Unexpected prepper benefits of my wife's exercise program

[Mr. Bill]

I give my wife a big gold star for keeping up with a modest exercise program.

Of course it's good to stay in shape, just for general health reasons.  But here's an issue specifically for the ladies: suppose you've been relying on your man to do all the heavy lifting, and he gets incapacitated?

That's our situation.  Over the past half-year I've developed some sort of muscle disease (still being diagnosed, but probably an autoimmune myositis).  I was never a big strong guy to begin with, but now I'm as weak as a little kid, and the doctor forbids me to do heavy exercise.  Maybe I'll be back to normal in a year or two, presuming the treatment works.

I hit my limit this week with our garbage can.  Even under normal circumstances, it takes a goodly effort to wheel it up a 25 ft hill to the top of our gravel driveway.  But this time I'd filled it up with a bunch of old scrap lumber, and it weighed a ton.  My wife was able to haul it up the hill.  She actually got to the top with the can faster than I got there carrying nothing.

By the way, when I say she's on a "modest exercise program", I do mean that it doesn't take much time and effort.  She's 55 and not preparing for a fitness competition, and she knows from experience that she will injure herself if she overdoes it.  10 minutes of fairly heavy exercise 3x/week, plus half a mile of brisk walking 5x/week.  That's all she does, and it's enough to make a big difference.

[Morning Sunshine]

i think that being in shape is an often overlooked prep.  not here at TSP, since we aim to "live a better life if times get tough, or even if they don't", but in general.

as an aside, what we do for our garbage cans up a hill much like you describe:
I pull the van around, open the trunk, load the kids in the trunk, have the 8-yo and the 10-yo grab the garbage can handles, and drive slowly up the hill.  at the top, I arrange the cans for the truck to come, and the kids run back down trying to beat me turning around the car.  they have to pull them down the hill by foot power.  but for the next few years until they get big enough to be able to pull a full can up that hill, this is what we do.

side note: we only take the cans up every other week; one garbage, one recycle, and both about 2/3 full after 2 weeks.

[Roundabouts]

Mr Bill sorry to hear about your situation.  You are correct that women need to be in shape and be able to do some "mans" work.  I feel they should also know how to use basic tools and power tools.  It all comes in handy for me.  If hubby is down with injury or just away at work. 

I do have fibro so it can be very frustrating to not be able to do what I use to. But just focusing on what you can do helps.  Hope you get better soon.  Your wife get a gold star from me too. 

[Kate Change]

This helped us a lot, too when my husband got into a car accident.  He is doing great, but he was pretty badly hurt.  Because I was in good shape, I was able to get him in and out of bed so he could come home from the hospital instead of going to a rehab facility.  (There isn't one in our county, so it would have been a pretty big deal.)  It's the kind of thing that you don't always think about.  I'm not a marathon runner or training to be rambo or anything, I just wanted to look nice and still eat cookies.  But it paid off big time for us.  Kuddos to your wife for being able to help so much!  And best of luck to you with your medical situation.  I don't know anything about that, but I'm glad to hear that you could be feeling great in a year or so.