Being an adult and parent, there seems like there is always something you need to get done around the house. There seems to always be dishes in the sink, or a load of laundry that needs to be washed, or the kid’s toys are scattered throughout the living room – but how do you have time to get a nice workout when all these things need to be done?
Well, let us focus on just laundry, and then maybe you can take some of these tips to apply for the other things you see need done around the house. You’re thinking, how is that possible? How can I exercise while doing laundry?
Let us shed some light and show you the way. Check out these 5 ways you can exercise while doing the laundry.
Stepping up those stairs targeting your quads
if you have a two-story home, you can make multiple trips up and down the stairs gathering laundry into the hamper, now granted, this is not the most time effective approach, but still a way to get the blood flowing through those thighs.
If you do not own a home with two floors and want to search available house listings to get the perfect workout at home while doing laundry and don’t yet own a home, skip to tip #2 (and we’ve listed a bonus for you at the end too).
Lunge to those random dirty clothes in each room on the floor
That’s right, lunge! If you’re not familiar with lunges, it’s a single-leg bodyweight focused exercise that works your core and builds lower body strength. Just take a normal step, and then with your back leg, bring your knee to the ground and then to the next step.
It sounds a bit strange when reading it, so here is a quick video tutorial on how to do a forward lunge. Now that you understand how to properly lunge, scan and walk your bedroom, kids’ bedrooms, and go lunge to find all those random clothes throughout the house.
The Frankenstein hamper walk
Once you’ve lunged to gather a full basket of clothes, before heading towards the laundry room, stand up straight and hold the basket directly out in front of you with your arms parallel to the ground like the Frankenstein walk.
This may not seem like exercise, but after extending your arms all the way out for even 30 seconds, you’ll be able to feel your shoulder muscles starting to burn. Make it a habit to extend your arms completely out with the basket to
Squat to load that washer
Rather than bending over at the hips or straining your lower back, squat down to grab those dirty clothes and then back up to load them into the washer. Squats can help tone your hamstrings, gluteus, and quads.
Squats are considered the ‘king of exercises’ – just think of how many squats you can do in a single day with multiple loads of laundry. Here is a video tutorial on how to squat properly.
Use your abdominal muscles when switching clothes from washer to dryer
We can’t forget about those abs! Now, we’re not saying your going to get a washboard stomach by doing this, but you can start to adjust how to move clothes from the washer and into the dryer by flexing those abdominal muscles.
Regardless whether your washer/dryer combo is on top of each other or beside eachother, when moving the clothes over from washer to dryer, make an effort to stretch out your stomach and crunch it, hard..Don’t hurt yourself, but quality is over quantity on this one.
BONUS
Shoulders while folding & hanging up clean clothes from the dryer – Listing this one as a bonus because we might as well take you full circle from gathering the dirty clothes to folding the clean ones.
Regardless whether you fold/hang clothes in the laundry room or in another room, with each piece of clothing, grab it with both hands and take it from waist/chest all the way up and extend your arms above your head. It may look and feel a little funny at first, but by the end of the clean clothes, your shoulders will be burning from defeating gravity 20+ times over the last 10 minutes or so.
See, that wasn’t so hard was it? And just think, if you have multiple loads of laundry to do, you can stay active for hours! Being productive at home and exercising can really go well together, and this proves it even more.
