I was online today looking at "Warhammers" by different companies. Basically these are rubber sledgehammers that you can use to get a workout in.
Rubber sledgehammers. You put weight in them and swing them.
How about buying a real sledge and a grenade/splitter and cracking a stump? Or an axe and splitting some wood? I know not everyone can do that , I guess. Going to a gym is more, convenient. I reckon it's convenient.
I was just real fortunate to grow up with a hundred or so acres of woods behind my house in Maryland. Some of the land was owned by people, some by the Park System, some by the Army or Navy. They actually tested bombs back there, underground. One actually shattered a window in our house. "They" came by fast to replace it. Some "Area 51" things were going on back there we always assumed.
Anyway, there were always stumps to split with splitter/grenade and sledge and then wood to split with an axe. I had no idea that chopping all that wood would become a staple of so many workouts.
It was GPP or MPP or PPP or OPP . Who knows?
I just know that my Dad told me to do it and if he didn't, I enjoyed the hell out of doing it anyway, so I just did it. I wonder when he let me do it on my own? Seventh grade? Something like that, I guess. I loved surprising him by having a bunch of wood done when he got home. I'd leave it scattered in the yard, all split up so he could survey my work.
I have to admit that the best was when Dad had a few tons of dirt dropped off at the top of the hill at the road above our house, and I would have to wheelbarrow it down the hill, about 50 yards, into the backyard and spread it out to build up his garden.
When my first Labrador, Dutch, was a puppy, he ran up and down and up and down the hill each time I used the wheelbarrow, and by the time I was finishing up, he lay belly down in the dirt garden , exhausted. The dirt was cool on his belly. And he had enough. Maybe that is next!? The workout of shovel and dirt. Fake dirt and a shovel made of rubber. Folks are already using wheelbarrows filled with weight.
I think that the best way to do all of this stuff is to actually do it. Find some stumps and split 'em. Use an axe with a finishing purpose. It seems much more rewarding than hitting a tire. That actually just made me giggle. It is a sign of society being one more step away from stuff being real. Thank Odin for my Father and real work.
When the wood is split, you can use it. Burn it, stack it or build something with it.
I have been doing a bunch of kettle bell swings, everyday. I like them, they make my back feel great. But the real reason is because it reminds me of doing work in the yard in Maryland. But, really, it is not the same. Being outside and seeing the work done and working and working on a stump and then driving that sledge into the splitter, deep into it and cracking it in two is much more rewarding. That is work.
And you don't have to put a name to it. You just do it and relish the sweat and the burning of your forearms and lungs and you wonder why everyone doesn't really do the work. It is much more rewarding.
