Physical Conditioning

by Albin Drzewianowski

As you have come to learn, blacksmithing is a fairly physical activity. Between swinging a 2 1/2 - 3 pound hammer with one hand and tightly holding a pair of tongs with the other hand for a couple of hours can be really hard on the old body; especially if you are a hobbyist who can only forge once in a while. Just like many golfers and tennis players, we are susceptible to the "weekend warrior syndrome". This is a physical problem that affflicts normally sedentary people who go all out on the weekend and then regret it come Monday.

The way to avoid this is to do some excercise during the week, so that when the weekend forging session comes along, your muscles are ready for it. We, as blacksmiths, especially need to concentrate on wrist, arm and shoulder muscles. I have found that the following exercises have helped me make more of my forging sessions even when they are spread out, with less sore muscles afterwards.

Although the following section primarily focuses on the upper body, a complete body physical conditioning regime would not only be good for general health but wil add to your blacksmith experience. Another area that deserves special focus would be the lower back. We are always picking up heavy stuff and a good back exercise program goes a long way to protecting your back. It is really hard to be a blacksmith if you have a "bad" back.

I have found that high repitition with smaller weights is better than few repetitions of exercise with heavy weights. I like to use dumbells for this kind of conditioning. Start with 5 lbs. of weight and work up from there. Once you are up to 3 sets of 20 repititions, increase the weight.

• Military Press: Standing or sitting, hold the dumbells at the shoulder and press straight up. I like to alternate: push right arm up as left arm comes down.
• Triceps extension: Holding a dumbell straight up over head, bend at the elbow and let the weight come down to the back of the neck, keep the upper arm pointing up, then straighten the arm back up. I like to do one arm and then switch the dumbell and do the other arm.
• Curl: There are many ways to do this exercise. I prefer to sit on a bench, lean over slightly, rest my right hand on my left knee, then rest my left elbow on my right wrist and then curl the weight up from that position. One full set and then switch arms. This strictly isolates the exercise so that the only thing working is the biceps.
• Wrist curl: Again sitting on the bench I rest my right arm along my right thigh with my wrist just hanging over my knee, palm up. Let the wrist, holding the weight drop and then curl the wrist up. Do a full set then switch arms.
• Reverse wrist curl: The same as the wrist curl above, but with the palm facing down.

The exercises described above are just a few of the many that will exercise the muscles in question. You could also exercise the same muscles using a barbell instead of a pair of dumbells. Also there are exercises that you uses your body weight to strengthen them. The important point is to do some kind of exercise and perform the exercise using good form.

It is important to remember that most muscle operate in opposing pairs: Biceps vs. Triceps, Flexors vs. Ectensors, etc. So when you do weight training, be sure to always exercise the opposing pairs. If you only work 1/2 the equation, such as doing curls without triceps extensions, you will get out of balance. I have seen weight lifter/ body builders who over did the curls to the detriment of their triceps and they could not straighten their arms.

If any of my descriptionsof exercises above are not clear, get hold of a basic weight-training book and study the sections for exercising the arms and shoulders. Those books usually have good illustrations demonstrating proper form.

Talking about opposing pairs of muscles: We, as blacksmiths, spend alot of time squeezing/ gripping hammers and tongs. We develope fairly powerful grips. We need to exercise the opposing muscles, the ones in the forarms, which spread open our fingers - the opposite of the musles that close our fingers and grip the tools. For this, I like to use a heavy rubber band around my fingertips and then try to open my fingers and spread the rubber band. I keep one of these rubber bands by the computer and do this exercise a couple times a day. This exercise has frequently been recommended in the blacksmithing forums to help recover from carpenter's/tennis elbow and from carpal tunnel syndrome. I know it has helped me.

Another helpful exercise is to stretch the muscles, tendons and ligaments in the wrist: Keeping the palm flat, gently bending the palm back toward your forearm as far as it will go. Feel the stretch, but stop before any pain. Bend back and hold for a 20 or 30 count. Do the same with the other hand. Then do the opposite, again holding the palm flat and straight, bend forward at the wrist toward the forearm. Use one hand to push the other hand into position. Do 2 or 3 sets. I do these exercises every time I do the rubber band exercises and also before I start forging and often during a forging session while I for iron to heat up in the fire.

In general, blacksmithing is a physically demanding hobby. Most of our stuff is HEAVY. A regular exercise program even if just twice a week will prepare our bodies to deal with this kind of physical activity. The more sedentary your "day job", the more you need to consider exercise.

Another problem area for beginners is "soft hands". I see this often in my beginners' classes. By the end of Saturday's class, the student has blisters from hammering or holding the tongs. If you don't normally use your hands as we do when blacksmithing, you need to toughen up the hands. Playing video games or driving a computer doesn't count. I think that working with weights as described above helps with this. But some other kind of manual activity with the hands is needed to toughen them up to prevent blisters. Here I am somewhat at a loss of what to suggest, but the beginning blacksmith needs to be aware of this and try to find ways to toughen the hands. forging once or twice a week, even for just an hour or so can help in this regard.

Bottom line: if we prepare our boddies, when it comes time to forge, things will go better.

-- RebStaup - 23 Jan 2008