Adding a daily multivitamin can serve as a simple insurance policy. “A multivitamin is an easy, low-effort way to help close those gaps and sup- port resilience in extreme conditions,” she explained.
Indulge – in Moderation
Eating well doesn’t mean (entirely) giving up your favorite snack cakes, drive-thru fries, or after-work twist-top. As with all things in life, it’s about bal- ance and moderation, not perfection. So long as your body has the proper help it needs to keep you healthy and fueled for the day, there’s room for a treat or two. TRAIN LIKE AN ATHLETE While some arborists may not vocally consider themselves athletes, nearly every aspect of their job requires core work, upper body strength, and cardio- vascular fitness. Like proper nutrition and hydration, training and exercise play an essential role in keeping arborists safe and pro- tecting the muscles that keep limber for the lumber. And yet, many undertrain in general, but the core specifically. “Overall, everything’s underworked,” Burley shared. “Stretching the obliques, stretching the traps, the rhombus, the scapula can make a huge difference.” By definition, the core includes not only the deep muscles in the abdomen, but also the back and pelvis. All these areas help improve posture, assist with balance and movement, and prevent lower back pain. Hall noted that core stability training can be helpful for the muscles around the trunk and in the shoulder blade area. “Arborists may not realize that core sta- bilizing muscles are really important for their safety and work performance and also injury prevention,” he said.
Many arborists might not describe themselves as athletes, yet the work they do demands strong core engage- ment, significant upper‑body power, and solid cardiovascular conditioning.
Meanwhile, Tadewaldt is an advocate of heat therapy for recovery. “There are countless techniques avail- able, but heat consistently ranks as one of the most effective – and commonly used – among arborists,” she said.
The reality is that any movement out- side of work can help prevent injuries on the job. “Everything from yoga all the way to weight training” as Burley put it. “Any aerobic exercises.” Hall added that basic stretches before climbing — for the quads, the ham- strings, and the trunk muscles in partic- ular — are a must before engaging in any climbing, rigging, or lifting activities. YOUR BODY DESERVES A BREAK Rest and Recovery One of the most underutilized aspects to health and wellness is the role rest and recovery play in allowing the mus- cles to rebuild from the punishing work that arborists face day after day. “I think doing some hamstring stretch- es and back stretches can really help to keep the spine and the hamstrings be more flexible which has a great effect over a long career,” Hall said.
Heat-based therapies like sauna sessions can boost circulation, ease tight muscles, and support the body’s natural process of clearing metabolic waste.
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