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I have been chopping firewood a lot recently for the wood-burning stove.
Actually, I use an electric saw most of the time to cut the length of wood since our wood-burning stove isn’t so big and only short wood can fit in.
When I chop firewood with an axe or a wedge and a hammer, it is quite strenuous. When you hit the wedge with the hammer 10 times, you feel like resting for 10 seconds or so. It naturally becomes high-intensity interval training.
I can now see why Blue Zones’ lifestyle was healthy. Their everyday work was an exercise.
I knew it, of course, that was what was being said, but now I can kind of understand scientifically how each movement can become zone 2 aerobic exercise or strength training.
When they walked around, sometimes ups and downs, it became a zone 2 exercise. In the case of shepherds in Sardinia, Italy, they walked 8 kilometers a day chasing sheep.
When they used a hoe or axe, it became a strength exercise and usually zone 5 aerobic interval training, too, since they must have rested in between.
Having done both modern sports exercises and traditional work, I can now connect the two to see which one is equivalent to which.
That means we can reduce our daily exercise hours by incorporating daily chores into the exercise routine.