Functional Fitness (Or, Why My Shoulders Are Sore Today)

Like many married couples, my husband and I have an agreed-upon division of labor. He (usually) takes out the trash and I (usually) do the grocery shopping. We mix and match tasks now and then, but for the most part, he's happy to do his thing and I'm happy to do mine.

 

He's been working really hard lately to finish our under-construction kitchen, so I decided to help him out yesterday by mowing the lawn. I haven't mowed the lawn in years. Seriously. Let's just say that by the time I finished, I was soaked with sweat and covered in grass clippings. Pushing that mower (even though it's gas powered) is hard work. I'm feeling it in my back and shoulders today.

 

It occurs to me that taking on a physical chore that you normally don't is a great way to spot gaps in your strength and places where you might want to strengthen (pun intended!) your fitness routine. Though I have really strong legs, my upper-body strength has always been somewhat lacking and my lawn-mowing experience really spotlighted that fact. I tend to go easier on my upper-body workouts simply because they're so hard for me, but I think I'm doing myself a disservice. I suspect that a good set of push-ups every day will go a long way toward improving my strength -- even though I hate doing them.

 

I'd love to hear what all of you do to build upper-body strength.

Comments

[Sagan]

Push ups TOTALLY do it:)

I always enjoyed shoveling snow.

[Girl on Top]

I have never been much of a lawn mower. My arms are so weak too and when I try to push, the mower doesn't move. So I gave up on it.

I'm living in an apartment now so hopefully my husband will take on that role once we decide to buy a house :)

[Dara Chadwick]

Sagan, I did some push-ups yesterday and my chest and arms are killing me right now. The key is to keep going. I was a 100 push-ups challenge drop-out because I wimped out.

Kaolee, I think that's how I worked up such a sweat while mowing -- that mower did not want to move.