The neanderthal workout

[Roy Lindberry]

I spent about four hours in the shop yesterday, pushing my planes around on some 4x4s, prepping them for my bench project. Worked up a good sweat, and am feeling the effects today. Man, I'm sore. And I'm only 35. This makes me realize what a sedentary lifestyle I've begun to live.

Am I the only one who experiences the bodily effects the day after a good day in the shop? It's seriously as effective as a weight training session.

[Mark Dorman]

You are not alone. Good thing is you built some stamina and muscle memory.

[Curt Putnam]

Wait until you are past 65 and somewhat disabled

[David Paulsen]

Hey Roy, that sounds like a real treat.

One of the reasons I decided to build with hand tools only, was to be in a more honest contact with the wood. Take an old oak, it has expended so much energy, from sun and earth over perhaps 200 years before being chopped. I would feel dishonest in a way (me personally) to just uniform it on a machine, in less than half an hour, without breaking just the smallest sweat.

I used to get really sore in my upper body, but now, my body is used to it and strong. The only pain I feel is from bending over to much to do details, joinery and such... And standing on concrete floor for to many hours at a time.

[Kees Heiden]

Yesterday I began flattening and thicknessing the wallnut boards for my tabletop. These are quite big, 2.1 meter long and half a meter wide. Cupped and bowed and twisted of course. As usual I dived in like a maniac, so I had a couple of hours workout flattening one face and removing the hump on the reverse side. My muscles are little sore, but worse are my elbows. I am afraid I picked up an old injury again: golfers elbow. So I started on the diclofenac and I know a good physiotherapist who is specialised in this kind of injuries. Next week I am on holliday so I'll have a rest period anyway. But I do feel pretty bumped out about it. I'm afraid i am not twenty anymore.

[Adam Cruea]

I'm 32 (about to be 33), and I'm the same way.

I've been working on my workbench for about 6 months now (since August). It's made from hickory.

When I first started, it was painful for me. I'd wake up stiff, hardly able to move, having to down Aleve constantly. Now, it's just a nice soreness that I have missed since I left high school (and consequently competitive swimming and weight lifting).

There's just one down side. . .all my shirts are tight in the shoulders and arms now. My wife bought me XXL shirts, and the short sleeves aren't loose on my biceps anymore. :(

[David Weaver]

36, and I still get a little sore, though not much unless I don't do anything for a few months and then try to spend several hours dimensioning wood.

It is still the most enjoyable form of exercise I can think of. I'm otherwise not a fan of exercise for the purpose of exercise, I'd rather have task related exercise.

[Chris Griggs]

31. Spent a few hours in the shop on Friday flatting some seriously twisted pieces of hard maple for cabinet doors. I went to bed that night feeling like I'd spent a few hours at the gym. Granted, don't work out anymore, and no where near the shape I was in back in college, but I do jog an bike. Point being yes, it can be quite a workout.

[Zach Dillinger]

29. My arms are usually fine, but I've had a sore back and knees in the past. This usually is when I put in a hard week on the tennis courts and in the shop.

[Steve Bates]

David, I've been standing on concrete floors for four decades. Still do eight hours a day, five days a week.

The trick is to change shoes daily. The human body has over half of the number of bones in your feet. It's not the concrete, it's the flat surface. Go outside and find a flat, level place to stand. Not easily done.

Changing shoes gives your feet a different place to support the weight. I've got a dozen pairs of work shoes by different makers just to have the variety. The employer pays for a new pair each year.

Hope this helps you.

[Andrew Joiner]

You are not alone. Good thing is you built some stamina and muscle memory.
I'm 61. I think my muscle memory has Alzheimer's. When hand tool work gets tiring or boring I move to power tools pretty quickly.

[Jorge Rico]

David,
I'm 55, have arthritis and definitely feel sore after an extended planning session. However, it is a deeply satisfying soreness as opposed to the kind of pain you might get driving all day.

[Bob Jones]

I'm 34, but I never get to spend more than 2 hours in the shop at once. My arms get tired, but not enough for soreness. When I'm exercising a bit outside of the shop I can tell because my arms are stronger.

[Jim Koepke]

Ibuprofen is my friend. After a few hours in the shop Ibuprofen lets me spend a few more hours before it is time to come in for dinner.

jtk

[Roy Lindberry]

Hey Roy, that sounds like a real treat.

One of the reasons I decided to build with hand tools only, was to be in a more honest contact with the wood. Take an old oak, it has expended so much energy, from sun and earth over perhaps 200 years before being chopped. I would feel dishonest in a way (me personally) to just uniform it on a machine, in less than half an hour, without breaking just the smallest sweat.

I used to get really sore in my upper body, but now, my body is used to it and strong. The only pain I feel is from bending over to much to do details, joinery and such... And standing on concrete floor for to many hours at a time.

I'm thinking we could put together a shop routine for woodworkers to stay in shape. Like P90X, but with shop projects.

[David Paulsen]

Had to look up what P90X was. Seems intense.

I had a teacher once who said that working wood is like playing chess. He meant it in the way that you would have to plan it out, so as when something was glueing, you didn't stand around and wait, but was on to the next task. A fair point.

He worked with machines though. But as proud neanders we could apply the same logic, and think ahead. It has to be in your mind, not in your body. And any physiotherapist would agree that diverse movement vs. static is always the healthier.
So... when doing a table, perhaps one could prepare the boards for the table top, get it gluing. Then dimension the aprons and the legs. And then perhaps start the work on flattening the table top (a tedious hard task in some cases) take a break by making the mortise and tenon joints (if your hands a not too shaky from the rough planing) and get back at flattening the top when your body feels like it.
Couldn't this be something to consider?

On the other side, I love to get at it sometimes, and I often forget to have breaks because I enjoy it so much. I'm not making a living this way, and the physiotherapists and the chiropractors should be allowed to make their living too, right?

[Jim Matthews]

My muscles are little sore, but worse are my elbows. I am afraid I picked up an old injury again: golfers elbow. But I do feel pretty bumped out about it. I'm afraid i am not twenty anymore.

I did the same, trimming fallen tree limbs after our last storm in early March.
A weekend of tennis afterwards, and my elbow has been ginchy for more than a month.

I got a TheraBand flexbar for home therapy.
(The drugs and ice are no longer effective.)

It's not the years, it's the miles.

[Kees Heiden]

Theraband, I''ll look into that.

It's the story of my life so to say. Getting enthousiastic, doing way too much the first time and then bumming out with an injury. So I guess as soon as this heals a bit I am going to take it easy and build up the exertion slowly. At 47 I should really start to use my brains more then the muscles.

But maybe I am lucky this time. I don't feel any sensitive pressure points in my elbows. So maybe it was just a muscle pain after all. I'll be on holliday all next week, so everything can calm down and I give it another try when I come back.

[Mike Holbrook]

I have a good neanderthal workout. You get a bunch of people with 70-100 lb German Shepherds, Rotwielers, Boxers, Beoucerons, Mallinois....You put on scratch pants and a sleeve for the dogs to bite. You spend the afternoon, "catching" those dogs on the sleeve, escape bites, long bites....Slinging those pups through the air on a sleeve when they are moving 35+ MPH will get you enough exercise so the wood want seem quite as "threatening". Kinda like football for dogs. We have a martial arts dude, a guy in the Navy Seals program, state champion weight lifter, guy who runs a Crossfit Center and runs workouts all day, Cross Country runner for Ga State... they all whine by the end of the afternoon. We can always use more help. I am 63, I figure I will have to slow down in another decade or two and pick less fights with dogs and start wrestling the wood more. So I am glad to be learning how to get a good neander workout working wood. Which reminds me I have a 20+" in diameter red oak and a similar sized Sycamore I need to finish sawing up and getting out of my training field and park. Maybe I can get some boards out of them. I need to get a "workout" done today too... so my back & stamina do not start giving out on me. Maybe turning those 8x4 boards in my shop into my new workbench will help keep me from getting lazy.

[Jim Matthews]

I get the picture...

260797

[Mike Holbrook]

Actually, teaching dogs to "bite" is the best way to teach them when not to bite. We have trained "on the street" K9 teams that can go to a preschool and play with 30 little kids one minuet, and pursue a "Perp" through a crowded mall or park without endangering all the innocent civilians the next. If we don't train them when, what, where, how to use those teeth and jaw muscles we can't expect that they will make only choices we approve of on their own.

I sadly am just getting a little long in the tooth to be practicing what I spent so long learning how to do. I am hoping I can learn enough about making things from wood to keep myself occupied. I think my attraction to the hand tools is a reflection of my interest in a physical relationship with something less likely to "bite" me. I am less concerned about one of the large working dogs I work with every day bitting me than I am my table saw or router "bitting" me.

The hand tools, particularly some of the older ones, seem to demand a more personal, maybe emotional "relationship' which I find more like working with dogs and their people. I like thinking of the subject in terms of the physical and mental effects the work has on us as it seems to me this is as much the reason for my interest as how exactly I can make something. Maybe it is more about the art as opposed to speed of production that attracts me. Why would I want to make the same thing a machine could make in a factory? Maybe the "workout" is part of what makes me more part of what I am making.

[Chris Fournier]

A hard days work has hurt since I was a kid, it's no different now except that the "hard" threshold is lower. The hurt is the same and it feels just as good. The hurt from work has always felt sweeter to me than the hurt from sports. Deep bone satisfying.

Oh yeah, now I snore after the day's labour and whine alot more.

[Jim Matthews]

I would claim that it's something beyond the craft.

It connects us in a chain of men that do things with our hands.
Too many of our most celebrated (and wealthy) role models can't make squat.

There's no trickery in sticks, glue and metal - the maker's skill is what becomes most relevant.
That's what keeps me hooked, there's no amount of 'splainin' required - you can either sit on a chair or not.