How long can you do moderate sustained activity like vacuuming?

[Jean in Newcastle]

I have spent the last 3 hours picking up and vacuuming two rooms. I did move some furniture like chairs and the couch to vacuum under them but not something like the china cabinet! The reason it took me so long is because I have to rest every 10 minutes. One of my goals this year is to (hopefully with medical help) to be able to have the stamina and functionality of an "averagely healthy" 46 year old woman. So what am I aiming for? How long could you do it? (I'm assuming you could do it all in one shot, right?)

[Starr]

My back hurts to think about it but I'm older than you. :) It takes time if the floor isn't picked up and you move furniture! Ok I'm not really much help. I wouldn't keep going without stopping or getting sidetracked.

[chaik76]

We only have one room to vacuum in our house and I'm not allowed to because I don't get all the pieces! It probably only takes two minutes to vacuum the whole thing...

[Lawana]

I am 50 and don't have outstanding stamina. When I really have to, like when company's coming, I can do vacuuming, dusting, bathroom cleaning, etc. for 2 hours or so without taking a break. I prefer to supervise the kids, however. I can do that for hours;).

[mom31257]

I'll be 43 this week. I'm not in the "best shape" since I'm overweight, but I can vacuum longer than 10 minutes without a break. It would take me about 10 minutes to vacuum 2 of our rooms, including adding attachments to do the baseboard area.

 

I think some people have more stamina than others. My dh gets out of shape quickly, but can get back in shape quickly on stamina. Even when I have not exercised in months, I can go out and walk for an hour.

 

I do have trouble on stairs, I guess because it's lifting my whole weight against gravity. But I can handle that if I breathe well. Maybe you need to make sure you are doing that.

[hornblower]

I'm 43 (oh DUH. I'm 44. January baby - still getting used to it LOL), I'm packing extra weight in the middle & am, according to the annoying Wii board, just on the cusp of normal/overweight BMI. I consider myself marginally healthy as far as physical fitness goes.

 

I can easily walk at a very brisk pace for 2+ hours with no stopping. The joy of having dogs - I get to test this out very frequently :)

 

I'm also on level 2 of the 30 Day Shred.

 

I rarely do housework as you described for that long because I get distracted & frustrated .....

 

Good for you for making some concrete goals;I hope your health improves this year!

[LauraGB]

I have spent the last 3 hours picking up and vacuuming two rooms. I did move some furniture like chairs and the couch to vacuum under them but not something like the china cabinet! How long could you do it? (I'm assuming you could do it all in one shot, right?)

 

Well, it would depend on how much I had to pick up before I could vacuum. If I chose the living room and dining room, it would probably take me 5-10 min to pick everything up and put it where it belongs, both from the floor and the tables. Then to vacuum...probably about another 5-10 min, including attachments for the baseboards and under chairs. All of this is if it wasn't terribly messy. I really don't like to do it, so I hurry to get it over with. :)

 

Now if you were to ask me about changing the sheets, well, that would be a different story. I don't like doing that either (major understatement), but I take A LOT of breaks before I finish that stinking job. And, yes, those breaks are necessary. Mostly for my mental stability, though.

[KidsHappen]

Jean my health is much the same as yours and I can manage about half an hour of sustained activity like vacuuming. Sometimes I try to do more but I always end up paying for it so I have to stagger activities. Half an hour of cleaning then half an hour of desk work, then half an hour of something light like laundry then repeat. It makes it really hard to ever complete a project though.

[Halcyon]

I am 40 and am pretty fit--i run 3x a week (about 3-5 miles each) and practice yoga 1-2 times a week.

 

When I am being a crazed cleaning neat freak, Ii have been known to clean the house top to bottom for 5 hours--scrubbing, vacuuming (on hands and knees with the little attachment) scrubbing baseboards, scrubbing garbage cans....---that said, it's been a month or since I went that crazy :D

 

I probably vacuum for 20 minutes every other day when I'm being 'normal'-but i CAN spend 3 hours on the computer...does that count for moderately strenuous if I'm typing really fast??

[Laura Corin]

I could certainly keep going for an hour or two. When the boys go to school, I plan on cleaning the house all in one go once a week, which will take three to four hours, I think. Perhaps two hours, then lunch, then two hours? Boredom would probably get me before tiredness.

 

FWIW I'm healthy but not super fit. I walk briskly for around an hour a day and heave 20kg suitcases off the carousel with no problem. I'm also 46.

 

Laura

[Mabelen]

I am 46 and I am able to manically vacuum and clean the house for 2 1/2 or 3 hours straight when we are having company over and the house is not up to scratch. You won't find me doing that in any other circumstances though, I get bored much too quickly if I don't have the right motivation! I am moderately fit, I walk briskly for an hour twice a week and I do yoga a couple of times a week.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Fudgesticks! I am so disappointed. I had thought that by stopping at the first twinge of tiredness (thus the break after every ten minutes) that I would be able to actually vacuum my house myself without repercussions. By evening I was in such pain and exhaustion that I could barely move. I took an epsom salt (magnesium salts) bath and that helped some. I then hoped that having deep sleep (thanks to 5-HTP) would help my body to repair itself. But- I am in tons of pain this morning. Rats!

[chaik76]

Okay...how many rooms do you all have that it takes hours to vacuum? Growing up we had ten rooms with carpet and I could vacuum them all in less than hour...including lugging the old, heavy Hoover upright up two flights of stairs...

[krisperry]

I'm almost 34, and very pregnant. However, I must sit down at least 10 minutes out of every hour. I never stop hurting (thanks fibromyalgia) so I have less of an idea of how hard I'm pushing ... unless it is super extreme. I'm stubborn though so I tend to do stuff anyhow despite it all.

 

Which usually means that I have one Ok day and then one day that I hurt so bad I can barely get enough done to scrape by despite my efforts. Then another Ok day. I very, very rarely have 2 productive days back to back. My body just revolts.

 

If you are getting super sore from what most would consider "normal" or even "mild" activity and it doesn't seem to improve with time, then I think a trip to the doctor is in order. For instance, stirring a pot of soup is painful for me as is brushing my hair some days (raising my arms). It isn't that I'm that out of shape. It is fibromyalgia.

 

Sorry hon! I hope you are able to meet your goals.

[MamaT]

I'm 46 too. I clean once a week for about 2 hours without stopping. I have pretty good stamina for my age I think. We hike a lot and are pretty active as a family on a regular basis, so I'm sure that helps.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Okay...how many rooms do you all have that it takes hours to vacuum? Growing up we had ten rooms with carpet and I could vacuum them all in less than hour...including lugging the old, heavy Hoover upright up two flights of stairs...

 

It was one dining room and living room (connected) and one hallway and one stair going down to a landing. I was not vacuuming for 3 hours! It took so long because I have a chronic illness that makes me have to sit down every 10 minutes.

I'm almost 34, and very pregnant. However, I must sit down at least 10 minutes out of every hour. I never stop hurting (thanks fibromyalgia) so I have less of an idea of how hard I'm pushing ... unless it is super extreme. I'm stubborn though so I tend to do stuff anyhow despite it all.

 

Which usually means that I have one Ok day and then one day that I hurt so bad I can barely get enough done to scrape by despite my efforts. Then another Ok day. I very, very rarely have 2 productive days back to back. My body just revolts.

 

If you are getting super sore from what most would consider "normal" or even "mild" activity and it doesn't seem to improve with time, then I think a trip to the doctor is in order. For instance, stirring a pot of soup is painful for me as is brushing my hair some days (raising my arms). It isn't that I'm that out of shape. It is fibromyalgia.

 

Sorry hon! I hope you are able to meet your goals.

 

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 20 years ago. Yes, my body is revolting (wait- that came out wrong!) Yesterday was an experiment because recently I've had some new treatments that supposedly had taken care of some of the pain/muscle problems with fibromyalgia. I was hoping that by doing things very slowly (thus the breaks every 10 min.) that I could do a small fraction of what a normal 46 year old can do. I'm very discouraged because not only did it take me that long, my pain still came back despite trying to not overwhelm my body.

[Denisemomof4]

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

 

For normal maintenance, I do it until I'm done. If I do a full cleaning of the entire house, upstairs and down (I don't do the kids rooms - their responsibility) and full scrub/clean like dusting, windows, toilets, kitchen, etc. I can pretty much bet that the next day I won't be able to move much. And the evening of the thorough cleaning I have to take Advil so I can tolerate the back/foot pain. At almost 47 I've pretty much learned not to do that anymore. I try to break the tasks up into daily chores.

[Hedgehogs4]

i am a vacuuming machine...well, not exactly, i don't do the actual sucking of the dirt, but i can run one of those babies really well! FOR HOURS. but that's because i LOVE to vacuum, and once i start cleaning i cannot stop until it is all done. about 5 hours? not just vacuuming, but picking up, other cleaning, etc. i forget to eat because i get very focused.

 

now i have a cleaning lady. i don't have time to clean that way anymore.

[Laura Corin]

Okay...how many rooms do you all have that it takes hours to vacuum? Growing up we had ten rooms with carpet and I could vacuum them all in less than hour...including lugging the old, heavy Hoover upright up two flights of stairs...

 

It would be four hours to completely clean it: scrubbing bathrooms, cleaning our fridge, etc.

 

Laura

[gingersmom]

I can only vacuum about 3-5 minutes before my back hurts so bad that I cannot move.

 

It has been like this since I was 12 years old so I am kinda used to it at this point.

 

Thus when I cannot afford a cleaning person my house is messy.

[Jean in Newcastle]

All your input has actually been helpful. I've found that when dealing with Drs. that it helps to be very specific about what I can do and what I want to be able to do. Otherwise we go around with me saying vague things that usually paint a better picture than things actually are for me physically. I've found out recently that my own dh had not realized how impaired I was despite complaining about how hard it was to get the housework done because all he saw was the finished work and not the process. We realized that saying stuff like "moderate activity" meant a different thing to him than it did for me - which is why I referred to specific tasks like vacuuming in this thread so that people would know what I meant. Since sometimes Drs. (at least the ones I've gone to) are a bit clueless about how long it might take an "average woman" to do a task, this will help me to communicate better.

[KidsHappen]

It was one dining room and living room (connected) and one hallway and one stair going down to a landing. I was not vacuuming for 3 hours! It took so long because I have a chronic illness that makes me have to sit down every 10 minutes.

 

 

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 20 years ago. Yes, my body is revolting (wait- that came out wrong!) Yesterday was an experiment because recently I've had some new treatments that supposedly had taken care of some of the pain/muscle problems with fibromyalgia. I was hoping that by doing things very slowly (thus the breaks every 10 min.) that I could do a small fraction of what a normal 46 year old can do. I'm very discouraged because not only did it take me that long, my pain still came back despite trying to not overwhelm my body.

 

Jean,

 

Hon, I am so sorry. I can relate. Every now and then I get a wild hair and decide that I am going to get something done and I push myself too hard and I always pay. It sounds like you were pushing yourself too hard. It is very hard to come to terms with chronic pain issues and the fact that you can't do the same things other can but it is the key to keeping the pain to a minimum level. Take it easy for a few days sweetie. :grouphug:

[MaMa2005]

I can vacuum the downstairs of our home (probably 1300 sq feet in 15 minutes), but by the end of that, my back is killing me. Our entire house is ceramic tile, so I don't only have to vacuum every room, I also have to mop each room.

 

I can do the entire house, top to bottom, but it takes me a whole day and I really pay for it for several days.

 

I am 48, packing some extra pounds and some days am just exhausted. I have learned over the past year to really break things into small pieces. It does seem to help.

 

ETA: I was in a severe car accident in January 2009 when an SUV slammed into the back of my little Corolla :cursing:. My back has never been the same since.

[krisperry]

I thought it sounded a lot like a fibro reaction. I hate to hear that is what it is. :( Fibro is so tough. I was originally diagnosed in my early 20's.

 

What kind of vacuum do you have? I have a Dyson upstairs but a canister downstairs. The canister is by far easier on me. Also, I've learned to try and rearrange my surroundings so that it works better for me. IE. My milk shelf isn't the top shelf in the fridge (side-by-side) like most.

 

Other things that help - a heated mattress pad. Run on low all night. Even if it is warm in the house, I'll just use less covers. This seems to really really help my muscles relax a bit more. Sleep! Invest in a good bed, covers.... the whole shebang. We are looking to replace our bed soon and it will be $$$ in order to get one that won't make me worse yk? Try to soak in a tub as often as you can. Again, warming and relaxing the muscles.

 

I'm sorry to hear that you've been unsuccessful with pain managment. That is rough. I haven't had much luck myself. Most of the time I've been pregnant or nursing so lots of medications are too risky but those times I haven't been, not much has worked.

 

Anyhow. I can't add a whole lot. Just commiserate. It is tough to ache like you are sick all the time. It is exhausting! Not just physically but mentally as well. Hang in there.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I thought it sounded a lot like a fibro reaction. I hate to hear that is what it is. :( Fibro is so tough. I was originally diagnosed in my early 20's.

 

Anyhow. I can't add a whole lot. Just commiserate. It is tough to ache like you are sick all the time. It is exhausting! Not just physically but mentally as well. Hang in there.

 

I was diagnosed in my early 20's too.

 

My vacuum is a canister - the Kenmore Intuition.

 

Actually, I have had good luck with certain supplements. I had a severe vitamin D deficiency that of course, benefits from vitamin D. I have had good success with 5-HTP. But - that is if I confine myself to light/mild activity.

 

Most people, including my family (of origin) do not know that I am ill. It isn't like I haven't mentioned it to my family before, but they somehow seem to forget. I mentioned my search for a new Dr. to my dad just this morning. He said, "What do you need to go to a Dr. for?" I told him the story of my vacuuming experiment. He was speechless with astonishment.

[LauraGB]

It was one dining room and living room (connected) and one hallway and one stair going down to a landing.

 

Well, Jean, vacuuming stairs is hard work! That alone would take me 20-30 minutes to get it right; hauling the vacuum up/down each step, using the attachment, etc. And I have some achey muscles the next day from contorting in ways my bod's not used to. I didn't include that or the hallway in my original answer.

 

I'm sorry you are so sore. :grouphug:

[krisperry]

I was diagnosed in my early 20's too.

 

My vacuum is a canister - the Kenmore Intuition.

 

Actually, I have had good luck with certain supplements. I had a severe vitamin D deficiency that of course, benefits from vitamin D. I have had good success with 5-HTP. But - that is if I confine myself to light/mild activity.

 

Most people, including my family (of origin) do not know that I am ill. It isn't like I haven't mentioned it to my family before, but they somehow seem to forget. I mentioned my search for a new Dr. to my dad just this morning. He said, "What do you need to go to a Dr. for?" I told him the story of my vacuuming experiment. He was speechless with astonishment.

 

I so wish I didn't know what you were talking about. Wouldn't it be so much easier if we had some visible sign that shows how poor we are feeling?

 

I can hardly remember not being sore.... what does wear on me, even more though is how crying TIRED I stay. Like at any given point, I could fall down and sleep for weeks. Course you can't cause something is always hurting so bad it wakes you up. But you feel like you could.

 

And I hate the mental fog too. I mean really, isn't it enough that I'm exhausted and I hurt? Must I give up mental clarity as well? Frustrating! I get this feeling sometimes that is almost overwhelming - I want to unzip my skin and just step outside me. Just for a moment yk? I swear if I could have just 5-10 painfree non-aching minutes, I'd be good for the next decade. :tongue_smilie:

 

Anyhow, wish I had the magic answer for both of us. It is such a poorly understood condition. I did find it interesting to read about your Vitamin D levels. How low were they? My endocrinologist tested mine about a year and a half ago and said I was low - 20 was my number I believe. I've taken D every since. I don't know that I feel any different though. Did you?

 

You haven't by chance had thyroid issues too have you? I have - Hashimoto's. I ended up having my entire thyroid removed. I'm now on Synthroid which has been a bear to regulate well. I know it is all random but sometimes I wonder if Fibro is just the tip of the iceberg for many of us; it often seems to be present with other conditions/diseases...

[Jean in Newcastle]

I so wish I didn't know what you were talking about. Wouldn't it be so much easier if we had some visible sign that shows how poor we are feeling?

 

I can hardly remember not being sore.... what does wear on me, even more though is how crying TIRED I stay. Like at any given point, I could fall down and sleep for weeks. Course you can't cause something is always hurting so bad it wakes you up. But you feel like you could.

 

And I hate the mental fog too. I mean really, isn't it enough that I'm exhausted and I hurt? Must I give up mental clarity as well? Frustrating! I get this feeling sometimes that is almost overwhelming - I want to unzip my skin and just step outside me. Just for a moment yk? I swear if I could have just 5-10 painfree non-aching minutes, I'd be good for the next decade. :tongue_smilie:

 

Anyhow, wish I had the magic answer for both of us. It is such a poorly understood condition. I did find it interesting to read about your Vitamin D levels. How low were they? My endocrinologist tested mine about a year and a half ago and said I was low - 20 was my number I believe. I've taken D every since. I don't know that I feel any different though. Did you?

 

You haven't by chance had thyroid issues too have you? I have - Hashimoto's. I ended up having my entire thyroid removed. I'm now on Synthroid which has been a bear to regulate well. I know it is all random but sometimes I wonder if Fibro is just the tip of the iceberg for many of us; it often seems to be present with other conditions/diseases...

 

My vitamin D was 18. I take high doses (10,000 IU a day). I didn't feel better until it was in the 30's. Now I have it up to 80. I feel best when it is high.

 

I am on thyroid medicine. But I am not sure that it is regulated still. I've recently read about finding out if you are low by taking your basal body temperature when you first wake up. I'm going to try that.

 

High doses of fish oil (I take Nordic Natural's Omega Complex 2000 mg) help me with the fibro fog. My dh has been reading up on Omegas and thinks I should take even higher doses. I'm still doing my homework on this one.

 

I take 300 mg of 5-HTP now and that helps me with sleep. (It was a process to get to that level.)

 

I have had good help from a book called "Treating and Beating Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue" by Dr. Rodger Murphree. I'm not symptom free by any means but I do go into remission for periods of time (pain free). I'm still working on peeling off the layers of this "onion" of a disease.

[Tree House Academy]

Well, I am 30, so I am not sure we want to compare at all. I will go on sprees and clean the house from top to bottom all day long (10 hours or more) without really stopping and taking a break. If I stop and take a break (like to sit down or rest), I won't get back up. Mind you, this is not something I do every day and my feet/back do tend to ache before I lay down in bed those nights. However, I feel fine the next morning.