As a new guide to getting lean while you clean hits the shelves, Health Reporter CHARLOTTE PERCIVAL puts the theory to the test.

I'VE never been the most enthusiastic person in the kitchen - just ask my mum.

Nor do I claim to be the keenest athlete in the world.

So no one, least of all me, expected to find myself doing star jumps with a mop in my hand.

That all changed when I discovered a new fitness book designed to help us clean up our health and homes within hours.

The Kitchen Gym, by Anne-Marie Millard, is a fun guide to "getting lean while you clean", incorporating exercise with domestic tasks in the kitchen, living room, bathroom and garden.

If you ever wondered how many calories you could burn by trying bathroom ballet, punching your pillows, dancing with a mop or lunging with a hoover, then now is your chance to find out.

And the statistics are pretty impressive.

Jazzing up your hovering technique could burn 90 kcals, while swinging your hips as you work through a huge pile of ironing could destroy 60.

I had a quick dabble and ended up thoroughly worn out, which was enough to put me off cleaning for life.

It did, however, seem like a very sensible way to exercise if you don't have much time.

Fitness advisor Shaun Fitzpatrick, who works at Courtney's at Waterworld, Monks Cross, said everyone could benefit by reinvigorating household chores.

"It's not something I do myself, but actually exercising while you do your housework can be very good," he said.

"Just doing housework is quite a good form of exercise.

"The main thing is to warm up properly, maybe by walking on the spot to get your blood pressure going a bit, and then taking it steady and at your own pace.

"Be aware of health and safety though, especially when doing tasks like ironing you don't want the iron to fall on your head while you're doing lunges."

The Kitchen Gym, by Anne-Marie Millard, is available now from all good bookshops or by phoning 01903 828503.

:: Exercises

Pillow punching

Calories burned: 163 kcal

Muscles used: Shoulders, biceps and triceps

1. Put pillows to the edge of bed.

2. Make hands into tight little fists.

3. Punch the pillow.

Inner thigh swing things

Calories burned: 102 kcal

Muscles used: Inside thigh

1. Hold on to mop with both hands and push it a little in front. Pick up your right foot and swing it across in front of your left leg. Keep the toe pointed outwards.

2. Bring it back to the start and repeat ten times before changing legs. Keep your back straight and your abdominal muscles pulled in.

3. Work your way across the room and for bonus points press and stretch out the heel of your working leg - as you swing the leg across pull your toes towards you, flexing the foot hard.

Curl and Whirr

Calories burned: 90 kcal

Muscles used: back of thighs (hamstrings)

1. Grasp the vacuum cleaner firmly. Take a big step forward with the right leg while bending the left knee. Lift your left heel up to your bottom.

2. Put your left foot back on the ground and repeat with the other leg. Move around the room squeezing and curling as you go

3. Add a little knee bend in between each curl. As you replace each foot, bend both knees and dip your bottom down. Follow immediately with opposite leg curl.

4. If feeling particularly buoyant, move on to the leg flick. Same as the curl but faster. Scoot around the room at top speed flicking alternate heels up.

The hip hitch

Calories burned: 60kcal

Muscles used: waist and abdominals

1. Put on some funky music and start wiggling your hips gently from side to side

2. Begin circling your hips to the right, imagining your are hula hoping

3. Lift up the right hip as far as it will go, hitching it up towards the ribcage. Hold at the top of the movement for a second, release and then repeat on the other side. Keep hitching while you iron at least one medium sized item

4. Give yourself a breather with a few pelvic thrusts - thrust your pelvic forwards with the music keeping both the legs and upper body as still as possible

Updated: 10:48 Friday, November 18, 2005