advanced osteochondrosis, the mattress is not always enough: the place of lumbar deflection still cannot relax, and the muscles of this zone continue to be in tension. To give rest to the lower back, you need to put a regular pillow under your knees.
Avoid slopes
For a sore back, slopes are contraindicated. It is best to equip all work areas in the apartment in such a way as to avoid slopes. The washing bowl, countertop, ironing board, sink, stove should be at elbow level. Also, do not bend over while washing and brushing your teeth.
In the bathroom and toilet, special long handrails can be attached to the wall, which will allow you to get up and sit down without undue stress on the back muscles. You need to take care of facilitating mopping and vacuuming. Mopping floors should only be done with a long-handled mop, and the vacuum cleaner pipe should also be long enough not to lean.
Support belts
Supporting elastic belts with bone or metal plates are specially designed for patients with osteochondrosis. They tighten the abdominal muscles, unload the spine due to a change in intra-abdominal pressure on the spine. It is impossible to get rid of osteochondrosis with their help, since a stronger fixation is needed for the therapeutic effect, but during exacerbations of the disease, the belts can significantly reduce pain.
The belt should be worn only when necessary. In addition to periods of exacerbation of osteochondrosis, it can be worn if you need to lift or carry heavy objects, or to do household work associated with frequent bending or standing for a long time.
Before buying such a belt, you should always consult with an orthopedist in order to choose the most suitable option.
Orthopedic corset
A tangible effect in osteochondrosis is the wearing of an individually selected or made corset. Best of all, it manifests itself in the initial stages of the disease with rare pain in the lumbosacral region. Correctly selected corset clearly fixes spinal column, unloading it as much as possible, and often contribute to the correction of initial deformities of the intervertebral discs.
The corset is selected depending on the type of osteochondrosis, the size and configuration of the patient's body, as well as the characteristics of the pathology of his spine. It is worn during periods of exacerbation for 2-4 weeks, and in a calm period - to protect the spine from the effects of temporary heavy loads.
Evening rest
After a whole day spent sitting at the workplace, a spasm may occur neck muscles. Muscles begin to put pressure on the vertebrae, blood vessels supplying the brain with blood, and nerves. Therefore, relaxation of the neck is an important process for patients with osteochondrosis. If the voltage is not removed, it may appear headache, sleep worsens, in the morning fatigue and weakness are felt throughout the body, memory and concentration deteriorate.
At home, after work, you need to lie on the floor, put your feet on a chair, and put small rollers under your neck and lower back. This will unload the spine and relieve tension in the neck. The second option is the prevention of neck numbness with the help of a special elastic collar that can be worn both at work and after it.