for manual labor. Spent this weekend helping my Dad with some landscaping. Specifically, carting wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow full of soil from their front yard to the very rear of their backyard. And then tossing the soil, one shovel-full after another, over the waist-high wall back there. Stupid wall, without the wall I could've just dumped the soil straight from the wheelbarrow to the ground. Then carting back about 80 pounds of concrete slabs back to the front yard. And I thought shoveling snow was tough. Nothing quite like contending with embedded rocks and stubborn roots to really ruin your day. Damn good thing that the weather was nice and cool though. If we had done this a weekend or two earlier I would have passed out in half an hour.
I don't know how my Dad does it though. For someone in his early 60s with a balky back his strength and endurance is simply Herculean. Can't compete despite being half his age. And it's not like he does that much physical work normally either. Golf's the only physical past-time he does on a regular basis these days. But he still managed to single-handedly uproot 9 medium-sized bushes and do all the soil-carting for hours before I even got there on Saturday.
Ah well, I was never good in endurance trials anyway. There is a reason why I was a sprinter and not a long-distance runner in high school. ;-p Actually I'm not feeling that bad today. Just a little sore throughout with the brunt of it in my lower back. Guess it's a sign that I should start working out again. *sigh* Now I know how Spurlock hurt is wrist so quickly in his 30 Days episode where he tried to live on minimum wage and wound up doing gardening work for like $5/hour. Tilling the soil by hand is NOT fun. If anyone knows of any exercises for strengthening the back, let me know. ;-)
