Fitness Before Technology
****by Fitness Diva Fitness Before Technology  There's no big secret that the obesity epidemic is on the rise in this day and age, causing a battery of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, chronic heart disease, hypertension, and joint instability and deterioration, among many other ailments. In a world that has seen amazing leaps and bounds in technology and electronic innovation, we've become a species that now finds more opportunity to sit on our butts and do far less work than our predecessors. Remember the days of using a washboard, butter churning, and chopping your own wood? Probably not. Times were pretty hard back in those days, and for the most part, folks had to depend on their own elbow grease to get even the most basic of life's needs taken care of and tended to. Who needed a gym? Just working from sun up to sun down was enough to keep most folks in those days fit as hell. From keeping up house and land, to keeping food on the table, and even just staying sheltered and warm, you had to use a whole lotta muscle to survive! Here's a rundown of calories burned doing daily chores and work.... the old fashioned way! The following are based on these activities being done by someone weighing 150 lbs for a duration of 1 hour. For each 10 lbs more of weight, add approximately 1 additional cal per minute burned. By the same token, for each 10 lbs less, subtract 1 cal per minute to estimate total calories burned. Okay, let's roll up those sleeves, now, and get busy... Sweeping 175 cals Hand washing clothes (with a washboard) 420 cals Hanging wash on clothesline 140 cals Scrubbing the floor 510 cals Washing windows 305 cals Churning butter 276 cals 
There are a few here that I missed, I'm sure. If you think of any more, let me know and I'll post them. By the way, tired yet? That's a lot of work! |
Like what you've read so far? Sex and Fitness ** The Trainer's Corner ** Martial Arts Junkie |
16 comments:
Hah.. kneading a dough... that need takes you lots of calories. But, it will all go down the drain when the nice aromatic homemade loaf leaves the oven.
That is a lot of work. But you know what... I know those arms and legs were on point.
I'm only wondering... The wood chopping would give you great back muscles and abs too, no?
LOL - looks like I need to get my washboard out!!
Great post, love this! I think it is funny when people can't understand the weight problem. We are eating more fake foods & not doing anywhere near the activity.
Akira, I'm on it! I'll dig up the info on that one...
Urban, great arms, shoulders, abs, hip strength. You ever see the wiry muscle on some of those farmers?
And the food they ate usually was fresh, right off their own land.
No preservatives or chemicals.
Now, that's healthy!
Ginny, that's for sure. They worked hard and ate pure. We could take a few tips. I think I'm gonna scrub some floors today... ;)
Rachel, I think I might go buy me a washboard. That's one sneaky way to burn some cals. I do have a few items that I like to wash by hand, anyway. Why not do it just like my grandma did? That woman had some awesome arm muscles, from what I remember. She chopped wood, too!
hi
Great blog
Cordial greetings
And I hope to visit the new blog
Mother of the World
With greetings
Great post! Funny, I thought you'd burn a lot more calories milking a cow! Dang, that's hard work!!! I never could get any milk to come out.
I'm glad I don't have to shovel snow anymore!!!
I read your post and say, "Yup. Yup. Yup."
So I'm talking it over with my wife, and see if she is okay with us moving to Amish country.
Have a great weekend!
I do still sweep and scrub the floor by hand. Vacuuming makes me sweat too! I was a great snow shoveler too until we left Illinois last year!
I'm really into having a tight upper body, so maybe I need to try the wood chopping thing out.
I tell you all, what... I am really going to clean my house this weekend!
Seriously!
I'm going to do the windows (which I do almost NEVER....lol, with the exception of the ones I look out of daily. My other ones are covered by drapes, so they can get pretty neglected. Not this weekend! ;)
I also plan to get down on hands and knees, like my grandma, and scrub the floors, instead of using the old mop-aroo...
Let's just see how long this new way to burn some calories lasts with me... lol.
I'm thinking, not very long. I don't know ANY Divas that like scrubbing floors! :D
wooooh I would have really been in shape back then. It is interesting how lazy as a society we have become. I love this list and am going to show it to my hubby.
Hi, thanks for pointing me in this direction. It is very interesting the number of calories one can burn by just doing everyday (in some cases) things. The scrubbing the floor surprised me, I thought it would be less. Shoveling the snow (which I actually enjoy doing), seems to be spot-on. Thanks again.
Interesting to see how much you can lose by doing simple around the house type of things. Thanks for the list.
Post a Comment