How do you professional mechanics do it?

I mean physically.  I am beat.  I just finished a 4” turbo back exhaust on my dually.  I started about 11 am and got finished just before dark.  Should have been an easy job but of course it fought me all the way.  I’m used to sitting in an office behind a computer screen and this kicked my a$$.  I feel like I’ve been run over by Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders.  Granted, I’m not getting any younger (almost 50) and I didn’t have a lift and it won’t fit my garage so I was laying on my back on an old rug.  I used to think I wouldn’t have any trouble wrenching for a living.  I honestly don’t think I could cut it now.

I did it for years.  Hands cut up, callouses, sore back, broken fingernails, constantly filthy hands, lungs unhappy with all the fumes I inhaled.... but such a feeling of satisfaction at the end of the day.

Do it every day. Every spring we'd have a soccer kickabout. Felt great until the next morning when I literally couldn't move and my day job wasn't easy either. After a few more kickabouts I felt great. 

I do it everyday, but I have a lift and air etc.etc.  Doing an exhaust on your back with a rug is rough work. When working on the ground you have to twist and contort in unnatural ways and a lot of times you dont even realize it because you are concentrating on the task at hand.

You should take pride in a job well done even if you had to do it the hard way. 

I tell this to people every day at work(ski instructor). It's easier for me, because I've been doing this forever and I'm very efficient and I've strengthened all the correct muscles. A professional mechanic doing this every day has all the correct tools and knows where they are. Just that helps so much. Then, the thing that kills me wrenching, comes grip strength. After a long day working on the car my hands and forearms are burned out because I don't use them all that much in daily life.

I was training and competing in Highland Games and got really sore from BOWLING, not to mention interior painting with a roller.

If you had a lift, you’d have held your arms over your head all those hours and would have been just as tired and sore.

You spent a whole day doing something that your body isn't used to. Of course you're sore.

When i worked in a transmission shop almost all my work was overhead. After i stopped working in a transmission shop, my arms and shoulders would get tired from doing a lot of overhead work.  Your body acclimates within reason, but nothing stops aging and every year i notice my general decline (im 34). If I wasn't using my body for work, it would probably sneak up on me. When you use it all the time you actually notice that aging doesn't start when you're 40+, it starts somewhere in your 20s. My eyes are actually the worst. Im also not as good at shooter games as  i used to be even though at 20 years experience, there shouldn't be anything left to learn. I can't drive the way i used to and feel as good about it because my reactions and general awareness are not what they used to be. 

In general I would say if you don't want to feel old, don't do anything that explores your limits. That way, you won't notice them receding.  

In reply to Vigo :

Macking on women. 

In reply to Curtis :

This, and it catches up with age, knees and lower back from working under and on alignment racks, body from attempting to work under dashes and tight places. Hands would finally come clean after a week long vacation.

Plus, as a flat rate mechanic, you are always working to beat the clock while striving for 100% customer satisfaction and 0 come backs.

I'm not a mechanic, but I'm a 40-something white collar office worker who does car stuff....and man. IDK how they do it either. Just doing this 3rd engine swap my hands are completely trashed between my cold garage and constantly washing off the grease (I forget my gloves half the time) and all of my knuckles being cut up from working in tiny spaces in an engine bay. 

Latex gloves are awesome.

Nitrile gloves you mean? Latex falls apart working on a car. I’ve found the harbor freight nitrile gloves are pretty good!

Kudo's, Not many can make a living Laying on your Back.

At 67 I all but refuse to work from The ground under a Car.

In reply to dculberson :

I'll take a look.  If they are nitrile, they are a whole different species than the hard, inelastic, tear prone, slippery junk that HF sells.

In reply to Knurled. :

I buy the medical nitrile ones from Sam's Club. Cheap and hold up better than the HF ones. I don't have any issues with them being inflexible in the cold.

It's easier when you have the correct tools to put whatever your working on in the right position. 

Things like a universal rated for impact work, tight throw ratcheting wrenches, and tool modified for specific purposes really takes the strain out of the work.

It's the kind of tools you wouldn't but for a one or two use job, but when you're doing it everyday it's worth it.

"Yeah, mechanics have it tough."

This is intended as good natured jest. Any unfamiliar job is tough-particularly the physical ones. This is why, here in the South, we have the time honored tradition of B.S.ing half the day.

I think racing the clock doing flat rate would stress me out big time. Every time I do wrenching on one of my cars I'm sore the next day and usually cut up, especially if it was the Miata.

Work smarter not harder. When I work on my junk I’m always looking for the best possible position to work in even if it adds some time to the overall job. I’m also a thinker in that I’m always looking ahead and taking into account if I do this, then I have to do this and this, but if I do that instead I’m doing this... It does help I’m working on fairly modern GM products where you rarely deviate from 8, 10, 13, 15, 18, & 21mm sizes although most of the hex trim screws are 7mm. Those are most of the reasons I have to get up and out from under a vehicle.

I've found that the older I get, the more important it is to  use it or lose it!