Hip Hop Housework

After a hard day at the office or school, the last thing on every parent’s mind is housework. However, if done correctly, Hip Hop Housework can be quite a workout. This article provides some activities that both child and parent can do to make exercise fun and get the house clean at the same time.

It is essential that you start with a general warm up. Music can make the workout more fun and useful. A checklist is added to the end of the article and a completed checklist can be given for a parent/child agreed-upon prize.

Gardening
Digging gives your arms and legs a workout. It also develops muscles in the shoulders, arms, and biceps.

Waxing the Floor
Extend your torso and exaggerate circular arm movements.

Mowing the Lawn
Mow the lawn and walk fast to keep your heart rate up by making the activity aerobic.

Rake and Twist
This movement works whether you are raking leaves or sweeping the floor. The key is to take long, steady strokes while turning at the hips and raking or sweeping toward your body. Done this way, your arms do not have to do all the work. Make sure you do this exercise by sweeping both from left to right and from right to left.

Unload and Lift
Daily dishes are a great opportunity to stretch side and back muscles. As you take dishes out of the dishwasher, turn your body from side to side, allowing your hips and torso to twist while you reach to put the clean dishes away on high and low shelves. To make the most of this stretching exercise put the dishes and silverware away one at a time. Remember, the further the distance between your dishwasher and your cupboards and drawers, the more exercise you receive from this activity.

Washing the Windows
Concentrate on up and down movements using the back and shoulder muscles.

Laundry Toss
It is all in the spin of your hips! Turn the mundane task of laundry into exercise for your abdominal, lower back, and hip muscles. Stand about 10 to 15 feet away from the washing machine. Hold the dirty laundry basket about waist height on your left side with the washing machine on your right. Pick up pieces of the dirty, dry laundry and, while turning at the hips, pitch the laundry into the open washer. After you have mastered this, move on to pitching wet laundry (which is heavier) from the washer into the dryer.

Laundry
Use your hamstrings and quads and do squats and lunges while folding and putting laundry away in drawers. Separate the piles of laundry and make frequent trips up and down the stairs.

Cleaning and Washing the Floors and Countertops
As you clean floors and countertops, do arms circles clockwise and counterclockwise. This is a great way to build up the chest,
shoulder, and arms.

Garbage and Grocery Resistance
Take out the garbage and bring in the groceries quickly, doing bicep curls and/or shoulder shrugs as you bring them into the house.

Organizing Fun!
Reorganizing your closet is a great way to make space and use your arm, shoulder, and lattisimus dorsi muscles.

Stair Climbing
Stairs have more potential than just as an aerobic activity. They are great to use for assisted pushups and triceps dips. For an extra challenge, add a chair and try to have all the weight balanced in the triceps.

Perfect Picture Posture
Remember to keep your back straight and not hunch over as you are cleaning the sink, countertops or floors.

Exercise with housework can be done at any time of the day and is great to break up the monotonous habit of simply cleaning. Family bonding and fun will happen when the whole family works and exercises together. Housework can help relieve stress by completing a task and burning calories.

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Christina Chapan

Christina Lee Steele Chapan is a certified personal trainer with four certifications from ISSA ACE, AFAA and SCW. She specializes with fitness for children and those adults and children with special needs. In addition to attaining her certifications, she is also a certified elementary and special education school teacher with a B.S. in Elementary Education, a minor in Biblical Studies from North Central University, an endorsement in Special Education, and an M.A. in Curriculum and Development from Governors State University. Her passion is for training the future of tomorrow. She is available for training, speaking and writing.

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