I grew up in the countryside, where there was always physical work to do: heaving muck in the stables, carrying hay bales, weeding the vegetable garden. My sisters and I admired my mother’s constant toiling, while we lay on the grass, turning the pages of novels. When I moved to the city and discovered that people paid money to run on the spot or pretend to push things uphill, I could not get into the spirit of labouring for its own sake. Now I’m in my early 50s, I know I should go to the gym more but, really, who’s got the time?
The late neurosurgeon David Servan-Schreiber once wrote about the transformative effect of a sense of purpose. He described a study in which one group of hotel cleaners were told that their everyday tasks would burn enough calories to help them lose weight. The other group were told to get on with their work. At the end of a week, the first group had put greater effort into their work and had lost weight, unlike the others. The idea is now referred to as non-exercise physical activity, or Nepa. You can improve your fitness levels and burn calories just by doing the stuff you always do around the house – but with vigour.
In one study for the British Journal of Sports Medicine, older people who were active around the home – mowing the lawn, washing the car – stayed healthier longer, whether or not they did “proper’ exercise such as swimming or working out. I tested it out and discovered, like the cleaners in Servan-Schreiber’s study, that just knowing my efforts were counting for something gave me a surprising incentive.
Clare’s top five fitness chores
1 Housework
Running upstairs and hanging up the washing at a brisk pace leaves me slightly out of breath – lift a basket of wet towels, bend, stretch, repeat. Buffing the dining room table for an hour will work arm muscles in an average burn of 300 calories. Distributing socks for four people and looking for my glasses involves climbing 24 stairs, which burns around 100 calories, twice that if I jog them.
Time taken 1hr 30 mins
Heart rate 120bpm
Stairs climbed 240
Total calories burned 463
2 Walking the dog
If you want to get fit, and you have a dog, it’s simple: you run. Unless it’s a dog that has standoffs with bigger dogs that last ages. Nepa has the answer. Brisk walking with several fast bursts burns calories. Bending to pick up a stick and throwing it adds to your workout, not to mention the minutes spent wrestling it from the dog’s foam-flecked jaws.
Time taken 36 mins
Fat burn 34 mins
Steps taken 3,174
Total calories burned 163 (equivalent to two chocolate biscuits)
3 Gardening
The hedge in front of our house is so overgrown and unruly that instead of giving cab drivers our number, we tell them to look for the messy house. Now the chore that I’ve been putting off for years presents itself as the perfect calorie-burning opportunity. I cut back the worst of it in what the Fitbit gratifyingly recognised as 17 minutes of sport. Gardening – thrusting a fork into the ground, pulling weeds – clocks up even more.
Time taken 1hr 15 mins
Heart rate 160bpm
Steps taken 2,100
Total calories burned 430
4 Cycling to work
Even though my cycle commute is a jammy 15 minutes on back roads, I have to admit my usual route is designed to minimise effort. I have selected a road leading to the office that takes me down a long, gentle gradient. On my way back, I do one steep climb, and then I can pretty much drift downhill the rest of the way. I adjust the route, taking me up my hill instead of around it, come back over it on the way home, and burn far more calories.
Commute 17 minutes
Heart rate 108bpm
Fat burn 13 mins
Total calories burned 82
5 Fidgeting
Since most of my day is spent sitting, I am comforted to learn that non-exercise activity thermogenesis (Neat) means I can burn calories even in the office. Raising your heels while you sit at your desk will work out your lower leg muscles. That long walk to the loo is a chance to increase your step count. If you don’t care whether your colleagues like you, always insist you have meetings standing up.
Office day 9 hours
Heart rate 72bpm
Steps taken 5,000
Total calories burned 170
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