subject: A Replacement Fior Back-breaking Hard Work [print this page] The phrase "back-breaking hard work" is part of our American consciousness. It assumes that hard work will get you in the end, later, if not sooner.
The problem is that it's opposite, ease, is supposedly good for you. This is the way to avoid breaking your back, presumably.
We talk like this. When pretty much anything is difficult we refer it as being "back breaking". That's a condition which will permanently disable you, even kill you. Consequently, we avoid it at all costs.
Clearly, if you shovel coal for a living, you will probably get a back injury eventually. If you shovel snow for bad winter, interspersing that with getting the car out of snowbanks, you may find yourself at a chiropractor.. If you were a slave in ancient Egypt (building pyramids)you would probably have gotten a back problem very early on.
But, how many of us are in these circumstances today? Aren't most of us sitting in front of a computer or talking on the phone at a desk? These are sedentary activities, which are still referred to as back-braking work. That's when we over do it, becoming victims of stress.
So much for the realities of work and back difficulties. What I am concerned with is the effect of this type of thinking on our perceptions of the common workout. This is generally seen as too much for anyone if you're beyond high school age.
Friends, there is a widespread fear of hard workouts (which I have referred to elsewhere as workout o phobia. That's why so many don't do them. Some MDs are even wary of them when they know that regular and sustained physical exertion can ward off most of the maladies that plague our society (eg diabetes, stroke, heart disease, obesity). That's enough to make me think that the phrase "back breaking hard work" should be replaced by "great feeling consistent motion". Maybe if that were heard more often, there would be more people keeping their club memberships beyond the 90 day fall off point.
