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Shoulder pain after using water fed pole

stayclear

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11
Location
Hervey Bay, Queensland
Hi everyone,

Just curious if there are any other window cleaners suffering back and shoulder pain after using a water fed pole.  I'm now 51, am i just getting too old or am I doing something wrong?

Any useful tips  greatly appreciated.

 
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I did mine in doing Gutter's that hadn't been cleaned in 24 yrs had to have a week off and I'm still recovering now and doing half the amount of jobs I've since changed to the ovo8 pole and have a load of exercise to strengthen related muscles and tendons

 
Hi everyone,

Just curious if there are any other window cleaners suffering back and shoulder pain after using a water fed pole.  I'm now 51, am i just getting too old or am I doing something wrong?

Any useful tips  greatly appreciated.
I don't know if you are rinsing on the glass or not, but I switched to doing this a few years ago and its really helped. It's feels a lot easier days work now.

 
It could be down to poor technique, poor quality poles, etc etc. Without seeing how you work it is hard to say.

I'm 57 and don't suffer greatly and do use big poles, above 27' on a fairly regular basis.

Try not to stand to close and try to walk the pole up and down to take the strain off your shoulders and get the lightest pole and brush combo you can afford.

 
Don't know if it helps or not but for the past 8 weeks I've been doing press ups in the evenings.  I just do 3 sets of press ups with 6 minutes rest between each set.  When I first started I struggled to do 20 press ups in a set, now I do 3 x 50 sets [150 total] monday to friday, weekends I rest.  I have lost a stone in weight since Christmas.

I still ache but feel like I'm stronger and less muscle fatigue.

Also have an orange a day and sometimes a kiwi, apple and black grapes.  I make sure I have protein in the evenings as well.  Your body needs the protein to repair the muscles so it makes sense to watch your diet as well as everything else you can do to improve your health and fitness.

 
Hi everyone,

Just curious if there are any other window cleaners suffering back and shoulder pain after using a water fed pole.  I'm now 51, am i just getting too old or am I doing something wrong?

Any useful tips  greatly appreciated.
Unfortunately the only person who can answer that question is you as you are the only one whose knows your state of health and your body. I started at 52. I'm still doing it at 69 but I can only do about a third of the work I used to, and that's with better equipment. It all started to go downhill after a prostate operation in 2009. I'm due for a second one shortly which could spell the end of window cleaning for me.

If you have just started window cleaning and come from an office environment background then manual pole work is going to impact muscles you never knew you had.

What type of work are you doing? I ask as most residential I see on Google Earth is what we would call bungalows in the UK, mostly single story buildings. I've looked on Boat Harbour Drive and Old Maryborough Rd and even the business premises/commercial are single story buildings.

You know your work but I would suggest that you find the lightest, stiffest pole and lightest brush you can for the job you do.

In the UK our residential work comprises mainly houses with 2 or 3 floors. To begin with I used to use a heavier pole for upper windows and swap to a smaller lighter pole for the bottom windows.

 
I'm knocking on the door of 59 and have been WFP for 19 years, it is getting harder as I get older. I've woken up today with lower back pain, shoulder pain and pain in both wrists. ?

As has been said not lifting off to rinse is important on anything above ground floor.

Weight training and cycling are both beneficial if you can find the time and energy after a days work.

 
We've only just relocated to Hervey Bay. I used to live in Mornington which is about 1 hour south of Melbourne. I had many massive beach front homes. The area I've moved to is less glamorous and pricey, so expecting to do less pole work but curious about other peoples physical struggles.

 
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Stayed there for a few nights before I ventured over to Fraser Island, almost 20 years ago. 

You're very lucky! 

 
Hi everyone,

Just curious if there are any other window cleaners suffering back and shoulder pain after using a water fed pole.  I'm now 51, am i just getting too old or am I doing something wrong?

Any useful tips  greatly appreciated.
I was involved in an RTC 10 years ago where I was rammed off the road by a drunken French HGV driver which gave me life changing injuries and my back was broken along with both forearms left leg and collar bone. 9 months In hospital and to this day I suffer with chronic back pain and all my joints in cold weather. I wake up every morning and go to work regardless.

The best advice is technique, weight of equipment and mind over matter ? 

 
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Most of the regular maintenance wfp work up to second level should really be little more than light to moderate exercise with good, lightweight equipment and efficient technique. Certainly for anyone in good health and physical fitness. Especially if they are used to manual work or physical activities. Even if you're not it shouldn't be too hard to build enough strength and stamina.

It is harder work if washing gutters, soffits and the like from the ground, which my son and I do quite often. Not everyone realises that the brush has to be within a tolerance of about an inch when doing that type of work. Too close and the brush stalls against the work. Not close enough and the bristles don't scrub. This takes a fair degree of effort and requires a lot of control from the operator.

Some of us on the forum are no longer as young and fit as we once were (65 in my case and had chemo and major surgery a year and a half ago) but I'd like to think we have the grit to do what we're able.

Several of us as can be seen to have had or are having challenges with health or accident issues.

Spruce, I wish you the very best for your upcoming surgery. Know that we will all be rooting for you.

 
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Most of the regular maintenance wfp work up to second level should really be little more than light to moderate exercise with good, lightweight equipment and efficient technique. Certainly for anyone in good health and physical fitness. Especially if they are used to manual work or physical activities. Even if you're not it shouldn't be too hard to build enough strength and stamina.

It is harder work if washing gutters, soffits and the like from the ground, which my son and I do quite often. Not everyone realises that the brush has to be within a tolerance of about an inch when doing that type of work. Too close and the brush stalls against the work. Not close enough and the bristles don't scrub. This takes a fair degree of effort and requires a lot of control from the operator.

Some of us on the forum are no longer as young and fit as we once were (65 in my case and had chemo and major surgery a year and a half ago) but I'd like to think we have the grit to do what we're able.

Several of us as can be seen, have had or are having challenges with health or accident issues.

Spruce, I wish you the very best for your upcoming surgery. Know that we will all be rooting for you.
Very good points and a great appraisal of those in the trade

Also sending my wishes to @spruce and hoping all goes well for you

 
Unfortunately the only person who can answer that question is you as you are the only one whose knows your state of health and your body. I started at 52. I'm still doing it at 69 but I can only do about a third of the work I used to, and that's with better equipment. It all started to go downhill after a prostate operation in 2009. I'm due for a second one shortly which could spell the end of window cleaning for me.

If you have just started window cleaning and come from an office environment background then manual pole work is going to impact muscles you never knew you had.

What type of work are you doing? I ask as most residential I see on Google Earth is what we would call bungalows in the UK, mostly single story buildings. I've looked on Boat Harbour Drive and Old Maryborough Rd and even the business premises/commercial are single story buildings.

You know your work but I would suggest that you find the lightest, stiffest pole and lightest brush you can for the job you do.

In the UK our residential work comprises mainly houses with 2 or 3 floors. To begin with I used to use a heavier pole for upper windows and swap to a smaller lighter pole for the bottom windows.
Wishing you a speedy recovery hope all goes well keep us up to date with how it’s going ( obviously only if you want to not trying to pry into your personal life ) I sure I could  speak for us all of us on hear wishing you well ,you are a font of knowledge and always help everyone I personally have learned a lot from you over the years , get well soon my friend .

 
I had shoulder pain but changed to an electric reel. Shoulder much better and believe it was changing to the electric reel that solved the pain.

 
Wishing you a speedy recovery hope all goes well keep us up to date with how it’s going ( obviously only if you want to not trying to pry into your personal life ) I sure I could  speak for us all of us on hear wishing you well ,you are a font of knowledge and always help everyone I personally have learned a lot from you over the years , get well soon my friend .
Thank you all. It's age related and that just the reality of life.

 
Hi everyone,

Just curious if there are any other window cleaners suffering back and shoulder pain after using a water fed pole.  I'm now 51, am i just getting too old or am I doing something wrong?

Any useful tips  greatly appreciated.
What poles and brushes are you using? 

How many hours a day do you work?

Do you use a manual reel?

Are you using minibore instead of microbore?

Do you do any strength training?

 
Thank you all. It's age related and that just the reality of life.
Age sneaks up on fast. Hope the surgery goes well and you can get back at it afterwards.

If not I hope you enjoy the time with family and friends and make some great memories!

 
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I just bought the new gooseneck with swivel(use with univalve) n supreme  dupont brush. This felt like a great combo so far, lighter than my normal setup, hoping that the brush is a good scrubber, as so far not had anything serious to scrub. if you used the extreme pole that would be a good setup, I dont but may do in future, got to make the job easy as possible.

I'm 47, n have a shoulder injury that is fine with normal resi work, but if working at silly 30ft angles very not happy. I feel wrecked, body feels inflamed after working this week,so feel a bit of your pain. 

 
I just bought the new gooseneck with swivel(use with univalve) n supreme  dupont brush. This felt like a great combo so far, lighter than my normal setup, hoping that the brush is a good scrubber, as so far not had anything serious to scrub. if you used the extreme pole that would be a good setup, I dont but may do in future, got to make the job easy as possible.

I'm 47, n have a shoulder injury that is fine with normal resi work, but if working at silly 30ft angles very not happy. I feel wrecked, body feels inflamed after working this week,so feel a bit of your pain. 
Supreame brushes are very good we use the stiff with hot water lovely brush and not to heavy good splay on the bristles to get into corners long bristles so the stock doesn’t hit the raised part of the frames 

 
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