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Spring Cleaning Workout: Tidy Up and Get a Workout All at Once!

Written by Lisa Jillanza

It's that time of year again! The sun is starting to shine,.and shedding light on your dirty house. Spring cleaning season is in full swing. Sure, you would be hard-pressed to find a woman or a man who says that they actually enjoy the thoughts of spring cleaning. But, if you just take into consideration how many calories are burned while you are doing your spring cleaning, then you may be a little more excited when spring rolls around this year.

As with any physical activity, cleaning up around the house and garden can actually burn calories as well as stretch and tone muscles. Some sort of moderate activity for at least 30 minutes a day can bring tremendous health benefits, even if it's just using a little elbow grease around the house.

However, when it comes to losing weigh while cleaning, intensity and speed are vital so here are some tips from WebMD for making your next cleaning session a workout session:

Listen to fast music in order to pick up speed and enjoy yourself while you're at it.

Tighten your abs during chores to make it more of a workout, plus it prevents you from slouching.

Strive for large up and down movements like when cleaning the shower door. Make big pronounced movements and move those arms!

Carry heavy baskets of laundry up and down some stairs to get your heart pumping.

Climb on a stepladder to reach high dusty spots, keep it up and it's almost like being in a step class.

Do lunges while vacuuming, just remember to keep toes pointed ahead and to not bend your knees further than 90 degrees. You'll feel these burning your thighs in no time.

The actual amount of calories burned while cleaning will depend on your weight, gender and age, but there calculators that you can find online (FitDay or NutriStrategy) that will help you to calculate your actual calories burned. But here's a general idea of how many calories you can burn by just taking care of a few things around the house.

Gardening: 226 calories

Window washing: 226 calories

Scrubbing floors (on hands and knees): 291 calories

Laundry, ironing: 84 calories

Sewing repairs: 36 calories

Dusting: 97 calories

Scrubbing toilets, tub: 246 calories

Vacuuming: 317 calories

Cleaning gutters: 258 calories

Moving furniture, household items: 387 calories

Painting, papering, plastering: 317 calories

Sweeping: 194 calories

Mopping: 153 calories

Mowing the lawn: 148 calories

Washing dishes: 77 calories

So dust off your mops, break out the cleaner and begin to sweat off the weight!

Editor's Note: The calories burned estimates listed here are based on one hour of cleaning for a 155 pound woman.