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Can happily ride road and mtb for a good few hours and feel fine but... we have been doing the front garden, digging up old shrubs, roots, loads of ivy etc and then replanting with nice stuff. My God, I'm absolutely fubar'd after and hour of digging and ache all over the bext day. Be glad when it's all done!
Digging is uniquely brutal ha. I occasionally have to hand dig pits at work and every time I forget how bloody hard it is. Really satisfying though!
I was thinking about that this morning as I dug out an old bike I haven't ridden for a couple of years and found my abs lacking in strength. Climbing out of the saddle is something I virtually never do on my full sus bikes as it's less efficient/doesn't give you as much grip/there's no need.
Fully rigid singlespeed for the full body work out! Modern bikes are making us soft.
Bullet
Full Member
Can happily ride road and mtb for a good few hours and feel fine but… we have been doing the front garden, digging up old shrubs, roots, loads of ivy etc and then replanting with nice stuff. My God, I’m absolutely fubar’d after and hour of digging and ache all over the bext day. Be glad when it’s all done!
I need to go and do some local trail maintenance - I expect to then have to lie down for the next month
A digging revelation for me - as a very occasional digger who tends to have to do a lot of it on the rare occasions I am digging - is the tiny shovels that Roughneck make. I now only really use a proper size spade to break and the loosen the ground up a bit - the actual digging I do kneeling with one of these daft looking little things - works really well - the mechanics of it all just seem to be better (particularly if you're tall even though that looks even dafter). Less bending, better for your back and being smaller you don't overload the shovel - Dug in and planted mature 200 box hedge plants last christmas with one and no subsequent aches and pains.
Similarly I ride a lot, go to the gym twice a week as well. Thought I was reasonably fit for a 50 year old.
At Centre Parcs this week, played 45 mins of badminton and while I was fine playing and enjoyed the movement, running jumping etc, my body is in a world of hurt today! Glutes, hips and lower back are killing me!!
macruiskeen
Do you mean shovel or spade? the two are different tools for different purposes 🙂 spade for digging, shovel for moving loose stuff around
Just talking about something similar in the office – a few years ago I was training for a marathon and could run multiple miles just as I could ride all day without issue. I was advised to strengthen my core so booked a session with a personal trainer. I couldn't move properly for days and days.
Proper gardening is SO good for my core strength, digging especially. And then there is log splitting. Oh My Word- lift, place reach for the axe, swing, pick up, throw onto pile, stack. Repeat until wood is processed. My lower back reminds me about the efforts the next day. And although 'no pain is no gain' I wish there was an easier way.
When I was about 30 and my dad late 60's I remember him whipping my arse with a mattock. We are both wiry lanky but he had farm strength and technique. There is more technique and skill to swinging a axe, mattock spade etc than people realise.
My revelation was using an Irish Shovel also known as a Cornish Shovel, etc. with the long wooden handle
I can now stand all day digging with a comfortable upright posture using the longer handle as the lever, and my back has never complained since
And the design means it can easily be used both as a shovel and as a spade
macruiskeen
Do you mean shovel or spade?
one of each
Full size spade, little shovel
At my fittest I was running 3 or 4 times a week, usually 10 miles, and could easily knock off 50/60 mile road rides. I played 5 a side football and couldn't sit on the bog or walk downstairs, my legs were so sore. Realised I was some sort of reverse-crab, and could only move in a forward direction, not sideways.
Cut the hedge recently and couldn't lift my arms up afterwards. I wish I had farm/garden strength instead of middle class keyboard skills
You need to get yourself a round mouth shovel.
Good for a bit of everything (not the best for tidy shoveling though)
<p>I can smash a ten mile tt on the bike , but point me up a flight of stairs and I’m ruined. My fitness seems very one dimensional..</p><p>I don’t even attempt gardening, it absolutely ruins my back..</p>
I'm currently hand digging/double digging (and more) an area of c1200 sq ft of recently acquired additional garden.
Previous owner thought it was acceptable to dig holes and bury a variety of 'stuff'.
Buried to depth of 6' and more so there's been some excavation with trenching spit and mattock; brute force, ignorance and swearing might have featured - a little.
It's not finished - yet.
'Stuff' is a catch-all term to encompass...children's toys, fishing keep nets, 20 zillion pieces of lego, nappies, carpet, clothes, boots and so much more.
The question is...why?
I would happily staple the microcephalous idiot responsible through his foreskin to the nearest fence post.
EDIT: yes, it helps fitness and gives you aches where you didn't know you could get them.
Another one - a friend was trying for a cricket team so we had a session in the nets (me bowling) - I couldn’t use my right arm for days.
I couldn’t use my right arm for days.
Must have been frustrating....
And I'm ruined again... still, the curry and beer later should help 😀