John Berry wrote:
Very true.
But normal exersize as comes from manual labor is not effective, or
do builders etc... look different in the US? ;)
As I mentioned yesterday, many modern laborers do not get much
exercise. They often sit on machinery most of the day, getting about
as much exercise as a truck driver. People bailing hay with modern
equipment hardly do any work. It is skilled and dangerous work but it
does not call for much strength. They pick up gigantic bales with a
tractor equipped with a long pointed steel pole. , whereas in the
1960s hay bailers produced 50 pound bales that people would throw
onto the top of the stack in the barn. (I used to do this, and I
think they weighed about 50 lbs, but one Internet source says 75 to
100 lbs. Anyway, we used to throw them a considerable distance, stack
them, and put salt on them to prevent spontaneous combustion.)
A friend of mine in the construction business still swings heavy
tools and carries loads of wood, and he is as strong as an ox, but he
is fat. His problem is that he does not do as much work as he used to
now that they have pneumatic hammers, forklifts and other machinery
to pick up bricks and heavy lumber, but he still eats lumberjack
portions of food the way he and his father did decades ago.
I was with an old fashioned carpenter in his 60s yesterday who was
thin and muscular the way most carpenters used to be. He is fixing my
back porch, and he better do it soon, or it will fall down. Speaking
of which, if anyone here knows about this fake plastic lumber
substitute stuff that people use to make decks, please contact me by
direct e-mail.
- Jed
