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  • Category: Miscellaneous

    Is doing household works is equivalent to exercise?

    Many housewives are habitual of doing household works and remain active. At the same time there are many who only contribute in cooking and some other simple works and all other menial and hard works like utensil washing, laundry, and cleaning are given to the maid servant. Some of these women then join a gym to reduce weight or undertake exercises for remaining fit.
    Some people believe that doing household works is equivalent to doing exercises and people (women or men it applies to all) who do that remain active and fit.
    What is your view on this? Is doing household works is equivalent to exercise?
  • #778500
    During my childhood days, I was staying in a village and in those days no electricity in many villages and no phones also. No Gas stoves. Kerosene Stove was the latest in those days. No overhead tanks and taps in the house. No geysers and water was heated on a firewood stove only. People used to fetch water from wells or hand pumps. There were no grinders and mixers in those days. A housewife has to do a lot of exercise to get the food ready for the family members. Many families could not afford a servant maid also. No washing machines or vessel cleaners. They used to carry drinking water from wells. As they are performing many such activities without any machine aids, they used to exhaust a lot and they were not sparing any time for special exercises.
    But these days, the lifestyles are different. All activities are mechanised and a lady is performing many activities using these machines. Many of the husbands are also helping their wives in completing their tasks. That is why these ladies have to go to the Gym or perform exercises separately to be fit.

    drrao
    always confident

  • #778510
    In the earlier generations(why, even till about twenty years ago) members in our families -men, women and children- used to do household jobs as per need and their physical ability. It was common for the men to go for outside works and jobs to earn income and for the women of the family to do the household chores and look after the children and elderly and care for their needs. Men would take care of the routine and special errands outside home and also look after the agriculture or similar works needing more strain and effort. Children used to assist the elders in these matters as per their age and ability.

    Thus every member of the household used to exert themselves and spend their energy on various works and errands and involving use of their various muscles, joints and bones. This involved movement and exertion of all related muscles and helped breathing and blood circulation . It made them generate heat and perspire. After all this they used t have proper hunger , enabling them to eat homegrown or local grown food which was organic and healthy. Those were the days when there were nil or very less mechanical or automatic home appliances and aids.

    Thus their routine activities were akin to good exercises and added with healthy organic food thy were able to keep normal health by engaging in day to day manual activities. In case of any illnesses they had native medicines mostly available from kitchen or from the front yard and backyard of their homes.

  • #778511
    I have a belief that some of the household jobs are definitely like an exercise though all jobs cannot be categorised like that. Sweeping and mopping are some good examples but washing clothes in a fully automatic washing machine cannot be said equal to exercise.
    As other members have already mentioned in details our lifestyles are totally changed and due to easy availability of maids we have almost forgotten to do the household jobs ourselves.
    If a person attends to some difficult household jobs he might not need a gym session to reduce his belly.
    I remember my grandmother did all the jobs living in her village house alone till the age of about 80 and agreed to move to us in town only when she fell ill and became bedridden. She kept a very good health and looked slim and trim.
    Only precaution we have to take is avoid some jobs like lifting water filled buckets and other such heavy items in the house because that could cause some sprain bringing immobility to us.

    Knowledge is power.

  • #778512
    Doing household jobs like sweeping floors, spreading water and finally cleaning the same is a kind of exercise. More the spacious the house, the more effort is needed to clean the same. Hence in that way, the activity multiples and the same activity can be defined as equivalent to exercise.
    In case, the maid is irregular in attending her job, we need some extra job to be done. Suppose I want to take up the job of utensil - cleaning. This will take time at least an hour to complete the job and the same might be treated as an exercise. However, my wife does not treat this activity as exercise. I classify the same as exercise.

  • #778518
    I want to add one interesting thing to this discussion. In our area there are many senior citizens who are retirees and we all generally go for morning walks in the nearby park and sometimes we all sit together and have a small chit-chat to share various matters with each other. It is a friendly atmosphere and we all enjoy it and look for the next day morning.
    One day while talking just like that one of our friends advised that in our houses if we want a glass of water then we should not order for it. Instead we should go to kitchen and take it ourselves. If we do that 2-3 times a day it is almost like a small exercise. He also told that there are so many small tasks for which we order other people in our house and they of course do it but as far as possible we should do thise things ourselves because it gives us an opportunity to move our body from time to time which is beneficial at this age.
    Some other supported the idea and told that it also inculcates in us a type of independence and ability to survive when we are alone.
    The point is that doing some household jobs is not only in the nature of exercises but also brings a confidence in us that yes, we can also do it.

    Knowledge is power.

  • #778520
    Doing household work is definitely good physical exercise. Indian ladies do household work regularly. As a result, the number of heart attacks is lower among Indian ladies compared to Indian males. Furthermore, the instances of obesity among Indian ladies are also very low.

    In this connection, there is an interesting theory. In earlier days, mothers/elderly ladies of pregnant women insisted the pregnant ladies to mop the floors of the entire house everyday. They thought that mopping floors regularly would help normal delivery. My mother firmly believed this theory.

    (a) Those who have forgotten Noakhali, how can they protest Sandeshkhali?
    (b) Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it. ---------- Salvador Dali

  • #778528
    Yes, I believe that doing household work is equivalent to exercise. I remember that when my wife was pregnant, her gynaecologist suggested my wife to do household work after two or three months. She suggested that this would help at the time of delivery
    Similarly, many activities at home are also good exercise. But if you are advised by your physiotherapist to do some exercise then you have to do that one. There is no replacement for such exercises.

    Honesty is the best policy.

  • #778529
    What Partha mentioned was true. I know pregnant ladies fetching water from open wells. I know pregnant ladies grooming the floor. Those days there were no C-section deliveries. The majority of deliveries are normal deliveries only. My mother delivered 10 times. All the 10 deliveries are normal only. We have two sons. Both the deliveries of a wife are normal only.
    My mother travelled from our native place to my maternal grandfather's village after completing 9 months and she delivered on the day of the journey itself two hours after reaching that village. It is true that if pregnant ladies have some physical exercise chances of normal delivery are high,
    Small exercise like carrying a bucket of water from the well to the bathroom, having a bath with a bucket and mug, and walking within the house at least for 5 minutes every 2 or 3 hours may be good exercise.

    drrao
    always confident

  • #778546
    Members have expressed almost similar opinions in this matter that doing household work is definitely a sort of exercise only.
    I strongly believe in that doctrine and being a housewife do not escape from various types of activities. I would also say that all the members of the family should consider doing some household jobs as per their schedule and availability of time and it will not only help them but also help the ladies in the house who are often loaded with much household works.
    As also mentioned by members we all should take care in not handling heavy weights like bucket full of water and such things because that is not an exercise and rather it could create sprain in the body making us immobile for some days.

    Thoughts exchanged is knowledge gained.

  • #778553
    Household works are designed in order to an exercise of our daily routine. We ourselves changed the pattern designed so by commenting as old pattern and polluted our daily routine. Besides that we are spending money for the same old pattern with a polished way.
    In those days we used to clean our teeth with the ash mixed with neem stick, salt and camphor etc., Later it was get commented as unhygienic and tooth paste introduced. Now the same tooth paste asks us whether it contains neem ,salt and coal.
    In those days our bedrolls, pillows were kept on the top portion of the room by plotting two long bamboo/casuarina sticks. Every morning we roll our bed from 'floor' (this makes us to bend first), folding the bed spreads (this makes our hands stretch on both sides), keeping all pillows and bedspreads on the top (this makes us to raise our hands) - here we did three types of exercises.

    Then for cleaning teeth, washing etc we used to go to the pond or river at the end of our street - this makes us to
    walk and thereby tempts us to go toilet.

    As for as ladies, they hold the bucketful of water and splash the water on the entrance by adding turmeric and salt _this makes them the wave their hands in all sides and turmeric and salt used as hygiene - protecting our house members)
    Then putting rangoli by bending their body and using their fingers invariably (which is now used in foreign countries as a method for removing numbness in fingers)
    Bringing water from pond or common well is an exercise obviously.
    Cutting vegetables creates the art mentality in the mind (my father to cut cabbage similar to vermicelli) - cooking makes the ladies to have a great concentration and mending up the mind into oneness. - Their entire mind was in preparing different food according to the interest of other house members rather than for herself.

    Again in night they spread beds for children and other house members - another exercise.

    What else exercise we need more that of these?

  • #778564
    This post made me to go back to the pages when my wife visited a Gastro-enterologist to get checked about her repeated Gastric problem 12 years ago. The Doctor conducted an Endoscopy test and suggested medicines for three months. He asked her whether she goes for a regular exercise like morning or evening walks and other things. She spontaneously replied 'yes' and I was taken aback. Doctor asked how much time did she spend daily for walk, then she replied in detail just the content of the post that she does the ' house hold work' like cleaning utensils, dropping children to the school bus and attending to the kitchen work etc., She innocently asked the Doctor whether it was not more than an Exercise.

    Doctor smiled and replied nothing would be more equal to a morning walk, atleast for 40 minutes and household work, though strain-some can't compared to an exercise. Household work would make you more active, he added.
    This what exactly happened and I am leaving it to your choice!

    Regards,
    Jagdish

  • #779449
    In fact, anything that wastes our energy through cooking can be called exercise. Besides, you do it regularly and you get tired. Perhaps this can be considered a mini workout, depending on what kind of housework you exclude.


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