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10 Ways to be Active Inside the Home

  1. Do the housework yourself instead of hiring someone to do it. Learn how not to be efficient in your movements. Add as many steps as possible into your housework.
  2. Put more effort into doing your household chores. Exaggerate your movements while cleaning the house, such as stretching to reach top shelves, stretching while vacuuming or vigorously mopping.
  3. Make extra trips up and down the basement stairs to do laundry or take the recycling or other things to the basement. Take one thing at a time.
  4. Squat completely down to the ground to pick items off the floor. Or squat down two or three times before you actually pick up the items.
  5. Stand up while talking on the telephone. Better yet, walk around the house while talking. You burn more calories sitting than lying down, more calories standing than sitting and more calories walking around than standing.
  6. Cut back on the number of telephone extensions in your home, and don’t sit with the cordless phone right next to you. Get up and move to answer the phone.
  7. Cut back on the number of hours that you watch television or sit at the computer. Get up and walk around regularly. Instead of asking a family member to bring something to you, get it yourself.
  8. Get off the couch during commercials breaks and walk around the house. Or do some stretching or strengthening exercises.
  9. When working on the computer, tighten and relax your muscles. Extend your legs, raise and lower your calves and contract your abdominal muscles.
  10. Practice good posture while sitting at the computer or at your desk. You expend more energy with good posture than with slouching.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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