What do you think? Do you need to exercise after spending an afternoon in your ward, mowing, pruning, scaring the cats with the leaf blower (see alternate leaf blower uses for that one), or is that all you need to do to stay in shape?
Exercise or Yardwork?
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JDgreen
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I hate to exercise but get plenty woith my yard chores, one day I wore a pedometer when push mowing and it told me I walked 2 1/2 miles and that is a typical yard care day for me. All my buildings are far apart and I do a lot of walking every day the weather is good.
JDgreen
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Kenny, I cannot recall who quoted it, maybe ir was Henry Ford, but a famous man once said "Thinking is hard work, that is why so many people avoid it". So maybe thinking about it would serve as your exercise? :biggrin:
Isn't that true!... you do not have to look very far to find some that regularly 'avoid it'... :laughing:
Thinking about NOT thinking about work is a pretty good workout... :smile:KennyV
Two-Stroke
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I believe that yard work and formalized exercise complement each other.
I lift weights three times a week which helps me when I have big, strenuous projects at the farm, like cutting down trees, moving them to my processing area, separating usable firewood, and organizing. I couldn't manage that if I didn't maintain my strength via weight training. The wood processing is good cross-training -- using slightly different muscles.
Using a push mower has some aerobic training benefit, if you maintain a good pace. I do a lot of cycling to maintain my aerobic capacity but it also substitutes for some car trips. I couldn't do three hours with the mower if I didn't do the cycling to stay in shape.
I lift weights three times a week which helps me when I have big, strenuous projects at the farm, like cutting down trees, moving them to my processing area, separating usable firewood, and organizing. I couldn't manage that if I didn't maintain my strength via weight training. The wood processing is good cross-training -- using slightly different muscles.
Using a push mower has some aerobic training benefit, if you maintain a good pace. I do a lot of cycling to maintain my aerobic capacity but it also substitutes for some car trips. I couldn't do three hours with the mower if I didn't do the cycling to stay in shape.
JDgreen
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Very well stated, "complement each other...." Twenty years ago I did my push mowing with an ordinary push mower, but now I use a self propelled model, it's the only kind I have now. When I do push mowing it's usually for two hours or more at a time...I sometimes wonder how many more calories I would burn up using myself for power to push the mower...but odds are I could not sustain pushing for the two hours I can with the sp type. One of the benefits of the sp type it will maintain a constant speed better than I could providing the power. I have rigged the engine speed on all my mowers so that they run faster than the factory setting provided, the extra 1/2-3/4 mph makes a big difference in the distance I walk while mowing. So far the only side effect I have noticed on the mowers is a slightly increased oil consumption in the oldest one (5 years of age) .