General Discussion

anyone who does any actual housework

I think you understand, maybe others have not had the same experience, and I should have perhaps asked people if they have done or do housework and have "felt the burn" from it or not

artificial exercise equipment at home

This was also what I was reasoning lately, that I would try to "exercise" and do "chores" and it was kind of overwhelming, so maybe I could just skip the "exercise" and get more chores done, which is a win win on saving time not "exercising" and getting exercise from the physical chores or work. I've sometimes felt like gyms are a "scam", in that there's probably some kind of practical manual labor "work" that could be done as "exercise" instead that produces something.

housework burns a lot of calories

I guess I should have added more clarity. There may be a few reasons why people don't recognize housework as "exercise".

Firstly, the word "housework" is a bit unclear. Maybe I consider more broadly things to be "housework" while some people are envisioning something simpler like baking which may seem to be pretty inactive if you're just moving some light ingredients around.

Another issue is everyone's living space may be different; for example, people with stairs might burn more calories going up and down them versus people on a flat level or with elevators.

Maybe some people move slowly, where they might be able to move faster, or lift less weight when they might be able to load themselves with more for a greater workout at once, or maybe they don't do as much when they could add more chores to their routine.

Some of the tasks include:

cleaning, which might involve walking around to mop or scrubbing (which feels like an intense workout of muscles).

moving things around, like groceries, trash, machines like vacuum cleaners, laundry, furniture, children, etc.

moving up and down stairs, which burn about double the calories versus walking (this may depend on people's environment)

walking around in general which can involve a lot of steps

making things, or like weeding, working with manual tools, and so on

Cleaning large areas or intensive scrubbing is definitely tiring. Vacuum or mop the whole house, or scrub the tub to remove soap scum - it will raise the heart rate and can make the arms tired.

Light duty stuff like dishes, not so much.