Rigging can be a physically intense activity, but, like sailing, it also features long periods of minimal motion. In addition, rigging work, like sailing, is not quite balanced in terms of an ideal, full-body workout, so it's easy to get complacent about being fit, only to find oneself with unexpected strains and sprains from loading weak points. So whether you are doing rigging as a vocation, or just as an adjunct to sailing, it is important to take the physical demands of the job into account.

   I've found that the single most important thing I can do to make the work more healthful is to concentrate on good body mechanics, just like all those posters in your chiropractor's office urge you to do. You can get away with poor form for a long time, neglecting posture, putting unfair loads on your spine, moving suddenly, overtwisting, etc., but you can bet that your body remembers every instance of abuse, and will get even one day. I often hear of people whose backs have gone out; they "weren't doing anything", just reaching for a coffee cup or tying their shoes and Wham!, the ol' spine did the trauma mambo. But bodies don't give out like that, they hang on for as long as they can, doing what they were evolved to do for as long as possible, fighting to maintain integrity while being heaped with abuse. Sounds heroic, doesn't it? Well it is. That reach-for-the-coffee-cup only brings pain after a great deal of valiant struggle to keep things going.

   After good mechanics, the next most valuable fitness tactic is to concentrate on full range of motion, as long as this doesn't interfere with good mechanics. The idea is that your body is happiest if it is used most fully, with all the joints and muscles and ligaments articulating to their designed limits. That's why I'm in danger of irritating my carpal tunnels if I sit at this keyboard too long, especially if my hands and wrists are at a bad angle, and if I don't pause regularly to stretch them. Likewise if I'm hauling myself aloft, my shoulder and back muscles are much less likely to be strained if I make long, smooth pulls, not short jerky ones. It's fun to find range-of-motion opportunities throughout the day, for everything from running splices home to cutting leather to walking across the room and reaching for that coffee cup. And as a little experiment will show, full range of motion is one of the major components of that ineffable quality we call "grace", so being healthy can also lead to being lovely.

   Strength also matters in rigging, whether for the abovementioned trips aloft, or for shifting masts and booms, or just lugging your tools around. Unlike sailing, which has a fairly narrow series of ritualized physical activities, rigging is wonderfully varied and complex, in terms of the demands it puts on your body. Yesterday, for example, I climbed a mast, and hung sideways to drill a hole while up there. Later we tuned a rig, which involves a great deal of standing, squatting, and twisting. Later still, I spliced some wire, which involves stooping, pulling, and pushing, as well as standing over the wire and trying to work a spike into it. All of these activities require varying degrees of strength, so the prudent rigger will prepare accordingly, by hitting the gym on any days when doing so is not precluded by utter exhaustion from doing rigging.

   And the gym can be a wonderful place indeed when you are there to help do good work better, as opposed to trying to build a body that looks like you do. I know that my predecessors in this art didn't mess around with dumbbells in their day, but then a lot of them were too busted up to do what I'm doing at my age, too. I use the gym as a tool to prolong and make safer my working life. To make sure that your time in the gym is productive, read all you can about body mechanics, and how the different exercises work and what they do. Books by bodybuilders tend to be more valuable than those by weightlifters, as bodybuilders look at a wider spectrum of muscles and their functions. If you are fortunate to work with a trainer who is capable of adapting exercises to suit your needs, all the better.

   As far as specific exercises go, I spend a lot of time on chinup-type work, either on a bar or a lat machine, supplementing those with curls, bent-over rows, seated rows, assorted flyes, and other exercises to build pulling muscles. And though there is more pulling than pushing in rigging, I also work hard at bench presses, triceps extensions, and other pushing exercises. Mixed in there are a bunch of rotator cuff exercises, shrugs, lunges, squats, and whatever looks interesting in whatever magazine is lying around. Variety keeps things fresh, plus the work in the shop presents a constantly varying series of physical demands; it makes sense that the gym work mirrors those demands. That is also why I work exclusively with dumbbells instead of barbells; your arms are seldom locked together with a horizontal bar in the real world.

   But the first thing I do, every session, is some form of stomach crunch and back lift; the spine is what makes all the other exercises possible. These exercises aren't dramatic, won't give you massive pecks, and nobody ever asks, "Hey, how many crunches can you do?" But do them as though they were the most important part of your workout, because they are.

   The last thing I do is stretching, long and thorough and easy, after all the muscles are warmed up.

   For the aerobic portion of the program, try something that involves arms as well as legs, like the Nordic Track. Or better still, how about taking up one of the livelier forms of yoga, or one of the more circular forms of aikido. You'll get exhausted, stretched, and peaceful, all at the same time.

   Fair leads,

      Brion Toss