[ok cleaning]

 hello boys i am 42 now and i have been cleaning windows for 14 years and now days my body is getting wicker i am becoming slower and i start ed   to feel all  that hard worked years and i know if i dont make myself ready for early retirement ( hope i did enough) my body wont make the normal retirement  age . do you feel the same?

[windows_chepstow]

Hi Ok,

What's your ailments?  Have they been caused by window cleaning or a bad lifestyle?

[marc]

hi im 38 ive had arthrightas since 30 was having trouble getting up the ladder i then went over to wfp and it has given me a new lease of life went over in march06 looking to have my mortgage payed off by 45 to 50 and only working one or two days if it suits me this year im going to try to work just 3or4 days a week i think you need to plan ahead for your fufture i have been putting my plan together for nearly 5 years now as much as i enjoy wfp i would still rather not have to work but i do like spending money so for a few more years this suits me aches and pains and all

[s.hughes]

I need to sort my pension out. Can anyone advise me on a good one?

Cheers
Steve

[DaveBrown]

I need to sort my pension out. Can anyone advise me on a good one?

Cheers
Steve

I think property is your best bet, mate. Pensions are too much of a a gamble getting.

[matt]

im 35 and feeling more and more aches and pains

even though i only work 3 days a week, they are long hard days

when my WORK car was off the road and i had to use the family car, i didnt work as long hours ( as the wife needed the car late afternoons ) i didnt feel as tired, so i guess its i try to ram too much work into the 3 days

[marc]

dave brown has it right property is the best form of pension i think so any way have you brought a property for your pension  dave  ? i started nearly five years ago brought a 2 bed flat july 2002 £72,000 have a guess what its worth now ?

[Jeff Brimble]

Some time ago I started a little corner on the other forum all about injury. If you have any experience/problems that you think may help please pm me and I will post them anonomously. Its in the wfp section A-Z under the topic "Back Pages"
OK I have various injurys and am 57. Get a wfp.
(You will have to insert "cleaningpr o s " instead of another forum)http://www.anotherforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1146984359/0
Mods, I simply ask this link to stay in to benefit others.

[Templar]

I've heard it all now. Three days work a week and I must be overdoing it? At forty two- thirty five- etc age is starting to catch up with me.

Window Cleaning, falling off ladders aside, is a very healthy occupation from all sorts of perspectives. Think yourself lucky. Take up jogging squash badminton or five a side football, you'll still ache but you'll feel great.

In today's world when you hit forty you haven't even begun living, don't waste your life moaning and looking forward to fewer days and retirement. You are probably not going to win the lottery, just make the most of what you've got.

[Jeff Brimble]

10 years ago my knees where hot and sore and I couldnt bare them touching the wrungs my arches ached and where collapsing, I had to buy ankle boots just to get up the ladders or walk. My back was out more than in and I too thought about giving it all up.
Instead, I went wfp, began an excercise regime for my back and life is bearable now. I developed RSI in the shoulders so got lighter equipement. I am now making more than I used to 20 years ago.
So dont give up there can be light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks to wfp I plan on working past 65 and not just doing bungalows. I new a painter that fell of a 4 step ladder on his own house 2 weeks before he was due to retire- cracked his head open, and thought to myself no way. He was really looking forward to it as well.

[brett walker]

My arms are constantly hurting with wfp and do not seem to be getting any better and i use a lightweight ergolite pole.  I am now starting to learn to rinse on the glass to see if it makes it any easier

Am i unfit or will wfp leave us with long term injuries

any advice appreciated

Brett.

[Jeff Brimble]

Where and how do they hurt ?

[brett walker]

Where and how do they hurt ?

they ache from my elbows to my shoulders sometimes hurts to raise my right arm.  I changed over to wfp because i had a knee op and sometimes my knee aches

can someone get the violin out

I did not change over just because of the safety aspect as we all know there are dangers in smoking,  crossing the road etc as well as going up a ladder but i must admit i cant be bothered to take the ladder off for a couple of jobs a month i need it for, as wfp has made me lazy.

Wfp just worries me long term with rsi

Brett

[Jeff Brimble]

Sounds like your getting some sort of muscle prob I hate to say rsi. Go see a doctor and shout at him for the best treatement you can get. Look at alternative medicines You may find  accupuncture and an osteo will help.
Get a lighter pole.

[brett walker]

thanks jeff

brett.

[Templar]

It's not a cure for everything but making your body stronger with weights, sport, or exercise can solve a lot of problems including, and I know this doesn't apply, depression.

RSI probably needs an expert, but aside form biulding upper body strenght by weights, press ups, and stretching, you could try working other handed.

[s.hughes]

I had tennis elbow about 5 years ago. Blamed it on w/c due to the blade motion however I changed my car to 1 that had power steering and now the tennis elbow is history. Just been given a combo van which I havent even driven yet and thats not got power steering so I will have to see how I go.

Steve

[brett walker]

It's not a cure for everything but making your body stronger with weights, sport, or exercise can solve a lot of problems including, and I know this doesn't apply, depression.

RSI probably needs an expert, but aside form biulding upper body strenght by weights, press ups, and stretching, you could try working other handed.

you are making me sweat  talking about exercise but probably right

cheers

brett

[pjulk]

Lifting my metal hosereel out with 50mtrs of tricloflex hose out the van to plug in to the rear of the van is really playing my back up lately.
I have back problems anyway had a disk removed and another repaired 5 years ago.
Also got arthritis in my back where i injured it.
I thought WFP would make my life easier but lately its making it worse.
I think i must be a right off and im coming up to 38.

Anyone know of a lightweight hosereel thats last longer than those stupid hoselock ones.

As i have a hoselock reel with 30mtrs of microbore on but the stupid things falls over all the time and leaks like a seive at the reel.

Paul

[jouk45]

47 and am still going strong, but am starting to feel a little twing in my left leg at the top just before my hip, lol dont know what you call it, gets painfull sometimes.

[niceandclean]

I remember when i was 16, im now 30, my very first full time job was a tyre fitter, very physical job. Well i worked with a guy who was 10 years older than me and every morning before work he used to stand out the back and warm up. He used to stretch, shake his arms ect ect. I said after i had been there a few days what on earth are you doing??  He said that like before any physical activity you must always get your body ready for it. I do this for ten minutes in the morning then at the end of the day i do five minutes warm down.  So from that day on i have always in the mornings stretched the muscles, do 10 push ups and 10 sit ups gets my body ready for the day ahead. So far so good, maybe some of you guys should give it a go, it may make you feel a little better.

[s.hughes]

I do a push up when I get out of bed everyday.

[dai]

I didn't start back into this job till I was 52. That was nearly 13 years ago.
I still work 9 hours a day [light permitting].
I have had young lads working with me that were knackered by 3 pm, that was when I was trad. Wfp has not made much difference to how tired I am at the end of the day.
Although I take anti inflammatory pills for reactive arthritis, I still manage a full days work without too much bother. I guess I'm just lucky. Due my pension in September, can't think of retiring though. Dai

[windows_chepstow]

I still work 9 hours a day [light permitting].

Dai

Blimey, I'm getting far too lazy.  I do about six hours a day TOPS, during these dreary Winter months.

[P®oPole™]

Rinse brush on especially the old folk.
Or open up them wallets and buy some super light poles of some nature and put a decent brush on it!

Pro

[Jeff Brimble]

What brush would you suggest ?

[Londoner]

I'm 52, 53 in January and you do ache more and in more places as you get older. It is just something you have to build in to your life style. But its not just window cleaners that suffer. I knew a bloke who had to pack up as a carpet fitter at 35 because his knees were shot.
My friend Jim is a motor mechanic but struggles with all the bending and is likely to give up this year as his back now is permanently damaged

[mike richardson]

some one said about the pain at the top of the leg ive had that for about 6 mnth especially when i bend to pick something up & my left shoulder at the top front of it has aches for about 3 week iam only 40 my knees have stopped hurtin since goin wfp 5 mths ago but my arms are suffering now neck pain has stopped must just be gettin used to new movements in my body,mind i work my backside off when i go out,dnt get many early finishes the more i work now the sooner the wortgage is paid yipeeeee

[Jeff Brimble]

Maybe try lifting small weights up and down above your head. If the pain doesnt go away with neurofen or similar, you may have an injury that needs attention if it lasts more than 4 weeks, or becomes "hot"
The top front of both my shoulders ache after a frozen shoulder problem of 2 years. Its possibly arthritis.
Hope you manage to get it sorted sooner than later. Healthy New Year.

[DASERVICES]

  Finding it hard now, the old age is catching up. When I first started could do
  5 days no problem. Now after 3 days I struggle on the 4th day, do not know
  if its to do with WFP being more demanding.

  Used to be regular at the gym until had enough of wife nagging, seriously looking to go back just to get my fitness back.

 Only ache I have at the moment is my knuckles, miss spent youth.

 But I wouldn't swap it for anything in other job.

 Doug

 

[Templar]

I've always worked outside without shelter but I look after myself. Goretex shoes form Clarks keep my feet dry. Lined trousers similar to salapets but without the top bit keep my legs warm. A thermal vest, sometimes two, An earflap hat. A warterproof coat.
This winter is mild, but no matter how cold it gets it doesn't affect me. (i haven't been doing windows long enough for the freezing on the glass).

[groundhog]

What a bunch of wimps!! I'm 39 and don't feel any different to when I was 20, I have always looked after myself by exercising and eating right. My Father is a builder and works harder than most window cleaners, and he is 73!

[dougster]

  i feel the the aches and pains more in the winter months, cant wait for the summer as my knees will stop acheing .hope to retire for fifty five , all going to plan as so.

[eddie d]

i get a pain in the neck ,but find that going to the local and drinking 10 pints cures it .