Strong Heart Recovery From Woodworking With Hand Tools

Today I demoed hard. I didn’t sweat in a polo shirt but I was breathing harder after five minutes of full-stroke ripcutting. I carried on more. In the UK it’s less easy for me to sweat no matter how hard I work, run, ride or whatever. Anyway, then I planed hard and breathed harder still as I waited for the blood pumped to regroup in my arms and the lungs to keep the pumping going. This never happens on the tablesaw and the planer or the bandsaw for that matter. In fact I never get a workout on any machine at all that I can think of nor have I ever. It’s the same with so called power tools and I never got a workout with a chainsaw or a skilsaw or a jigsaw. Remember that they’re called 'power' tools because they don’t need your power at all. In fact I get more of a workout with a coping saw than any of these except there is a little weightlifting involved in lifting and placing them to task for a fraction of a minute every so often; and perhaps a little pushing them to task as they do the cutting. I say all of this because I next told the students that there was nothing at all wrong with breathing heavy from hard work nor was there anything wrong with machines either. That it was indeed exceptionally good for me to get the workout from hand tools. Good for the heart and diabetes, the senses, the sensing wellbeing, the spirit and the spiritual wellbeing. All in all I personally feel better with upper body exercise like this much more than I do with running, skipping, jumping and so on. My heart pumps hard like this a dozen times a day in any given day.

I went on to say that there is nothing wrong with sweat and sweating, showering after work rather than before you can go to work seems good to me too. We all agreed and went back to work, but then this evening I received this letter I thought you might like to read so asked if I could post it for the benefit of the common good.

Hello Paul

It is mid morning here in Wyoming and I just returned from the cardiologist.

In several of your videos you talk about getting exercise while working the wood or "real woodworking." I wanted to share a brief real life story to give support to your exercise being part of working the wood. In November 2012 I had a major heart attack and again in October of 2013 I had a second major heart attack. The result of the two left me with only 65% heart function. I went through the regular heart attack recovery rehab both times, except after the second heart attack I returned to hand wood working. I went back to the doctor this morning for a full run of tests and the doctors were surprised that my heart function is now at 90% plus. They wanted to know what I had been doing to improve so drastically. I told them of the wood working, mainly using the plane (no 4 and 41/2). They asked me more details and I explained just what working the wood entailed. The three heart specialist from the University Of Utah Cardiology determined that it was the working of the wood that had increased my heart function to where it is today. I feel better and stronger now than I have in the last 40 years. So Paul, keep telling people about the exercise we get while working the wood. Now you have some medical evidence to support what you have been and are saying about the benefits of working the wood.

Blessings Jim

You know, even if I was wrong in what I have felt for years about hard physical work - and I'm not - just doing it yourself brings with it that sense of wellbeing you cannot buy. It's always worth doing it yourself because no one benefits more than you do.