only if my music's blasting.

I actually read about a study that told hotel housekeepers that what they were doing as their jobs was "exercise" (vs. a control group that wasn't told this). The housekeepers that had been told they were exercising actually lost weight, whereas the control group didn't. If you think it is exercise, then you treat it as such, and then it is!

Eek, the title of the article should be Exercise, not Excercise.

Ooops! Thanks Cbina - the title's been corrected.

Love the photo!

Well, bringing home take out, or nuking pre-prepped food from the grocery store, using a dishwasher, popping things in the washing machine, having the roomba vacuum for us . . . so we can sit on the sofa and watch TV . . . has certainly not helped our national waistline. The more energy/electricity our household appliances (and cars!) are using on a daily basis, the less we are. Its a simple physics equation. We take the energy out of the ground (oil) and store it in our bodies (fat). So busying ourselves around the house, and doing a bit more for ourselves, certainly helps tip the scale back a bit.

With you on that observation, scrispin. Never mind the waistline... the back and joints go too.

Hilarious photo.

Love, love the photo!

I do wish my lifestyle had more real, physical work incorporated into it, like farmers used to have for example. That way I wouldn't have to put up with the misery of "exercise" for its own sake. It'd just happen.

Stuff like vacuuming, scrubbing, dragging large baskets of laundry, and gardening sure can be a workout though! But half of us hire people to clean our homes now anyways, and then we join a gym. Ha.

I am on Weight Watchers and housework is included as exercise. Activity is good - it may not be racquetball or weight lifting or tennis, but a good hour or two of housecleaning burns a lot of calories.

I agree! I get sweaty when I do my weekly deep clean. It's definitely my exercise for the weekend. That & gardening!

Y'know the invention of the TV remote stopped us walking approx. 13 miles a year???

Sometimes I will do forward lunges as I push the vaccum around the house! Also, pulling weeds always makes my legs and back sore.

I'd say keeping anything clean in Pittsburgh in 1936 was a full time job and definitely counted as exercise. This was the city that the amount of particulate matter in the air resulted in the street lights being left on night and day for the duration of WWII.

I read an article about this just last night! It was comparing jobs that people usually consider to be "high exercise" (bicycle couriers, for example) and guess what the top was? Housekeepers. Yup. The variety of positions and movements required to really scrub a house exercise more muscles than being a bicycle courier, a parcel delivery man, etc... according to the exercise expert.

http://www.asylum.com/2010/05/12/best-jobs-for-fitness-healthy-exercise/

And I want the skirt in the picture!

I'm having visions of The Stepford Wives...

I wonder if my grandmother (born 1914) had read this article or one like it. My dad told me that to keep in shape, she would drop a box of dress-making pins on the floor and then use an exaggerated bending over motion to pick up the pins, one at a time.

Yes I also think it is hilarious that so many people hire cleaning ladies and get gym memberships! Think how much $$$ you would save if you just did cleaning your %@# self!

I remember my grandma's old vacuum- the thing had to weigh about 60 pounds. It was definitely a workout!

If you're really movin' cleaning is not a bad form of exercise. When I cleaned houses in college I did floors by hand....1000sq ft of scrubbing on your hands and knees will work up a sweat.

@lilbetty --

That reminds me of a story:

When my mother was pregnant with me and we were close to two weeks after my "due date", the Dr told my Mother to go home and scrub her kitchen floor...
...being the good little housewife, she replied "But I just mopped a couple days ago - My floors are CLEAN!"

But she did as she was told: She went home that afternoon, got on her hands and knees and scrubbed that kitchen floor -
- Sure enough, she went into labor that night!

That photo is too great. And so is bepsf's story.

I have recently lost muscle in my arms and I know why: I used to carry my wet laundry up four flights of stairs to hang out on my balcony, and now I live in a one-story house.

I'm inspired to do some spring cleaning.

I was thinking about this yesterday...When I was cleaning I was treating as exercise, through out my whole day actually. I've been looking crazy and doing it since I was in high school !

Instead of "going to the gym" for 40 mins a day or whatever, just incorporate the same movements in your daily routine.

For example : When brushing your teeth, do squats. When putting away laundry do lunges. Try taking two steps up the stairs at a time instead of one. The whole time while dusting, keep your abs flexed etc. etc.

My husband thinks I looks hilarious doing all this (because I do!) But oh well, it keeps me in shape and I have created great habits :)

This is why I got a job as a house cleaner this summer.

This reminds me of Shovelglove, a quirky form of exercise modeled after coal shoveling. That article describes about the same "exercise" motions, except from sweeping!

I dont think its silly at all. As a 30 week pregnant stay at home mom I do about 3 hours a day of cleaning! On my hands and knees scrubbing floors, laundry, dusting and picking up baby toys all day is really really exausting! Its definitely a good workout!

Haven't any of you seen those old horribly-dubbed kung-fu movies? There's a famous one called The 36th Chamber of Shaolin where the hero, a monk, is put to work in the kitchen instead of learning kungfu with the other students. It turns out that all the motions he used to work and cook were all kung fu movement, and of course he was better than the other students, blah blah blah. So, housework is, like, the oldest workout in the book!

Wax on, wax off, Daniel-san!