Heating with wood and having a bad back

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EJL923

Minister of Fire
Oct 29, 2009
599
Western Mass
Im not sure where this would go, but ill start in the wood shed as that's where having a bad back would matter the most. Another thread inspired me to start a new one. How do people with bad backs deal with heating with wood? It is obviously strenuous if you process wood yourself. Even if you get wood delivered, there is stacking, and constantly bringing wood indoors. Anybody have any tips? Maybe some equipment which helps move wood easier?
 
Nothing easy about it. Iam starting to look for smaller trees.....Bottom line your moving a lot of weight. I work off from my knees every chance I get. (Lots of back issues) Sure I will take heat from this post....
 
haha, true. But im the same way. Try to get the wood as close to the stack as possible, which sometimes means kneeling down, throwing the wood closer, then kneeling down to stack. Ive managed large rounds at times, rolling the round up one of my legs. There are times and i can pick up wood all day without kneeling down, and then there are times where my loving wife will bring the wood in for me because i couldn't pick up a pound of sugar, shes a saint. There's definitely lots of rolling logs around.
 
Get a tractor and wagon to move from pile to porch etc. Like jay said, work from your knees = less bending over. Try to handle the wood as few times as necessary. Split it where your going to stack it. Plan your wood moving on days you feel good. That means DONT wait until the last minute. Most importantly.....get ahead in your wood supply.
 
Bocefus78 said:
Most importantly.....get ahead in your wood supply.

Couldn't agree more. If you are ahead, you can process wood when your back feels good, and sit on the couch when you're hurting.
 
Believe it or not, splitting wood actually makes my back feel better. I have a few herniated discs and pretty much chronic pain. Running the chain saw is way worse on my lower back than swinging the maul.
 
I believe it helps the back if you work smarter not harder.

Work with a size you can handle safely.
Lift with knees.
Keep it close.
Take your time.
Don't over reach or twist.
Listen to you body.

I find taking 2 aleve (nsaid) anti-inflammatory 1 hour before I process really helps me. I am 39 with 2 bad discs and some nerve issues down the leg. I processed/scrounged about 6-7 cords this year of Oak/Maple/Pine all processed by hand no splitter and no helper.

X
 
EJL923 said:
How do people with bad backs deal with heating with wood?
Maybe not the answer you are looking for, but you already hinted at my main back saving solution when you mentioned your loving wife. Get help when you need it.
If I have something to do, that I know is likely to aggravate my back, I'll call my teen age sons to either help, or take care of the task at hand by themselves. Knowing when to not to attempt doing something by myself has had the most profound effect on saving me from further back injury.
Of course my solution may not help anybody that doesn't have that sort of help availible, but I think it's worth mentioning since it has become such an integral part of my back saving regime.
 
I am a firm believer in machinery and equipment. Loader tractor, splitter with a lift, a yard cart that is higher than most being pulled by a garden tractor and a two wheel cart to bring wood into the garage. For the most part, if there is a way to take weight off of me, I have it pretty well engineered into the process.

Edit: find the part of the process that causes the most trouble and then try to figure out a solution, then repeat. That would be my suggestion. I realize that there are a couple of areas that you can only go so far, like the actual running of the saw, but there are many other points to be looked at.
 
I don't have a bad back per se, but my lower back can give me a fit to the point that I will have trouble walking, doing stairs, even lying in bed after working with wood. I get mine delivered and already split most of the time, but I do occasionally get a free windfall. I use a log rack that is waist high and that helps. Bucking and splitting usually cause little problems, believe it or not it is the damn hauling around to the back and bending over to stack that gets me. Once the stack is above knee length, it gets easier. If I don't use my lawn tractor and trailer, like when the ground is soft, I use a two-wheeled barrow. I pace myself. and take breaks. Just don't break too long or you will stiffen up!
 
Ive been wondering if a two wheeled wheelbarrow would be better on the back... I suppose it would be more stable and therefore cause less stress on the back.
 
A hookaroon can allow you to pick up splits and load them in the wheelbarrow without bending over. Good for a change of pace.
 
A couple of things that work well for me, as insurance:

Use lightest saw available, that'll get it done; makes more hours available to work per day by reducing fatigue-factor. Uses less fuel mix, too.
Use hookaroon/pulpwood hook to reduce/eliminate bending; makes arm longer. I've a 36". See FlatbedFord's 6-footer.
Know enough to quit while you're ahead.
 

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firebroad said:
If I don't use my lawn tractor and trailer, like when the ground is soft, I use a two-wheeled barrow.
I saw you post this and had to comment.
Sometimes machinery can be your worst enemy. I see a lot of people in this forum using quads and trailers to haul around their wood, and probably those may be fine, I don't have one so I can only speculate. But I notice some people are also using lawn tractors and riding mowers, and those I have some experience with. The worst of my back problems started when I had a job that involved doing a lot of riding around in a riding mower and frequently riding over rough ground. Many of these things have you seated like in car with your weight resting solidly on your rear end, and unable to support any of your weight on your feet. This differs, I think, from the way you ride a quad, or a motorcycle where you can lift your butt in the air at any time and take the weight off your tail bone, and back. When you are forced to ride over rough ground that can rock and roll your body side to side or up and down, your legs are much better suited to absorb that sort of impact than having your back absorb it directly.
I know there are some models of riding mowers and lawn tractors that you can support your weight with your legs, but there are many that you can't. The difference in design is where your feet are, are they ahead of your butt, or are they directly under your butt? Can you stand directly up from your seat, or do you have to pull yourself forward? If you have any vehicle that you can't support your weight with your legs you'll want to be very careful about riding over rough ground, or maybe skip it entirely. That's what I would do now.
 
What I noticed too was that with the hydrostatic transmission there was a sudden increase in speed which could "adjust" the back as well.

edit: I mean, it could be jerky.
 
Throw out those wheelbarrows! They kill my back, even my husband has no love for them. Instead I (and he, when his buddies aren't here to watch LOL) commandeered the nutlings's little plastic wagon. Holds a good deal of wood and easy to pull along behind me across the yard. Unloading it can be tricky, but I have a little collapsible stool that I put next to it when I don't have a stump handy.


Best way to save the back yet - have your kids do it! :cheese:
 
Like others have said going after smaller-sized trees and pieces help, but the best suggestion that I can offer is to strengthen your back so that you can deal with the job better. I had a disc rupture and foot drop in 2007 and went to a physical therapist who helped me with it. About a month ago I started to have some issues in the lower back, hip and groin area, and thank God that I found a manual physical therapist who is working with me and addressing my problems and getting me strong again for my job and also cutting wood. I would imagine you can benefit from some proper exercises at any age; and some of these exercises aren't extremely strenuos-a good therapist will know which ones are for you and target your weak spot and address it.

Good luck to you and I admire you for working with wood with a bad back!
 
Sore back & fire wood go together. Drugs, posture, mechanical aids & the 6" between the ears ;)
My back, after surgery, shots, therapy, still sore.
I work slow & methodical to lift in the right posture & avoid heavy or bad angle lifting.
Split vertical mostly, I roll big rounds & use pulleys, levers , winches, ATV ramps. & other mechanical devices to avoid putting lots of pressure on my back.
Low work is on my knees. Waist high for lifting bigger stuff (not huge stuff) & no twisting while lifting. No bending over for heavies, they are rollers.
Not much swinging a maul anymore. Back brace when in the woods liming & pulling logs to the truck & uneven ground work.
Slower pace, use mechanical advantages allot, Ibuprofen the day before , during & after, & always be mindful of your position & posture ;)
 
I've suffered with a bad back for more years than some of these folks have been on this earth. In this time I've learned there are many more folks with bad backs that I ever imagined. I've also learned that no two backs are alike. There have been times when I could not cut wood for long periods of time. However, most years I can cut but can not do a full days work by any means. There are some on this forum who can probably put up wood 10 times faster than I can. I say this knowing what I used to be able to do.

So what I do is take each day as it comes. If I want to cut or split wood bad enough, the weather is right and the body might let me, I simply go out and do it. I've gone out to cut wood and lasted maybe 2 minutes and had to stop for the day. Other days I may stay at it for several hours with liberal breaks spread about. Doing the felling is not much problem but cutting the wood once it is on the ground can be difficult on the back as can lifting the wood to load it onto the trailer or whatever you haul your wood on.

For splitting the wood, we stack our wood in loose rows during the winter as we cut. Then come spring out comes the splitter (hydraulic). The splitting can go rather quickly or it can go rather slowly. I never know which way it will go until I get started. Then I simply don't worry any more and just take it as it comes. I've split 9 cord or more in the spring and I know for a fact that one time it took me perhaps 3 times longer to do the splitting simply because the pain was so bad I could work only for short periods.

I do whatever is possible to make the work easier. Not too large of a chain saw. A low trailer so the wood does not have to be lifted very high. A nice atv for hauling and that gives a good ride so as not to jar me around. When splitting, I sit so that I do not have to lift those logs but simply roll them onto the splitter. I have pain medicine and if necessary I take it. I also like to use heat packs on my back and one that works very well are the ThermaCare heat packs (for the back) which can last 12 hours or more (but they may have changed them so they don't last as long. Not sure on this.) I also use the gel packs that can be heated in the microwave oven. Sometimes a little "muscle relaxer" when finished can help a bit if mixed quite strongly.

In short, do what you can when you can. Personally I love the work but hate the pain. But even though I am in lots of pain I will still sometimes head for the woods. It is just something I enjoy and when you enjoy doing something, it is good therapy.
 
I have burned wood for about 20 years. About 4 years ago, I was lifting some heavy rounds and felt a pop with subsequent pain. To make a long story short, I am still having back pain. I have gone long periods without doing any firewood and my back might get better. But anytime I try to go back out and work with the firewood, my back starts hurting again. I also really like working with wood, but it gets so discouraging. I work with smaller trees, saws, etc. but the back still hurts mostly from the hours bending from stacking, splitting and lifting heavy pieces. I actually can't totally quit fooling with wood because I live in a woods and have to clean up the trees and limbs that fall. Riding a lawnmower as someone said is also really hard on the back. When I retire in a couple of years I plan on getting more proactive and having a mri and try to find what is really going on. Back surgery will be a last resort as I still hear all kinds of reports of where surgery did little to no good. To summarize if you have back problems anything you do with firewood is not good, sorry to say :((.
 
When I hauled in wood this summer I played it smart and hired someone to help me. The ~$100 I spent was well worth being able to walk the next day. I had him run the saw and load the bigger stuff on the trailer while I took care of the normal sized stuff. Even still it was pretty rough for the next few days.
 
I had back surgery(microdiscectomy) at the end of July(2011) to repair a herniated disk at the L5-S1, I also have spondylolisthesis on that same level. The spondylolisthesis caused me back pain for years and still bothers me some. I work in smaller amounts now, before I would process wood about 3 times faster than I do now. I take it easy now and think about what I'm doing before I do it. I avoid any crazy lifting, bending, twisting, reaching and make sure I always lift with my legs when I do need to lift. If I have to half/quarter a log to make it more manageable I now take the time, before I would just muscle it and deal with the pain later. I also try to get help when I need it, my dad enjoys helping when he has time.

I may start buying log loads just so I don't have to haul wood out of tough spots. I hate to do it but the 3-4K I save a year from burning wood isn't worth the bad back that could come along with it if I make a wrong move.
 
Muscle relaxers, chiropractor, inversion table, core exercises, and lifting with the legs. Those are in reverse order the way I handle large rounds. I try to exercise daily to strengthen and stretch back and stomach muscles. The inversion table was just added to the routine at the advice of the Doc.

Just had an episode that has had me out of commission for two weeks (not completely out but hobbling around). When I asked the Doc why the sudden problem with no apparent trigger...he commented, "It's tough getting older."

Yup.
 
Anybody have any tips? Maybe some equipment which helps move wood easier?
My tips and equipment:
-Timber jack when bucking.
-Tongs and heavy two wheel hand truck to move rounds not split on site.
-Homemade rounds carrier low to the ground loaded with tongs pulled with garden tiller power unit.
-Electric splitter mounted at waist height.
-Rounds direct from carrier to splitter to drying stack.
-Two large plant pots that hold 50 pounds of splits each on hand truck. Rolled from drying stacks to porch stack. 100 pounds per trip.
-Hand truck has large diameter turf tires and is moved up stairs one step at a time. I stand vertical with my back to the rise and either shrug the shoulders to raise the load one step or slightly flex the knees to raise the load one step. Step up - repeat 16 times.
-Unload top large pot onto porch stack from hand truck. Then flip that pot over for a seat and unload bottom large pot onto porch stack.
-Porch stack to stove in 5 gallon buckets ~20 pounds.

I move 600 pounds per hour up onto a 10 foot high porch. So I don't need to do it very often. It gets done when the old body feels great, the weather is perfect, and nothing else strenuous is on the agenda. 600 pounds will heat our house about 300 cloudy degree days or 450+ sunny degree days. About ten days to two weeks of winter use.

I have pictures of all of this in Picasa3, but cannot figure out how to get them posted.
 
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