Keeping fit

[chain]

What is your ways of keeping fit especially in the dead of winter?

Whenever possible I walk and do light woods work. I think walking in the hills and mountains may be best overall, but I detest walking in flat muddy fields!

For pure exercise I thinking splitting firewood with a maul is excellent for keeping arms, shoulders, legs, in shape. Also relieves frustration and gives a sense of creating something useful.

[Magicman]

An afternoon swinging a chainsaw last week reminded me that I am un-fit.   :-\

[SLawyer Dave]

As my dad use to say, "Getting firewood warms you up 3 times, once when you cut it, once when you split it, and once when you burn it".  That doesn't even include when you are stacking and hauling it. 

After spending 4 years in a gym with a personal trainer trying to get myself just to the point I didn't feel like I was dieing from walking up a flight of stairs and bariatric surgery that helped me lose over 100 lbs, I found that cutting and splitting wood was fun again.  So I quit the gym and have been doing firewood for the last couple years as my "exercise routine".  This way rather than paying someone else to keep me working at something I really don't like, (exercise), I end up doing something I enjoy that results in valuable firewood that I give away to friends and family, and even sell a bit for some extra spending cash.

I try to process at least a cord a month using my Stihl 290 and 2 monster mauls.  I keep my mom filled up with wood, (her main heat), my step sister, my tenants, and this year a good friend of mine who just bought his first house.  I also sold 6 cords, (got one more to sell).  Going to use the money as extra spending cash when I take my mother, mother-in-law and wife to Hawaii in April. 

My doc says to keep doing whatever it is I am doing, (I also try to adhere to the Paleo Diet), I went from having Diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma and sleep apnea with a resting pulse of 77, (with all of the accompanying medicines), to normal blood pressure and sugar, no asthma/sleep apnea symptoms and a resting pulse of 52 and the only pill I take is a multivitamin.  While the years have certainly left their ravages, I haven't felt this good in close to 20 years.  So as long as I can continue to hold the saw and swing the mauls, I am going to do so. 

[thecfarm]

I know a guy that saws his winter wood with a bow saw,a new one man saw. His doctor wanted him to go to a gym because of his heart. He did not want the expense and the travel of it. He gets his wood in 4 foot lengths and saws it up through the year.

[Holmes]

 Chain  About how old are you?  My dad did a lot of hand cutting with a D saw , bow saw and splitting with ax and wedges and was very active til 90.  Personally I wear a pedometer "fitbit" and it keeps track of my milage every day. It can be an incentive to get up off the butt and put some milage on.  I also do a golf based exercise class twice a week , this has helped immensely with my stability and flexibility

[dgdrls]

YMCA, 3 days a week minimum.

1) Arc Trainer AKA the punishment machine, 20-25 minutes to warm up and get a good sweat going,

2) upper and middle body weights/machines.

3) Five minutes on the stair climber to finish, move at 60 steps a minute minimum

all low impact stuff, I give an honest hour or more each time I go

I feel better;  physically and Mentally, look better (subjective of-course) ;), work better.

DGDrls

[Peter Drouin]

With all the wood I saw and pick up and put down is all the exercise I need  :D :D
Friday the 8"x 8" x 8' beams will get a mans hart going , :D :D 8)

[drobertson]

My wife wants to get back into the winter time exercise routine, I think Peter said what I told her, a day at the mill, sawing wood for the stove, and machine work is a plenty, although walks in the timber always feel good, lots of hills to work the cardio,    david

[Peter Drouin]

A walk with the wife is most times a good thing  :D 8)

[pineywoods]

A walk with the wife is most times a good thing  :D 8)

Amen to that. Wish I could take a walk with mine. I can't keep up with her power wheelchair  ;D