January 2009

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UK women set to ditch the dumbbells and hit their driveway to get fit this January

Forget about cross trainers, Power Plates and treadmills – if you want to get a bum like Kylie, abs like Denise Lewis and legs like Elle ‘the body’ McPherson, it could be as simple as giving your car a wash!

A new study released by MORE TH>N Women Drivers’ Insurance shows that the average UK woman could burn more calories washing her car than she could by going for a 40 minute run – or doing 45 minutes intensive circuit training at the gym.

While many women head for the nearest garage forecourt and take the automatic car wash option, or leave any manual washing to their other halves, these latest findings are sure to make them think again. In just 90 minutes, the time it takes to wash a family sized saloon car, the average UK women can burn up to 500 calories. Carwash-carobics trumps all of the following:

 30 minute squash match (burns 447 calories)
 40 minute cross country run (burns 464 calories)
 45 minute circuit training session (burns 425 calories)
 1 hour cycling at 5.5 miles per hour (burns 270 calories)

What’s more, with the average private gym membership costing in excess of £600 per year, there’s a pretty hefty financial saving to be made by working off all those Christmas canapés cleaning your Clio or polishing your Polo.

Despite this, the research reveals the shocking truth that over half of all female car owners (54 per cent) have never hit the driveway to wash their own cars.

Independent fitness expert and qualified personal trainer, Graeme Marsh, worked with MORE TH>N to calculate the figures. He says, “The extraordinarily high ‘carwash calorie-burn’ rate is explained by the fact that a number of the key movements involved in washing a car incorporate all of the major joints in the body, from the ankles right up to the shoulders, and use a number of different core muscles. A lot of people might not think it but the carwash offers the type of all round body workout difficult to recreate using gym equipment”.

The top calorie burning movements identified by MORE TH>N are:
 The Squat & Sponge (works thighs, hamstrings, lower back, arms and shoulders)
 Reaching Lunge & Sponge (works thighs, hamstrings, lower back, arms and shoulders)
 The Bucket pick-up (works glutes, hamstrings and lower back)

While the 500-calorie figure relates to a 90-minute wash for an average sized family saloon car, the research also includes a ‘burn barometer’ for a number of other cars traditionally marketed to women. It shows that:

 Washing a small city run-a-round like a Fiat 500 could burn up to 333 calories
 Washing a mid-sized cool convertible like a Vauxhall Tigra could burn up to 417 calories
 Washing a rough ‘n’ ready 4×4 like a BMW X5 could burn up to 583 calories

Pete Markey, spokesperson for MORE TH>N, comments:

“Following the usual overindulgences most of us are guilty of over the Christmas holiday, January has traditionally been a time when huge numbers flock down to the local gym. But our findings show expensive health club memberships are not the only way to beat the bulge – the manual carwash is a truly viable alternative. While in the past women may have been more inclined to pop down to their local garage for an automatic wash, we’re confident the findings will encourage British women to hit their driveways and get washing!”

-ENDS-

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