Workout Techniques for Busy People 2
So how do you work out when you are trying to juggle home, school, work and coffee with the girls? It may take some rescheduling of your activities, but the great news is you can work out effectively even when you are cleaning the house. It is all about technique, but you can incorporate lots of exercise into your daily housework.
Working Out and House Work: A Mean Team
Housework actually burns a lot of calories making it great for working out. An hour of floor washing or vacuuming is more effective than running on a treadmill for an hour. This is because when doing housework you are engaging all of your muscles, particularly the larger muscles in your chest, abdomen, buttocks and thighs. Of course, you are also giving your arms and lower legs a great work out at the same time.
There are other ways you can turn even dusting or washing the dishes into a great fat burning exercise and sculpt your body at the same time. Look at these highly effective, yet fun workouts for busy mums.
1. Wash the Windows and Build the Biceps
With a sponge in each hand, stand with your legs slightly apart, extend your arms in front of you, and move the sponge over the windows in circular movements. Gradually bring your arms in closer to the side of your body. Change direction to clean the windows up and down.
Add a stretch by moving from the top of the window to the bottom and to add some cardio to it, try and do at least 4 minutes of continuous cleaning in each of the mentioned activities. Add some music to increase the fun.
2. Hanging Out the Washing Pilates
If you love Pilates, you can turn hanging out the washing into a super Pilates session combined with some stretching. Keep the basket low on the ground and remember good posture by bending your knees when you move to pick up the next item to hang on the line, but the twist with this exercise is that instead of just bending your knees squat into a Pilate and pick up the item while in the Pilate and then move into a stretch by keeping the clothes line a little higher than you intend it to be. This creates a great Pilate and then a stretch. Don't forget to inhale and exhale as you peg out each item.
3. Pram Push
If you have a baby or a young child, pushing them in a pusher up a steep hill is the one of the best workouts for your body.
Remember, it is not a stroll in the park we mean, but a full on fast pace walk up the hill. This is a great cardio workout combined with resistance and strength training and highly successful as a means of losing weight and getting fit after your baby is born.