Mopping and sweeping: Give a twist to your warm-up routine with household chores

Sweeping and mopping are as good as doing squats and duck-walk exercises! Household chores can make excellent home exercises and warm-up exercises too, and Bollywood celebrity and fitness enthusiast Bhagyashree vouches for it!

People often question if doing warm-up exercises is really important before an intense workout? Well, they are. Warm-up exercises activates our whole body by indulging each and every muscle. This makes sure that there is no stiffness in our muscles which in turn prevents us from getting injured during our workout. Doing a warm up routine also engages our core and kicks-in the metabolism which helps in faster digestion and promotes weight loss.

Maine Pyar Kiya actress Bhagyashree, who calls herself a fitness addict, in her recent Instagram post shared a video of her cleaning her house. She says housework, if done right, is a superb way to get moving and wake up those sleeping muscles.

Here are some household chores which can be great warm-up exercises:

1. Mopping instead of duck-walk

Don’t use a standing mop, but instead go Indian style by squatting and then mopping the floor. This will work on the same areas as a duck-walk exercise would do and will also engage your arms as you stretch them to wipe the floor. This will work on your quads and belly fat.

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2. Sweeping instead of squats

As you bend your body and stretch your arms to clean every nook and cranny of your house, you are surprisingly engaging your glute muscles and stretching your body. This helps you work on your glutes just like a couple of squats would do. However, don’t forget to keep that tummy in and your core muscles engaged as you sweep the house.

3. Washing clothes instead of bicep curls

Washing clothes with hands or by using a thapi (pallet) can turn out to be a good replacement of the bicep curls. While you rinse and squeeze the clothes, your whole arm is engaged, especially the muscles in your upper arm. This will help in strengthening your arm muscles.

You will be killing two birds with one stone by helping your mom with the household chores (*wink).