CLALLAM BAY — The driver has just burst out of the bus and onto the pavement, where his body goes horizontal.
Balanced on black-shod toes, hands wedged into black plastic thingamajigs, drizzle and wind whooshing around him, Doug Philbrick does what he always does in the midst of his shift.
Push-ups.
“The passengers look at me sometimes like I stepped off a UFO, out in the rain or whatever,” admitted Philbrick, Clallam Transit’s West End driver since March 2009.
But he keeps on, since these fast, simple exercises invigorate him during his drives from Forks to Clallam Bay to Neah Bay and back, twice in a day.
And in this month of New Year’s resolutions about shaping up, he’s a high-performance model, a man who proves you can grab exercise in quick stops throughout the workday.
Philbrick, who grew up in Seattle and now lives in Forks, spent the past three decades skiing and mountain-climbing around the West.
After a serious ice-climbing accident, and after arthritis crept into his joints, he’s had to find other avenues to fitness.
So before his shift, Philbrick takes a brisk four-mile walk.
Then, at any stop on his route that lasts more than a couple of minutes, he throws down his Perfect Push-ups — palm-sized platforms devised by a former Navy SEAL to enhance the upper-body workout. And knocks out two or three dozen.
The Perfect Push-ups have rotating handles that call on more muscles than plain push-ups, so they mean a better workout.
Plus, Philbrick said, they keep his hands from getting dirty and position him so his uniform doesn’t drag on the ground.
Philbrick, 49, is one motivated guy.
His reasons for doing a daily total of 150 push-ups at bus stops in one of the rainiest places in the country include: They keep his blood flowing through eight hours of sitting in the driver’s seat. And, of course, they tone the muscle tissue around his bones, broken many times in his years as a hockey player.
Good muscle keeps those bones from hurting as much and could stave off the need for artificial knees, Philbrick said.
Push-ups are loaded with benefits for the whole body, according to www.WebMD.com.
When you use good form, tightening your abdominal muscles and engaging everything else, toes to triceps, you’re strengthening your core. And for women, such weight-bearing moves build bone density to help avert osteoporosis.
Philbrick offered some gentle advice based on his experience.
“I see a lot of people go full-bore right out of the gate,” he said. Instead, “ease into it. Adjust your diet. And don’t kill yourself.”
Before and after exercising, stretch those muscles. When you’re finished working out, choose protein. Philbrick recommends sardines or organic peanut butter.
“I’m Norwegian and German,” so those fish taste right.
Then, the Forks resident adds some liquid sunshine: “I have a can of sardines,” he said, “and a glass of orange juice.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
