How to exercise at home

How many times a day do you go up and down the stairs? Bring the washing down, carry the ironing up, nip up to the loo, remember what it was you went upstairs for in the first place…

Take the opportunity to burn some calories just going about your normal routine, but do it in half the time; instead of just walking up them, try taking the stairs two at a time. Another alternative is to do each journey twice (deliberately).

It will only add a minute or two to the job you were doing, but climbing and coming down 30 stairs instead of 15 will make a big difference, particularly if you do that each time you need to use the stairs. You might be leaving yourself open to jokes about your memory, but there's a reason that step aerobics are popular!
 

Make the most of the chores! Rather than just vacuuming one room at a time, set aside half an hour and get yourself on a mission to do the whole house.

Even the modern, lightweight vacuum cleaners do require a bit of effort to push around (we’re not including the robotic ones that do it themselves), so choose some of your favourite tunes, turn up the volume over the sound of the hoover and go for it.

Go backwards and forwards, delve right into the corners and, if you can sing along with the music, then so much the better!
 

Retail therapy might get the heart racing, but in the wrong way. Many of us now use internet shopping to make our busy lives a little easier, but that doesn’t help with maintaining an active lifestyle.

So when your delivery driver drops your groceries off, why not build a little weights routine into the unpacking? Four packs of beans and spaghetti make great substitute weights, so perform a series of bicep curls with a pack in each hand.

Bottles of milk would work too but do be careful with the wine. If there’s two or more of you to put the shopping away then you could have a game of catch while you’re doing it – start by the door and throw the items to each other to go into the cupboards. This works well with fruit and tins - don’t drop the flour though. That would be messy.
 

Kids seem to have so much fun running and climbing. Why not indulge your inner child and build yourself an obstacle course?

If you have a long landing or hall then laundry basket hurdles are brilliant. Or you could use your laundry basket for target practice with the dirty washing.

And while jumping on the furniture is something you’re likely to get told off for, there’s nothing stopping you piling the pillows up and treating them as a trampoline. Keep that up for 5 minutes and you’ll have a brilliant cardio workout while toning your abs – perfect!