Household chores like vacuuming, mopping, scrubbing, gardening, and even washing the car are great exercises because they involve movement, lifting, and bending, working your muscles and boosting your heart rate for cardio and strength training. Activities like running up and down stairs, dusting, and making beds offer aerobic benefits, while vigorous scrubbing or heavy yard work provides a more intense workout, engaging core, legs, and arms.
Study finds they're just as effective as going to the gym
Researchers discovered that people enjoyed the same health benefits whether going to the gym, walking to work or doing household chores.
The household chores that burn the most calories
The biggest burning household chore is cleaning your house or flat, which equates to 3,976 calories a month (you'd need to do 3,340 burpees to burn that!). In second place is cooking, at 2,856 calories a month, and mopping in third place, at 2,724 calories a month.
11 Ways To Turn Household Chores Into A Workout
Tips on how to get the best cardio workout at home
Having the option to, and then freely choosing more physical activities in your day may be the greatest benefit of improved fitness. Yes, 20 minutes of exercise is better than nothing. Any and every bout of physical activity/exercise contributes to a fitter, healthier - and, very likely, happier - you!
"Human evolution led to five basic movements, which encompass nearly all of our everyday motions." Meaning your workout needs just five exercises, one from each of these categories: push (pressing away from you), pull (tugging toward you), hip-hinge (bending from the middle), squat (flexing at the knee), and plank ( ...
Cleaning your house can count as exercise, according to Molly Maid. Here's what you need to know: Household chores like vacuuming, mopping, and scrubbing burn calories and boost heart rate. Regular cleaning helps improve flexibility and strength.
Ready, set, go!
Here are some ideas:
You will do each exercise once in a group of 4 sets (2 minutes per exercise) with a 20 second rest between exercises.
Engaging in activities like gardening, mopping, and cleaning could help reduce belly fat effectively. These chores focused on various muscle groups, contributing to fitness and preventing health risks such as heart attack, stroke, and high cholesterol.
Everyone loves eating a home-cooked meal, but if you hit the sofa once it's time to do the dishes, you'll miss a great workout. 30 minutes of washing dishes by hand and cleaning up the kitchen with moderate intensity gets rid of 187 calories if you weigh 125 pounds and 300 calories if you weigh 200 pounds.
The 20-minute cleaning rule (also known as the 20/10 rule) is a simple, time-boxed method to tackle household chores by cleaning with focused intensity for 20 minutes and then taking a 10-minute break, repeating as needed to prevent burnout and keep messes from piling up. It breaks large tasks into manageable sprints, making cleaning less overwhelming by focusing on progress over perfection through short, frequent sessions rather than marathon cleaning days, often tied to the FlyLady system or similar organizing principles.
Vacuuming the house and mopping the floors
Not only does vacuuming and mopping get your heart rate up, but it helps strengthen your arm muscles with the pushing/pulling motion and with lifting objects that you move out of the way. You can even work your core and abs if you tighten them while cleaning.
The 3-3-3 rule in exercise offers two popular, simple workout structures: either 3 workouts per week, focusing on 3 key movements, with 3 sets each, for strength training; or a weekly split of 3 days strength training, 3 days cardio, and 3 days rest/active recovery, aiming for balanced fitness without overwhelm, ideal for beginners seeking structure. Both versions emphasize consistency and manageable volume for sustainable results.
The "5 5 5 30 rule" is a popular, simple morning workout routine popularized by Sahil Bloom, involving 5 push-ups, 5 squats, 5 lunges (per leg), and a 30-second plank done immediately after waking up to build energy, focus, and consistency by kickstarting metabolism and getting blood flowing with minimal time and no equipment. It's designed to overcome inertia, boost physical and mental readiness for the day, and serve as a foundation for better habits, making it ideal for beginners or those needing a quick start.
The "4 8 12 rule" isn't one single concept but refers to different fitness principles, most commonly a progressive overload strategy (4 sets, then 8, then 12 sets over weeks for muscle growth) or a hypertrophy rep range (4 sets of 8-12 reps), though it can also refer to a Virginia Satir idea about hugs (4 for survival, 8 for maintenance, 12 for growth) or a warm-up method (12 reps, then 8, then 4). In weightlifting, it typically means training in the 8-12 rep range for muscle growth or structuring workouts with increasing volume (sets) over time.
The 333 walking method, also known as Japanese Interval Walking Training (IWT), is a simple yet effective workout alternating 3 minutes of slow walking with 3 minutes of brisk (fast) walking, repeated several times (often 5 times for 30 mins), to boost cardiovascular fitness, strength, and metabolism without high impact, improving heart health, muscle tone, and glucose control. It's a low-impact, time-efficient routine developed by Japanese researchers for improving fitness and preventing lifestyle diseases, ideal for all ages.
But getting on with chores at home can burn up to 315 calories an hour, keep us in shape and help improve flexibility too. Activities like sweeping, mopping and vacuuming will all help to stretch and tone the muscles in our arms and legs.
If you can, the experts recommend trying to do your walking or running outdoors for the most well-rounded and mental health-boosting workout. But if you can't be outside for whatever reason, that's OK. Know that you're still getting major health benefits from your physical activity — indoors or outdoors, Mansour says.
The principle behind this type of training is as simple as it gets: Perform five sets with your working weight of five reps of each exercise. That means, first, do some warm-up sets, making your way up to your working weight, and then throughout the 5 sets, do 5 reps at that working weight.
Exercises. Adults over 40 should weight train at least twice a week to improve strength. Williams emphasizes the importance of doing weightlifting in any form, such as spending 30 minutes at the gym using dumbbells for arms and legs or a 45-minute strength training class.
Jumping rope is a fantastic way to burn calories fast. In fact, you'll burn more of them by jumping rope than walking on a treadmill for the same amount of time. You'll also work multiple muscle groups, from your core to your upper and lower body. Jumping rope can also improve your coordination.