Yesterday I had to move several yards of dirt via shovel and wheel barrel. It was about 90 degrees out in a blazing sun with fairly high humidity. I am 65 yrs old active but don’t really excersize and I smoke.
After a couple of hours I found myself getting really tired and was starting to worry I might cause myself a heart attack. I paced myself to where I felt I had a reasonably elevated heart rate and my huffing and puffing was not so bad as I couldn't carry on a decent conversation. Was I putting myself at abnormal risk or just the normal risks we go through in life? I realize smoking is an abnormal unneccessary risk all by itself.
Shoveling snow increases the risk of heart attack.
I see not reason to believe why wheelbarrowing dirt in the heat would be any different.
Were you hydrated? Including salt? Was your belly sufficiently full?
I did a project a couple weekends ago in the heat, moving and setting patio stones. I “hit a wall” at one point and sat down, treated myself to some water and what I thought was a Flav-Ice popsicle. I felt like a million bucks after I was done resting. Turns out I had eaten a Pedialyte popsicle (baby Gatorade) and it made a ton of difference!
I’ve gotten dehydrated while working before and I imagine it’s like a heart attack w/o the pain - you get dizzy, you see stars and/or black spots. You’re tired as fuck. It takes longer to snap out of the longer you’re in it, too.
I did drink a lot of water and take frequent short breaks. Felt fine after a few hours rest. I recently had a friend keel over dead while digging in his back yard and I find myself getting paranoid everytime I start doing real hard physical work.
Besides an elevated risk of, you know, dying, this sort of thing is also a pretty high risk for injury.
It’s pretty common for sedentary folks to throw out a back or experience considerable muscle pain for several days by doing this sort of thing.
Plus the very real danger of heat stroke.
Not worth the risk.
Indeed, seniors are also at higher risk of overheating, due to inefficiencies in their cooling mechanisms.