I often tell people I have a firm policy against unpaid exercise.This nips in the bud the idea that I'll move furniture for beer. Don't drink it. Never have. My niece recently suggested that we go to the gym, give them eight dollars and then lift weights. I declined the offer telling her that I had just torn down a chimney and cut a house in half so that it could be moved down the road. I had no intention of doing anything more until starting work the next day.
This sort of exercise is preferable to me because I can look at the results of what I've done and it puts money in my pocket. I will occasionally go for a walk or kick a soccer ball around but you'll never find me running up and down stairs to the beach(unless I've found some good cedar slabs to carry up) or pumping weights in the gym.
My body is a machine and as such it will one day wear out. I'm saving my
energy for useful endeavors. I always have plenty of things that need to be done and I find that by mixing it up with a bit of this and a bit of that I get a good overall workout.
Sometimes I get a job which is mostly technical and not terribly physically demanding. I don't seek additional exercise during these times I simply allow myself to soften up a little and rest the bones. Soon
enough someone will have a very demanding job which needs to be done in record time and I'll go at it like Rambo on crack. By the time the job is over I'm in great shape again and ready for another rest. That's how athletes do it and it works.
Speaking of athletes, remember the boxer Larry Holmes? He was often accused of being a lazy fighter. He wasn't flamboyant and yappy like Mohammed Ali and he didn't possess the lightning speed of Mike Tyson. Yet Larry was able to chalk up more title defenses than any other fighter since Marziano. He did this using what one admirer referred to as an "economy of motion." This basically meant that Larry who is a big guy, didn't waste his energy. When faced with an opponent who wanted to dance in circles around the ring, Larry would pursue them in a pattern that kept him near the center so that he had to cover less distance. If he threw a punch and realized mid-motion that it was not going to connect he would ease up and change tactics. If an opponent threw a punch which was feeble or off target Larry wouldn't waste his energy jumping out of the way. He would turn his shoulder or pivot just enough to allow the blow to glance off of him.
Sometimes opponents would believe they were giving him a pounding but they where really wasting their precious energy. Larry was working efficiently, choosing his battles and allowing opponents to chalk up a few points, knowing that he would still have plenty in the gas tank and knock them silly at the end of the fight. Commentators would often imply that he got lucky somehow when what he really did was outwork and outsmart his opponents. I believe him to be hugely underrated. We can all learn a thing or two from Larry.
Any homesteader who does a combination of planting, building,
cutting firewood etc. will tend to stay in perfectly good physical condition without fiddling away time and energy at the gym in pursuit of store-bought muscles.
When trying to
sell a customer on the idea of hiring me to remove a building my brother once said, "He's an automatic working machine." I liked that one and have been using it ever since.
Here is a list of some of the extremes I will go to to avoid unnecessary effort while still getting lots done 1. I don't commute. Since my jobs are episodic and often have to be done very quickly I need to stretch the length of my days any way I can. Even if my job is only 10 miles from the
city I plan on living there until I'm finished. No distractions, no wasted time and no money spent driving.
2. I seldom bend over when removing
wood from buildings I'm demolishing. I generally heave stuff into a pile on the ground or into the back of a pickup truck and from there all other handling is done by customers who purchase those items. If I'm working with a helper I constantly remind them that once it hits the floor it's not mine to deal with.My back is strong but I avoid bending over in the name of efficiency. When I walk around a jobsite and something is out of place I'll often give a quick flick of my foot and send it to the appropriate pile. Hammers and pry bars resting on the floor are flicked to my hand juggler style.
3. Whenever it's possible to sit or lean against something I'll do it.
4. I constantly switch tools and methods until I find the one that gives me the most production with the least effort. I do this with helpers as well. If I show someone how to do a job several times and they fail to do it efficiently I put them onto something different. Those who can't do anything efficiently are laid off immediately.
5. I seldom travel more than a few extra steps in order to urinate. At the job site I'll piss in downspouts, laundry sinks, planters etc. In downtown Victoria most public washrooms have been closed to the public in a failed attempt to control our druggie population. I seldom search for bathrooms. Instead I'll stand with the vehicle door partially closed and pretend to look for something on my dash as I
pee in a Starbucks cup in front of the whole world.
6. I don't jump out of the way of little things that are about to fall on me. Whether I am yanking off drywall or knocking down saplings I allow the material to contact me in a controlled manner and use my body weight to direct where it falls. Quite often when cutting young
trees that are only 4 inches in diameter I'll whack them off at five feet high then as soon as the but hits the ground I do it again and again. If I'm quick enough I can have a 40 foot tree piled in front of me and I've avoided walking 40 feet. I would never do this with big heavy stuff. Too dangerous.
The list goes on. I'm not averse to hard work and the accompanying exercise. But I'm horrified by the thought of piddling away my time and energy on unpaid exercise.
Tell us some of the profitable ways that you've managed to stay in good shape.
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