Physical labor was great because you didn't have to work then go to the gym separately. Left more leisure time.

I was never in so great shape as when I worked as a dishwasher. Bike to work (8 miles, rain / shine / snow), work damned hard, close and clean up the restaurant, bike home. Of course, I was making like 50X less than I do now.

I was happy to have that job, but even happier to leave it for something that involved keyboards and air-conditioned machine rooms instead of scalding hot water and smelling like a dishrag during my "leisure time" (which was more like recuperation, actually).

I don't mind physical work, and I've done my share, but I'd rather not do much more of it. My dad grew up on a small farm in the northwest US, and that was work; he's paying for it now, in his old age.

If I could make the same money I do now washing dishes, I would take it in a heartbeat. I was in much better shape, and honestly, my job was more fulfilling I could point to and see real progress every night of work.

I don't buy it. You only need to workout about 30min a day, 3-4 times a week to stay in decent shape. Maybe an hour if you include prep and showering. That's only a few hours of your leisure time a week you might be missing out on...

The biggest difference is the leisure time that accrues to you by retirement. On top of having more money saved, you're almost certainly in much better physical shape than someone who engaged in physically demanding activity for 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, for 40 years.

Have you seen professional acrobats? They look 15 years younger than they are.

There's a tremendous difference between physical fitness and running your body into the ground through long days of extraordinarily difficult labor.

I suspect acrobats self select as people who look young, as that seems correlated with agility. Not withstanding that, the most common advice my high school coach gave us was to not over-practice. (I ran cross country, most of the more dedicated members had at least 1 season where they had to drop out from over-exerting themselves).

Or you could go even further and incorporate workout into your leisure time: play a sport!

And yet mortality rates worse and there was actually very little leisure time ... funny that ...

Physical labor is great because you don't have time to worry about anything else.

Vous devez avoir, dit Candide au Turc, une vaste et magnifique terre? — Je n’ai que vingt arpents, répondit le Turc; je les cultive avec mes enfants; le travail éloigne de nous trois grands maux: l’ennui, le vice, et le besoin.

For those who don't know French (approximate):

Candide asked the Turk, "Do you have a vast and magnificent estate?" "I only have twenty acres," the Turk replied. "I cultivate them with my children; The work wards off three great evils: boredom, vice, and want."

- From Voltaire's "Candide" - one of the more fun (and short!) 'Great Books'.