Many people are convinced they have an automatic, built-in workout regimen, since they do housework every day. But long before this silly recommendation that household chores can replace or even supplement structured exercise, people were already doing housework! How come now, suddenly, housework is touted as effective exercise? This is nothing more than promotional hype.
Excess weight, diabetes, heart disease, back problems, weak joints and untoned muscles occur just as much in people who perform domestic duties for a living or do a lot of their own housework, as in people with desk jobs or people who have maids. Their life expectancy isn’t any longer, either.
A trendy recommendation is that “30 minutes a day of moderate activity, such as cleaning your house,” will give rise to a fitter body. If you’re already keeping the house tidy, you’d have to invent 30 more minutes a day of housework to create a variable. And even then, a wet rag or mop hardly substitutes for a pair of 10-pound dumbbells.
Chasing after the kids all day doesn’t count, either
In order for aerobic activity to produce a training effect at a moderate intensity, it must be sustained for literally 20 minutes minimum. Who chases a 3-year-old for literally 20 minutes nonstop? And even if the “chase” persisted for 20 nonstop minutes, remember, only the 3-year-old is running. To keep pace with the fastest 3-year-old, an adult need only merely walk at a medium or even casual pace.
Additionally, in order for this 20-minute requirement to be effective, it must be done 3-5 times a week, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, as well as the American Council on Exercise.
Now, if you find yourself breathless after following your runaway toddler all over the house, this clearly indicates it’s time to commit yourself to cardio classes or rigorous walking several times a week. A preschooler should not “poop out” an adult.
Hopping out of a chair to scramble after your 2-year-old who’s heading toward the hot stove, isn’t exercise; it’s 20 seconds of parenting. Otherwise, if “chasing after the kids all day” truly results in physical fitness, then it’s logical to conclude that mothers in poor condition who have young children, must be neglecting their kids, and that women with five young kids are in better shape than women with only two!
That common saying, “Any activity is better than no activity,” does not apply to able-bodied people. “No activity” means sleeping 23 hours a day. This line of reasoning is like saying that a fourth-grade education must be good enough, because it’s better than no education. Do not be fooled by popular mottos.
Calorie charts mean little.
Certainly, you’ve seen those charts listing calories burned for an hour of various household tasks. But some of the chores typically listed don’t take even half an hour to complete. Besides, once again, where’s the variable? These tasks have always been a part of your life. Just because you now know the calorie burn-offs for each one, are you going to suddenly start losing weight or getting fit? Plus, the value of activity, as far as benefiting the body, can’t always be determined based on calories expended. Yoga is a good example of this; the calorie-burn is small, but the benefits are substantial.
Housework can harm the body.
One benefit of an exercise program is to enhance, or restore, proper biomechanics in the body. This includes improved spinal alignment. Housework creates the opposite effect. Think of how distorted your spinal column becomes when you’re on all fours, scrubbing the baseboards.
While working out at a gym, it’s typical to pay close attention to proper form: keeping the back straight, for instance, Furthermore, most resistance apparatus are designed for bilateral exertion, meaning that both sides of the body work simultaneously. Housework is unilateral; one side of the body does more work than the other.
Think about it: When mowing the lawn, carrying out the garbage or vacuuming the staircase, how often do you pay attention to form? How about your posture? Does your dominant arm do most of the work? Is your body symmetrically positioned? Or is it lopsided while doing chores? And check out the posture of women while they are holding a baby in one arm!
If anything, people who engage in a lot of housework or childcare need structured, organized exercise routines more than ever, to help “reset” their skewered postures. Cleaning around the house and lifting small kids all day are highly nonsystematic, causing back and shoulder problems for many people.
Housework can be stressful, especially when a person is cleaning furiously to prepare for guests. “Chasing after the kids” can also be very taxing emotionally. How can such activities possibly contribute to health?
Another flaw with the idea that housework promotes physical fitness is that progressive resistance is absent in domestic activities. Loads of laundry do not get heavier. The rooms that you mop or sweep do not get bigger. Dishes and rags do not increase in weight. Because everything remains the same, no changes in your body occur. Equipment at a gym can be adjusted for speed and resistance.
A balanced, harmonious exercise regimen, in which the spine is in neutral position during exertion, over time will result in numerous training effects such as denser bones and stronger connective tissue, more efficient cardio output and better-looking muscles.
By the way, you may have heard about a recent study that showed that housework lowers blood pressure. Well, so does petting a dog or listening to soothing music. We cannot reinvent the definition of exercise for our own convenience.
By Lorra Garrick, BDO Staff Writer