Wheelbarrow Workout

I’m not a workout sort of woman, I never was and don’t expect that to change. I was functionally fit in my twenties, I cycled as a mode of transport from school going age and when I moved to live in London during the 80′s recession I continued to cycle. It was a great way to get around the city, to commute to work and to visit friends even though I always owned a car for longer trips. I often played volleyball and squash, during my lunch breaks, with colleagues from work. I could happily what I wanted and never put on much weight, except at Christamas and I would work that off in a matter of weeks.

Life changes and not always the way you expect it to. I returned to Ireland because I had had enough of big city life, of concrete and of people who didn’t acknowledge each other in the street, of having to work really hard to even get neighbours to chat. I had an accident and then one of life’s hard knocks happened around the same time and I was out of action for some months. I never got back into the old habits of activity and slowly over the years I have become less active and gradually more overweight.

Today though I did have a workout of sorts. The movements involved were lift and throw, also pull and push. It didn’t involve a gym or a crossfit class, instead it involved a wheelbarrow and a pitchfork. I am sure everyone knows what a wheelbarrow is, a pitchfork on the other hand may not be so familiar. It is a long wooden handled farm implement, used often in days gone past when people still made hay. It was used to pitch hay onto a haycock which was a large pile of hay, (hay being dried grass which used to be fed to livestock over the winter months).

I was moving a large pile of partially composted cut grass and rushes from one end of the field to the other, unfortunately for me I was going uphill with the full load. I lifted and tugged at the pile with the pitchfork to fill the wheelbarrow. I then pulled the wheelbarrow up the field to empty it, creating a new pile of composted grass where it was needed, beside out compost bins. We use the old grass and rushes to cover whatever is thrown into the compost bin and the conveniently placed pile was all used up which explains why I was doing my workout.

Wheelbarrow Workout Equipment

I tried to push the wheelbarrow up the hill however I was also pushing myself by doing that and I am certain that I was working at over 70% of my heart rate. I know this because I had to stop a few times over the 150yard trip, I could not have spoken and I could feel my heart rate going up uncomfortably high. Mark Sissons advises against working at this level in The Primal Blueprint, urging us instead to work at 55% – 75% of maximum heart rate in order to avoid what he terms as Chronic exercise.

I was happy to oblige and pull the wheelbarrow up the hill, pushing it back down. I did alternate my grip on the handles from overhand to underhand and could feel the strain in different muscles so I am assuming that this was beneficial.

How many repetitions does this exercise involve? Well, a few repetitions until lunchtime and then a few more afterwards. I didn’t get over-technical about this bit. I lifted heavy things, pulled and pushed heavy things for about 2hours. I think that counts as a workout.

Maybe I am a workout woman after all…