Easy Exercises That Burn Calories In The House

Any activity you do will burn at least some calories. Easy exercises you can do at home won't burn as many calories as more vigorous exercise, but they can give you flexibility and help you strengthen and tone your muscles. Your body expends more energy to maintain muscle tissue than it does fat, so the more you work your muscles, the more calories you will burn, even when you're not exercising.

Stretching

Stretching gives you flexibility and helps you avoid injury. A 150-pound person can burn about 85 calories in a half-hour of stretching. Raise your arms over your head, reach for the ceiling and bring them around to your sides. Do a few side bends, lifting the opposite arm over your head, to give you a stretch down the length of your body. On the floor, sit with your legs straight or in a V-shape and reach for your toes. Finally, sit like a frog by putting the bottoms of your feet together and bringing them in toward your body to stretch your inner thigh. Use slow, gentle movements when stretching.

Floor Exercises

Side leg lifts are an easy exercise to work your outer thighs. Lie on your side with your bottom leg bent. Keep your hip, shoulder and top knee lined up. Flex your foot, raise your top leg a few inches, hold for a second and slowly lower it without resting it on the floor. You can also lie on your back, arms at your sides, and raise both legs up a few inches and lower them without resting on the floor. You will feel this in your abdominal muscles. For arms and chest, lie on your back with your arms to the side and bent upward. Holding a light dumbbell in each hand, raise the weights until they meet above your chest and lower them slowly to start position. Keep a slight bend in your arms and don't rest them on the floor. Repeat each of these exercises several times.

Free Weights

You can do easy biceps curls while standing or sitting on the edge of a sturdy chair or on a stability ball. Hold a light weight in your hand, palm facing upward. Keeping your elbow next to your body and your wrist straight, curl your arm slowly upward then downward to your starting position. Keep your movements slow, smooth and controlled. Exercise one arm at a time, or alternate arms. If you strap on light ankle weights, you can do leg lifts from a chair. Sit on the edge of the chair and slowly lift your lower leg to the level of your knee and lower it again. Repeat on the other side. Light weight-lifting for a 150-pound person can burn about 100 calories in 30 minutes.

Other Types of Exercise

You probably already get some easy calorie-burning exercise at home without realizing it. At 150 pounds, 30 minutes of housecleaning burns an estimated 119 calories. Taking 15 minutes to change bed linens burns about 45 calories. Clearing the dinner table and taking out the trash burn about 14 calories each. Twenty minutes of vacuuming will net you 57 calories. Input your weight into an online calorie counter or activity calculator to determine the number of calories you burn during exercise.