[daniel worgan]

I have had loads of problems now for nearly 8 years,thats when i started with the pole....but i will not put it all down to wfp as i used to own a cabinet making business and one of my main tasks was to run the spindle moulders which used to vibrate like crazy when i didn't get the blades sharpened....
But the wearing away of the bones has definatley quickened due to working wfp........it obviously doesn't mean that everyone will suffer,we all have differing levels of injury/disease resistance,but mine will degenerate in the future until i have to pack it in,but by having the joints fused and plates put in my arms i hope i can slow the inevitable down a bit.....

[Lee Burbidge]

I have had loads of problems now for nearly 8 years,thats when i started with the pole....but i will not put it all down to wfp as i used to own a cabinet making business and one of my main tasks was to run the spindle moulders which used to vibrate like crazy when i didn't get the blades sharpened....
But the wearing away of the bones has definatley quickened due to working wfp........it obviously doesn't mean that everyone will suffer,we all have differing levels of injury/disease resistance,but mine will degenerate in the future until i have to pack it in,but by having the joints fused and plates put in my arms i hope i can slow the inevitable down a bit.....

Aww mate that sounds really bad. And possibly painful??

[dazmond]

how old are you dw?

[trevor perry]

Degenerative Joint Disease - Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention
http://www.healthscout.com/ency/416/577/main.html

Just waiting for my operations on hand,already had one done and now been diagnosed with it in shoulder joint....caused by repetative actions ...according to diagnosis reports by orthopeadic & rheumatology consultants at colchester hospital.....

Maybe the old guy is a one off(maybe not one but you know what i mean) as the consultants have said that repetative actions in the workplace account for a lot of this type of injury.....

i am not saying the old guy is correct with what he says ( he would hate being called old as he is fitter than any young man i have met) but it does make sense, we walk every day and our ankle joints dont break down for the majority of us in fact doctors tell us to walk more and our ankles take all our weight so why should our shoulders and arms be any different as they  are made of the very same material our ankles are, i know personally after five years of this training my shoulder and arm joints seem to be in the best shape ever and i know lots of others who would say the same, but as said all are different and each should do what they feel is right for them.

[daniel worgan]

how old are you dw?

47 daz.....
I am what i call a typical example of how a fit bloke (i used to play gridiron in my 20's for top teams here and Australia) can let their health and fitness deteriorate over time by not taking care of themselves.
My general laziness towards fitness has indeed added to my condition (that has been confirmed by a rather sarcastic nurse.. ) and i do intend to regain a good level of fitness which may well help my joints in the future.
But the problem for me will be my business.I intended when i started to do this well past retirement,ironically i thought it would be a good way to keep the pennies coming in and to keep fit and healthy....
Anyway,there are a lot worse than me,some of the poor sods i see at the clinics...well they must just be in constant pain and turmoil.There was a post on here recently about a former wc who had a much more advanced condition than mine...so i should think myself lucky really. 

[TomCrowther]

Hi Trevor, I agree with some of the content of your posts. I am a firm believer in "use it or lose it" and have done high levels of exercise for over twenty five years {now aged 46}. However, one important thing to remember is the ankle was designed {after it evolved} for lots of walking and running. The shoulder is not designed for doing 1000 shoulder presses in one hit for example. It will wear out and then break. The same is true for our elbows when wfping, it is not a natural movement that we can do for hour after hour without getting problems.
I did a block of flats this morning, worked from 08:00 to 14:00 with a thirty minute break. My neck was very sore during the higher windows after a while, not much I can do about that but where possible, I cupped the base of the pole in the right hand and walked or rocked to and fro, much easier on the elbow joints.

[David Kent @ KentKleen]

My dads 61 wfp's 4 days a week! not a spot of bother with any joints, He has worked in hard manual labour jobs all his life, 15 years commercial cleaning involving the manual mopping of 1000's of square feet of flooring on a weekly basis (not a machine in sight)
IMO you are what you eat/do
keep fit and active and you should not have any problems with joint pain.
HE DOES NOT ROCK BACK AND FORWARD IN PEOPLES GARDENS 

[simonr]

still dont understand why they call them 21 foot poles or whatever length when they actually are not

I must admit I mentioned this to Richard from Ionics. See, when I buy a pole I naturally assume a 21 foot is the actual height. Some companies including Ionics use the height as a marker when holding and count your body height in. Im not too sure why, but well pointed out.
Its important to ask your pole supplier if the height stated is actually the height of the pole.

yes it is important to ask, because they're snide    but you need to know they do that or you wont know to ask will you     i got a 31ft off brodex only to find it was  only 28ft    they did offer to change it if i paid p&p both ways & for the extra length so that was my last dealings with them

dont you think its the suppliers job to make it clear
you dont by a pair of 32 leg jeans only to find they're actually 28 do you nor do you need to ask

[mikecam]

Its important to ask your pole supplier if the height stated is actually the height of the pole.

Is it? Do you ask British sugar and tate and lyle if a 1 kilo bag of sugar is actually one kilo? No, i didn't think so.
If i buy a twenty foot pole and its not 20 foot i'll go to trading standards right after i've sent the pole back.
 Maybe i'm being awkward, maybe ts important to do things like ask your barber is he actually going to cut your hair, who knows !!!

[mikecam]

how old are you dw?

47 daz.....
I am what i call a typical example of how a fit bloke.......................

...............has been failed by the NHS !! I've yet to meet anyone with fused joints who has a positive comment about them. Fingers not working as they should etc............

[trevor perry]

Hi Trevor, I agree with some of the content of your posts. I am a firm believer in "use it or lose it" and have done high levels of exercise for over twenty five years {now aged 46}. However, one important thing to remember is the ankle was designed {after it evolved} for lots of walking and running. The shoulder is not designed for doing 1000 shoulder presses in one hit for example. It will wear out and then break. The same is true for our elbows when wfping, it is not a natural movement that we can do for hour after hour without getting problems.
I did a block of flats this morning, worked from 08:00 to 14:00 with a thirty minute break. My neck was very sore during the higher windows after a while, not much I can do about that but where possible, I cupped the base of the pole in the right hand and walked or rocked to and fro, much easier on the elbow joints.

sorry Tom but your shoulder is made of the same substance as your ankle and so quite easily can be trained to carry out 1000 lifts on a regular basis without causing injury, history shows that many of our ancestors even in recent history carried  out physical tasks with arms and shoulders withoot suffering from RSI, all farm work included heavy lifting of bails of hay and manure with shovels yet i think you weill find it hard to find an old farmer suffering from RSI , all tree fellers in america used heavy axes day in and day out and even with the heavy impact and shock their shoulders where fine, even on the large sailing ships both present and past involved pulling and hoisting ropes using shoulders and arms for long periods of time, i am now 45 years old and can do many 100s of lifts using 20kg weights in each arm on a regular basis, i have now done this for over 5 yearsand my shoulders arms and joints are in the best condition they have ever been , check some of the videos on youtube under dragan challenge and you will see many are now seein the results from training this way.

[daniel worgan]

Hi Trevor, I agree with some of the content of your posts. I am a firm believer in "use it or lose it" and have done high levels of exercise for over twenty five years {now aged 46}. However, one important thing to remember is the ankle was designed {after it evolved} for lots of walking and running. The shoulder is not designed for doing 1000 shoulder presses in one hit for example. It will wear out and then break. The same is true for our elbows when wfping, it is not a natural movement that we can do for hour after hour without getting problems.
I did a block of flats this morning, worked from 08:00 to 14:00 with a thirty minute break. My neck was very sore during the higher windows after a while, not much I can do about that but where possible, I cupped the base of the pole in the right hand and walked or rocked to and fro, much easier on the elbow joints.

sorry Tom but your shoulder is made of the same substance as your ankle and so quite easily can be trained to carry out 1000 lifts on a regular basis without causing injury, history shows that many of our ancestors even in recent history carried  out physical tasks with arms and shoulders withoot suffering from RSI, all farm work included heavy lifting of bails of hay and manure with shovels yet i think you weill find it hard to find an old farmer suffering from RSI , all tree fellers in america used heavy axes day in and day out and even with the heavy impact and shock their shoulders where fine, even on the large sailing ships both present and past involved pulling and hoisting ropes using shoulders and arms for long periods of time, i am now 45 years old and can do many 100s of lifts using 20kg weights in each arm on a regular basis, i have now done this for over 5 yearsand my shoulders arms and joints are in the best condition they have ever been , check some of the videos on youtube under dragan challenge and you will see many are now seein the results from training this way.

Well Trevor i am certainly going to take a look at differant strenghning techniques,so i will start with having a look at what you said above.
I had lithotripsy yesterday on my wrist,basically shock waves passed through the bones,i dont know if it will work yet as i have more to follow so fingers crossed it will help.

[trevor perry]

DW  just as a recomendation i would advise starting with light weights of say about 8kg each arm even this may be too much at first, you need to be able to complete about fifteen minutes non stop with the weight you choose doing about 15 reps per minute, you obviously already have a medical condition so be carefull and dont push too hard at first ,on another note can i also advise that you eat 2 sticks of raw cellery a day this is excellent for bones and rheumatism, this is no coincidence as bones consist of 21% sodium the same as cellery is 21% sodium, do this for two weeks and let me know if your condition improves.

[SherwoodCleaningSe]

I think it is worth bearing in mind the rocking motion, but not for regular residential.  If you have a rigid light pole then moving your legs around to clean windows 15 foot in the air would be a waste of time and impossible to do at speed.  When a pane of glass could be cleaned in under 5 seconds but require 2 or 3 down and up strokes plus a rinse you would need to be dancing to keep up with the brush head!  However when your speaking of 25ft+ up then the leg movement starts to make sense. 

The other thing to keep in mind with the leg rocking technique is that you aren't just moving the pole up and down the window but you are also moving your whole body weight with you leg muscles which are far bigger than your arm muscles, so you get more of a cardio work out, especially if your carrying excess weight, either in fat or an unnecessarily heavy pole.  This means that you will be out of breath faster.

On the subject of shoulder and elbow pain, I found that 5 years ago mine were giving me hassle, however as poles have improved my joint pain has disappeared.  I now make it a rule to buy the lightest stiffest pole that I can afford, and in more than one size.

Simon.

[Lee Burbidge]

I think it is worth bearing in mind the rocking motion, but not for regular residential.  If you have a rigid light pole then moving your legs around to clean windows 15 foot in the air would be a waste of time and impossible to do at speed.  When a pane of glass could be cleaned in under 5 seconds but require 2 or 3 down and up strokes plus a rinse you would need to be dancing to keep up with the brush head!  However when your speaking of 25ft+ up then the leg movement starts to make sense. 

The other thing to keep in mind with the leg rocking technique is that you aren't just moving the pole up and down the window but you are also moving your whole body weight with you leg muscles which are far bigger than your arm muscles, so you get more of a cardio work out, especially if your carrying excess weight, either in fat or an unnecessarily heavy pole.  This means that you will be out of breath faster.

On the subject of shoulder and elbow pain, I found that 5 years ago mine were giving me hassle, however as poles have improved my joint pain has disappeared.  I now make it a rule to buy the lightest stiffest pole that I can afford, and in more than one size.

Simon.

I agree