Comment by spacebanana7

I think it's worthwhile to highlight the psychical activity paradox in this discussion.

This paradox describes the contrast between the damaging impact that occupational exercise has on health against the beneficial impact that leisure exercise has on health. This difference is very well documented [1][2][3] (you can easily find dozens more studies with a quick google search).

There's a diversity of opinion about what causes the paradox, but I think it's reasonable to be concerned that spending significant amounts of time on DIY/Gardening/Chores could replicate the hazards of occupational exercise. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a study which looks at these directly.

[1] https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/42/15/1499/621377... [2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28798040/ [3] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6...