Doing household chores could actually help improve the fitness of your heart, a new study suggests.
Researchers from Queen's University in Canada have found that incidental physical activities -- defined as physical activity throughout the day associated with daily living, like climbing stairs, walking around the office or cleaning the house -- actually add up and can boost your cardiorespiratory fitness.
The study was recently published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
"It’s encouraging to know that if we just increase our incidental activity slightly -- a little bit more work around the house, or walking down the hall to speak with a co-worker as opposed to sending an email -- we can really benefit our health in the long-term," study researcher Ashlee McGuire, a graduate student in kinesiology and health studies at Queen's University, said in a statement.
McGuire and Robert Ross, a professor at the university, included 135 obese men and women in their week-long study. They used accelerometers to measure the number of minutes per day they spent doing these everyday physical activities, as well as the intensity at which they did the activities.
Researchers found that the intensity seemed to matter the most, when seeing how these everyday activities contributed to overall cardiorespiratory fitness. The amount of time they did them for didn't matter as much, though, the study said.
Here, a list of seven common chores with potential calorie burns -- exact results will depend on several factors, including your weight:
What household chores get your heart pounding?