Stretches for manual labor

/mu/ here. This is going to sound silly, but I've just started work in a cold store, shifting boxes and moving stuff about generally. I've done two shifts in the last two days, one five hour and one six hour and my body is aching. It's a 40 minute bike ride to this place so that does not help then it's a day of walking about and carrying.
My problem is that over the next four days I have four twelve hour shifts and I'm worried they are going to kill me. Most of my aches are in my buttock and thigh, but also in my shins, forearms and shoulders slightly. I'm wondering if there is a way to stretch before and after work to stop this from happening, or perhaps a way to massage my legs?

Other urls found in this thread:

antranik.org/foam-roller-exercises/
youtu.be/y5EO8mPonO0
youtu.be/SBHWFKOoEz4
youtu.be/4fytgVeSmo4
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

I dunno how much use you'd find out of it but I find that yoga and a foam roller take care of almost all of my aches. Yoga prevents a lot of them in the first place and the foam roller is literal magic.

In my experience stretching does more harm than good. Best advice I can give you is to eat a lot of calories that includes a variety of meat vegetables dairy fruit and such

I should add that these are 6PM to 6AM shifts so any tips on staying focused/awake would be handy. It's currently 2:30AM and I'm shattered.

Holy fuck, poor Husky

it's pregnant (and chubs)

Follow some 15 minute warmup stretch videos on youtube. Don't be afraid of beginner yoga routines either. If you have an extra 5-10 mins before your shift starts, crank out some stretches. I work labor too and you'll feel a difference between lifting shit while stiff and sore vs loose and limber.

Read up on proper diet and nutrition. Change around your food intake to mostly vegetables/greens, good cuts of meat, things like oats/rice/beans/lentils, a little fruit, dairy, and nuts. Avoid soda, energy drinks, fast food, candy, cookies, foods with high amounts of added sugar and processed garbage. You're probably not getting proper nutrient requirements, thus feeling tired all the time. If you work 12hr shift all the time you HAVE TO put in the effort and eat right or you will grind yourself down so quickly. Trust me.

>I've just started
there you go, there's the answer

Conditioning will come with time. Until that happens, use heat and myofascial release (foam rolling) to keep your body functioning.

I shall invest in a foam roller.

Thinking about stuff that would be good to chuck in my bag quickly and take. Ham sandwiches, bag of spinach leaves, pepperami, small cakey thing. they sound good?
Do energy drinks give the wrong kind of energy or something? What about more sporty drinks like lucozade, am I better off with water?

Energy drinks are filled with sugar (or fake sweetners) that spikes your insulin levels. Basically it gives you a sugar rush and then a crash. Sustained use along with high intake of sugar makes you beetus. It's a lot of empty calories, bad for your gut flora, and you're better off with water.

DOnt drink energy drinks. Loaded with sugar and calories and they'll swell the size of your heart and increase blood pressure.

What you need is to bring powerade zero, a fuckton of water (you should be drinking 2-3 liters a shift), and some food. The stuff you mentioned is fine. Make sure you are getting lots of protein to help your muscles recover. Also get some protein shake for the same reason.

Get LOTS of sleep. Like 10 hours a night. Your life is gonna suck for a while. You really need to get transportation. a 40 minute bike ride before a 12 hour shift is not a great idea. A cab, a bus, a friend, your mom....

Most important thing is water and sleep and protein. You should be able to piss back into the bottle and drink it because it's just water all day. Water will help everything. Sleep will help your recover faster and provide you energy. Protein will help your muscles heal.

The only time you should be drinking anything else but water is to get potassium and sodium chloride.

You know those saline bags they give you in the hospital through IV? Water + Sodium chloride.

Powerade zero is cool because it has no calories, but it might give you the shits. Since you are exerting so much for so long I might just get the full gatorade.

energy drinks will dehydrate and kill you.

Noted. I was just going to ignore what you said about energy drinks and take one any way, but I don't think I will now.

Water, sleep, food. Sounds good. It's going to suck, but it is what it is.

since this thread is about stretching, I'll ask it here. the part of my wrist that near the thumb is tingling. I suspect it might have to do with archery which I followed my friend and did not stretch. tried my best to pull his 45lb bow...my pulling fringers joints are feeling pain too. not to blame him, but what should I do now?

energy drinks dont have enough caffeine in them to exert a net fluid deficit

i.e. the amount of caffeine in them diuresing you does not offset the amount of fluid in the drink.

this is the same for coffee.

That is one happy dog

...

fat ass woofer

Dynamic stretches before and static stretches after. Also make sure you use the foam roller proper. It's supposed to hurt

antranik.org/foam-roller-exercises/

Good form pupper

Never done 7. Ive been looking for a leg and lower back stretch like that.

Thanks

Here are two videos on some leg stretches that I've been doing pretty regularly that have helped me out:

youtu.be/y5EO8mPonO0
youtu.be/SBHWFKOoEz4

As for shoulders, a cheap resistance band would help and doing this round of stretches (exercises start around 4:30):

youtu.be/4fytgVeSmo4

theres already good in advice in here.

can i ask what your job is specifically? like grocery? retail? i might have some insight

lmao his second stretch in the first vid is unnecessary you can do the same shit sitting or laying down. His second vid is fucking stupid with all those bands, just use a band and pull the ham up.

just do this op after working, you dont need foam rollers, pre dynamic stretching either. Just add more stretches if you want

Warehouse work specifically cold store. I stack boxes of meat on a pallet in the back of a lorry, move it to the cold store and wrap it top to bottom in cling film.

Make sure you are lifting the boxes properly with your legs and butt and not just your lower back.

OP, i would like to stress again that you should eat enough. Your body will adapt to the stress very fast, but you have to give him enough resources to do that. Eat lots of oats and milk in the morning and prepare a couple (healthy) snaks for in between. Try to cut down on sugar and those nasty energy drinks. It won't take more than a couple weeks before all you'll feel is normal fatigue after your shifts, I promise.

Don't forget to sleep enough and lift correctly. A foam roller won't hurt, but won't help much either. Better than stretching at least.