Body care

S

Scheffa

Participating member
Location
Australia
Hey all.
Looking to start a conversation on tips and tricks people have learnt over the years to help look after our bodies in this industry.

Aside from the external forces that cause us injuries, cuts, break, fractures etc

Ways to mitigate the daily work places on our bodies, whether that be climbing, falling trees or simply dragging branches.

Stretches you have found helpful, supplements, vitamins, exercises etc

Turning 35 this yea and been climbing for 8 years, probably time I started to maintain the body a bit more to get some more life out of it, other than the staple tree cutters diet of red bull and ciggies
 
I try to get a massage every two weeks. I’ve had the same massage therapist for around a decade. Having someone good that learns your body and what you consistently have issues with is helpful. She does a form of massage called structural integration which has worked well for me. Instead of just chasing and working on the symptom, she is looking for and working the root of the problem.

I do no supplements. Just water and food during the day. No caffeine in my diet. My vice is a beer or two a few too many times a week.

Forearm roller is helpful when my arms are worked.
 
Your body is designed to work and fully repair itself when given the tools to do so. So what you eat will have the greatest impact on long-term health.

If you look around, it becomes obvious that current nutritional information and guidelines are failing, big-time. Length of life means little if it does not include workable health.
 
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Truth^ that's probably better than red bull and cigarettes.. I would include my grandpa is 93 and retired from tree work at 89 started in 1957 climbing and he never did anything special that i know of, but I always remember him eating well balance meals anytime I was with him.
 
It's likely I'm preaching to the choir here, but, in my 20s, I had it ingrained to always wear hearing protection in noisy environments. Gradually losing your hearing over the years is painless, which results in too many people neglecting their hearing. Pains me to see young workers who just can't get on board with wearing hearing protection (and shame on supervision that permits it.)
 
Dan Cobb said:
It's likely I'm preaching to the choir here, but, in my 20s, I had it ingrained to always wear hearing protection in noisy environments. Gradually losing your hearing over the years is painless, which results in too many people neglecting their hearing. Pains me to see young workers who just can't get on board with wearing hearing protection (and shame on supervision that permits it.)
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I'm guilty of once in a blue moon making a quick cut with a saw or starting up the chipper to shred a forgotten branch without putting my muffs down or earplugs in. It's often less than 30 seconds, but my ears are usually ringing afterward. I couldn't imagine doing that all day.

The new electric stuff is scary. They're just as loud as an ICE, but at a different frequency that doesn't feel as painful even though it's doing just as much damage. I've sometimes found myself cutting away in a tree and suddenly realize I can hear everything going on around me (meaning I forgot to put my ear pro on). That never happens with my gas saws.
 
There is a line of thinking that pain vs pleasure guides our choices in life. When I was working through some debilitating back issues and a weekly yoga class wasn't cutting it I started into a rehabilitation program that had me exercising 45 min to an hour a day. That amount of time was painful for me to put in and I would often avoid it.

Later I found a practice of "stretching" or movements that, once learned, I could go to a daily maintenance routine that took 10 or 12 minutes. That along with the fact that I could once again work as hard and as long as I wanted in a day was a pleasure - easy to do almost every day of life in the years since.

Get the book Somatics by Thomas Hanna and read the first 43 pages and you will see why and how it works. The movements are basically what a cat or dog does every time they get up - stretch into a full range of motion then consciously and slowly release. This reminds the muscles how to release, something that if you have pain or tightness they are not doing - even while you sleep. There is also a woman providing the same information on the website, (essentialsomatics.com). Her name is Martha Peterson.
 
RyanCafferky said:
I try to get a massage every two weeks. I’ve had the same massage therapist for around a decade. Having someone good that learns your body and what you consistently have issues with is helpful. She does a form of massage called structural integration which has worked well for me. Instead of just chasing and working on the symptom, she is looking for and working the root of the problem.

I do no supplements. Just water and food during the day. No caffeine in my diet. My vice is a beer or two a few too many times a week.

Forearm roller is helpful when my arms are worked.
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Great to have someone skilled in structural integration for such a long time. Have several friends who went to Lee Joseph’s, pacific center for awareness and bodywork that focuses on structural integration. Best body work I’ve experienced.
 
Boomslang said:
Yoga - and not that hot girl bs that's ubiquitous with it nowadays. Do some Yin
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Yin is the only kind of yoga I’m interested in as well, I believe the other types are good for people with different lifestyles but the way we work our bodies all day Yin is great for balancing out.
 
I love a good of mix of all depending on life factors . I think checking out a variety of yogis will help . Here's a good session, ive watched alot of thier vids and follow along. That meets alot of what was said so far. Good blend of strengthening and stretching.
 
Mick Dempsey said:
60 this year, climb, drag and cut most days.
A good bed and a good settee.
Bottle of wine a night (not the strong stuff)
Don’t lift anything heavy, ever.
Don‘t jump off trailers or the back of trucks.

Oh yeah, I’ll go with the eating well thing.
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Man I’m glad to see another reciting this super simple but often ignored piece of advice. I give it to every new guy and scold my coworkers when I see them do it.
 
Hate to say it, but pretty much everything in that yoga video is an example of what I can't do or should avoid because of pain, reaggravating an injury or causing a fresh tear or strain. Getting older sucks. Rule of thumb reduce/remove heavy loading or impacts rings true. Props to the limber agile folks of the world.
 
Yo Bart, that's one example of dude who's practices hours daily and has for years even at an older age if you stuck it out and did with conviction you could get there . That's one of my favorite vids but there's millions out there start slow and see where your end range is with each moment and movement. I would add the balancing poses are very attractive to practice from a climber perspective. I don't know about being agile if that hereditary to some degree I'm sure but staying limber is a choice. I started yoga after a back injury years ago to rehab and couldn't do half the poses properly I can do now. But it's alot of time invested to get there.. don't do things that cause you pain. No pain no gain doesn't work in regards to this practice..
 
Mick Dempsey said:
60 this year, climb, drag and cut most days.
A good bed and a good settee.
Bottle of wine a night (not the strong stuff)
Don’t lift anything heavy, ever.
Don‘t jump off trailers or the back of trucks.

Oh yeah, I’ll go with the eating well thing.
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Love this post except for the alcohol, just because I am 17 plus years sober. Fuck heavy lifting, I pay guys to do that....Yup knees are not absorbing shock after 35.... I am 55. I eat a lot but balance it out....32 waist and 176lbs ....at 6'..... Hate a gym....love running but dialed that back in last 2 years....work is more than enough...never stretch either.....do that in a tree often....hmmmm I just think I keep very active....play beach paddle ball.... run around behind my 8 and 11 year old....
 
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