Staying Healthy; Roofers, Carpenters and Construction Workers

There are many different kinds of work we can choose to do in life. And many of us have pursued or been forced to pursue, out of necessity, different fields of work. One such field I pursued, not particularly by choice, but I’m grateful to have done it, is roofing. Growing up, my Dad had a roofing business, so naturally, I wanted to do what he did and make some money at the same time. If I was ever on the fence of whether or not I wanted to go to college, tearing off and cleaning up 100 year old cedar shake shingles gave me a hard push off the fence. For those unfamiliar, cedar shake shingles are essentially small wooden planks used to cover roofs decades ago. Sometimes, these old and dusty shingles are simply covered by new shingles or 3 layers of shingles because people don’t want to tear them off. To make a long story short, it's awful taking care of these and you will end up sneezing out black dust for quite literally a week or longer. Of course that's not the only difficult part of roofing, it's also middle of the summer, 100 degrees out you have to carry 100 lbs bundles of black shingles that burn your hands if you touch them. So anyways, it's hard work and motivated me to never want to do it again, so I went to school and became a fitness coach.

You may be wondering why I am discussing roofing, one reason is that my Dad still runs a roofing business, kirks5starroofing.com, if you are in Michigan and need a roof check them out, and roofing still haunts me. He wrote a blog as well, Roofing is Hard Work, discussing the need for exercise and I’d like to elaborate upon that by offering up some tips to my fellow roofers, construction workers and carpenters. It has been about 10 years since I have worked on a roof so some things may have changed. Regardless, I think this will help out many people. Here is how to live a long, healthy and fit life as a roofer.

Number one is a simple one but I know it's often neglected. Hydration. Everyday, most guys would bring a gallon of water, half frozen, up on the roof to drink throughout the day, which is awesome! And a lot of crews bring those big Gatorade coolers out full of water, kudos to the boss. Keep doing that but let's incorporate some electrolytes into that mix. Pure water will not hydrate you properly. When it's 100 degrees outside you are losing loads and loads of electrolytes. Gatorade and Powerade are cool but that can get expensive and sometimes, at least for me, I don’t like having those because it makes the saliva get all thick in my mouth. I don’t know what that is, probably the sugar. Get electrolytes like Nuun or LMNT and just dump it into your gallon. You need it throughout the day, not just one drink. The next part of hydration that I know many people in this industry are missing is before work and after work. Before, its a cup of coffee or an energy drink. After, come on guys, you know, it's beer. Now, I’m not going to be unreasonable and say don’t enjoy a drink after a long day of work, but you do need to continue incorporating water with electrolytes to prepare your body for the next day. Not only does proper hydration affect your performance and how you feel, it will also help to keep your joints healthy by keeping your entire body properly hydrated.

Number two, something I NEVER did and never seen anyone do to any major extent is warm-up. Often, we’d show up to a roof, bull shit with each other for a few minutes and immediately start busting our ass tearing off shingles. It's like showing up to a track and not even walking one lap around, just immediately going into sprints. Not a wise decision. As goofy as it might look, a proper warm-up will not only keep you injury free, it will make your day go smoother with less aches and your body will be physically and mentally prepared to work. Check your ego, warm-up, keep your body healthy. While you're checking your ego, check this link for an example of some warm-up exercises. This also goes for when you come back from lunch. If you have more than 30 minutes off you'll need to warm-up again. Maybe not as long but just something quick. It takes 5 minutes and it can spare you from a lifetime of pain and injury. 

Along the same lines of a warm-up is a proper cool down. You don’t have to spend an hour doing yoga. This one you don’t even have to do at the job site. Once you get home take 15 minutes to stretch and breathe. Check out this Instagram post if you need something to follow, it takes less than 5 minutes. The reason a cool down is important is that you end up doing a lot of repetitive movement up on the roof or even if you are on the ground cleaning up. You often get caught up using the same side of your body over and over. Stretching out helps overcome some of this imbalance. Over time those imbalances will turn into injury. Another reason you need a cool down is the same reason we reach for a beer after a long day. To relax. The thing a cool down will do, particularly taking deep breaths, is calm your physiology. While you may not realize it, you have adrenaline pumping through your body all day long and you need to let your body know it's ok to stop. Drinking a beer probably does help this actually but first take 3 minutes to focus on deep breathing to do it naturally before enjoying that Busch Light.

All of this probably seems like a lot and at the same time is easy to roll your eyes at. I can assure you though if you spend years and years doing manual labor, it will catch up to you, unless you take care of your body. Stay hydrated, get a solid warm-up in and stretch it out afterwards. Throw in eating some salads as well, I know how the eating situation goes.

If you have loved ones in the construction industry be sure to share this article with them!

For any of those over-achievers who want to get even more in-depth about getting healthy, send me a message and we can discuss what that would look like. 

And for those in Michigan who are still hiding 3 old layers of shingles and a layer of cedar shake, get in touch with Kirk’s 5 Star Roofing to get a fresh roof put on your house.