Housework is considered what kind of activity

But with government health bodies encouraging people to move around, eat and drink healthy and get regular exercise to build or boost immunity to battle such a dangerous disease, how does one go about it? Working out during lockdown is greatly encouraged, by making some space within the confines of your own home and getting in bodyweight exercises and other movements.

But those not predisposed to working out in a gym or used to the intense physical movements that require correct form and technique, can always consider spending time doing household chores.

Normally our busy schedules what with long hours in the office coupled with busy social lives do not leave much room for a daily dose of exercise.

Doing housework can be one effective way to get some kind of physical activity during the course of a day. This is especially true during a lockdown, or while you are avoiding crowded public spaces: housework can offer a way to get some exercise while checking those chores off your list. While some may dismiss them outright as boring and mundane activities, housework can be strenuous as well as tiring - as with formal exercise, how much you do and how many calories you burn depends on your individual fitness level.

Doctors and experts now believe that relatively mild physical activity like housework can be beneficial towards improving your fitness levels, and if you can add minutes of traditional workout to your housework schedule, it can make it doubly effective. It is also estimated that people are more likely to perform daily household chores than turn up to the gym on most days of the week, making it a more binding commitment towards fitness.

Housework can be surprisingly demanding on the body. Back to All Blog Posts. By Cori Cameron. Lower Calorie Burn — Along with the first point of activity level, there is a tendency for us to overestimate the number of calories that are burned while doing housework.

Unfortunately, while calories are burned, it is not nearly enough to make up for calories that would be burned during more traditional exercise. For example, 30 minutes of vacuuming burns calories, whereas 30 minutes of cycling burns about calories. Ready To Get Started? Richard Cotton, an exercise physiologist and national director of certification at the American College of Sports Medicine, agreed that people need to incorporate a broad range of physical activity into their exercise routine.

However, Cotton said that it would be hard to lose weight just by doing housework. You'll get the most reward for your time if you do more traditional physical activities, he said. For instance, 30 minutes of vacuuming or sweeping floors burns about calories, while 30 minutes of vigorous cycling on a stationary bike burns calories, according to the Compendium of Physical Activities Tracking Guide, which lists the calories burned during many different types of physical activity.

But some housework does give you a bit of a workout. For instance, 30 minutes of mowing the lawn with a hand mower burns calories, close to what you would burn in 30 minutes of combined jogging and walking.

Follow Rachael Rettner RachaelRettner. Original article on LiveScience.