Manual Labour

[search1ng]

Alright guys, so Uni is out for the next few months and I managed to get a manual labour job through a friend for the holiday. (Her father is the manager or w/e)

Anyway, I'll be working with steel, etc. And i was just wondering what kind of effects this will have on the body? I've got a builder friend that hits the gym with me and he's a lean, mean functional machine. However, the type of body movements manual labourers engage in are obviously different.

So what i want to know is what are some general good side effects and bad side effects that can occur in relation to this type of work. Aside from the money i'll be making.

Also, my plan is to still hit the gym 4-5x a week as usual. Will this work allow me to throw out cardio apart from the occasional bball game/lap swimming?

P.S how much can i expect as a starter @ 20 yrs of age?
edIt: I'm in Australia

 

[ThreeStorms]

Manual Labour will always give you an advantage over those pussified computer workers like myself

 

[Julius_Seizeher]

Manual labor kicks ass! I grew up on a farm, that was nothing but sore muscles and sweat. Then in college I worked for my family building houses. Now I'm Mr. Cushy Financial Guy, but I miss getting my hands tore up and gettin 'er done.

Good thing I came home this weekend, I'm gonna go cut firewood and put a tractor back together!

 

[Fuglydude]

Manual labor rocks!! The muscles and movements you doing manual labour are very different from movements that most people do in the gym. Adding variety to the activities you do is very beneficial for making progress. Just be cautious about overtraining. I certainly wouldn't be going to the gym 4x a week if I was doing heavy manual labor 40-50 hrs/week.

You're young, so your metabolism is likely pretty high. If you're doing 8-10 hrs/day of heavy manual labour you'll have a tough time eating enough calories to grow. You will be able to loose fat rapidly and get really well conditioned.

Overall manual labor is a great part of an active lifestyle but due to level of physical activity required you'll have to eat A LOT to get enough calories to put on significant muscle. However, you shouldn't have any issues getting lead/conditioned.

Good luck.

 

[search1ng]

Sweet, I'll be eating protein as everything as usual via bars, natural meats, etc. But one of my main goals apart from earning some cash was to get ripped for summer. (It's summer in Aus now) Sounds like this will help out heaps, then i can worry about bulking once winter or something comes around.

 

[jocca]

Lucky. I'm actually thinking that same thing and am also from Australia. Cant seem to find anyone to hook me up though which is annoying.