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Yeah well, when repeating exercises you're becoming good at... the exercises! ;) But not much more.. (OK, I'm simplifying a bit, you do a favor to your body an

by kunley 15y ago

Yeah well, when repeating exercises you're becoming good at... the exercises! ;) But not much more.. (OK, I'm simplifying a bit, you do a favor to your body and that will benefit you; but I'd aim for a broader point of view). By working at the building site, for example, you train your body and your mind to respond in constantly changing situations. I don't know if something like "muscle memory" has a proper scientific background, but I strongly believe there's something in it. You have to focus, you have to be careful, do things in the right moment, be aware what's going on around, have some introspection of your strength - what you can do and what can't. Whether it is laying concrete or making a wooden roof, the kind of awareness needed is pretty much similar. Plus you spend a lots of time in the fresh air inevitably (at the building site there's no building yet, right? :) which is IMO crucial. From what I saw the most rewarding physical job I can imagine is to help someone with the carpentry, esp. making roofs. The wood is so beautiful. There's also one feature of physical work I'm personally very fond of: you usually see direct effects of what you've done very quickly. This is in a big contrast to modern coding, where there are so many layers of abstraction and inter-dependency, we sometimes build stuff months and to the very end we don't know if it really succeeded or not. I have a private theory that instant feedback is very good for psyche.

psykotic 15y ago
> By working at the building site, for example, you train your body and your mind to respond in constantly changing situations You mean like most competitive sports in existence? Your comparison is also overlooking the physical and mental aspects that are missing in everyday physical work. What you have to become both mentally and physically to deadlift 600 pounds or snatch 250 pounds cannot be emulated. It's a process that takes years and requires constantly overcoming your own fears and perceived limits. When you step under the bar and walk it out in preparation for a heavy back squat, the weight wants to drive you into the floor and you are struggling to even keep yourself standing. But now you have to squat all the way down and all the way back up, for several repetitions multiplied across several sets. That's one exercise for one day. You now have to do that several times a week, for years.
- kunley 15y ago
  Hey.. physical working is not lifting heavy stuff all the day, you know... esp. not when doing carpentry which I explicitly recommended. Your physical effort is kinda split into small chunks, you do different things! It's hardly like a competitive sport, where you do the same small closed set of things for, say, two hours, without interruption. Please also consider that sports, while wonderful, are still somewhat artificial activity. It's not what you do to get things done, it's just some extra stuff.

by kunley 15y ago

psykotic 15y ago

> By working at the building site, for example, you train your body and your mind to respond in constantly changing situations You mean like most competitive sports in existence? Your comparison is also overlooking the physical and mental aspects that are missing in everyday physical work. What you have to become both mentally and physically to deadlift 600 pounds or snatch 250 pounds cannot be emulated. It's a process that takes years and requires constantly overcoming your own fears and perceived limits. When you step under the bar and walk it out in preparation for a heavy back squat, the weight wants to drive you into the floor and you are struggling to even keep yourself standing. But now you have to squat all the way down and all the way back up, for several repetitions multiplied across several sets. That's one exercise for one day. You now have to do that several times a week, for years.

kunley 15y ago
Hey.. physical working is not lifting heavy stuff all the day, you know... esp. not when doing carpentry which I explicitly recommended. Your physical effort is kinda split into small chunks, you do different things! It's hardly like a competitive sport, where you do the same small closed set of things for, say, two hours, without interruption. Please also consider that sports, while wonderful, are still somewhat artificial activity. It's not what you do to get things done, it's just some extra stuff.