Woodworking As Exercise?

Removing Table Saw Burn Marks with Scraper.

Saturday I got my dose of exercise by walking the dog, going bowling (as part of buying a new ball), and turning a bowl on the lathe in my garage woodworking shop. Is woodworking exercise? Some forms of work I perform can be considered exercise as demonstrated in the photo above. It took several hours of scraping on that walnut tabletop to remove the burn marks left by the table saw. This was definitely a physical endeavor, pushing the scraper over the wood, walking the length of the top multiple times as I cleared and smoothed the entire surface. The photo below shows this table in its finished form. (I need to improve my product photography...)

Other examples of woodworking as exercise involve strength conditioning while moving lumber and plywood through the production flow. A typical 4'x8' 3/4" sheet of plywood weighs between 60 & 75 lbs and is a bear to move around. In addition, I never sit while woodworking - I continuously walk from tool to tool to assembly table to finishing table and finally cart the finished product to its new home.

However, there are forms of woodworking that are less strenuous. For example, the last two weekends I turned two bowls on the lathe. Although I stand the entire time, there is not much physical effort except that needed to maintain precision while applying the tools to the wood. If there's anything to be said for this it is that I get to exercise my fine motor controls and hand-eye coordination to produce a quality turning.

Even if it's not a big calorie burn, I believe it is important to regularly exercise fine motor skills. I used to play golf (but gave it up due to how long it took to play a round) and I noticed over the years that any lapse in practice or play resulted in immediate loss of "touch" for the short game. The short game requires fine motor skills and not regularly practicing that aspect of the game results in subsequent performance loss.

Today (Monday) it was raining so I didn't walk Penny. I performed my KB strength 16 sessions with an extra 30 KB swings appended to the session. I was uncommonly sore and tired after the session, mostly due to a sleepless night.