Working in commercial ceilings, you'll hit your head on sprinkler heads, which are like spurs. That tends to build up ugly scar tissue all over the head.
Cigarette smokers will drive you nuts in confined spaces. You'll definitely get cancer, throat polyps and sinus infections from the teeming multitudes of rude smokers occupying any and all locations without ventilation. ;-)
Working around other trades makes for plenty of discomfort. Painters painting with oil base in unventilated areas, carpenters cutting formadehyde-laden wood and making clouds of fine airborne wood dust is hazardous to your health, people operating jackhammer machinery on wheels will deafen you. There's some kind of jackhammer thing that's mounted on a large Bobcat type thing, I watched it with a chisel tip just rip through a 4" thick pipe with a 1/4" wall in about 30 seconds, but it's so loud I couldn't work anywhere near it.
Pulling wire can be hard on your back, especially long runs and heavy wire in small pipes.
Working underground (in ditches, etc.) is a real back workout.
I had a boss who demanded of all his apprentices that they wear their tools at all times, and if you have to climb a ladder 200 times in one day, sometimes carrying things, all that weight really starts hurting your knee joints eventually.
I enjoy carrying two 12 foot ladders at a time, and I don't think that hurts me any. Might hurt some people though.
Working on a job where you have to walk all the way across a large concrete slab or hard tile floor, back and forth, all day long, is hard on your feet.
Standing on a ladder all day is surprisingly hard on your feet.
Your neck can get jacked up by lying down on your side to do some types of work - that really can hurt your neck. Also being cramped in a ceiling where your neck is tilted against the ceiling, or being too high on a ladder where your neck is cranked over will hurt it. I find it's best to keep my head vertical at all times to avoid chronic neck pain.
Bosses who like to make you do everything the hard way (as opposed to the efficient way, or the smart way, or the best way) will put your body through plenty of abuse. It's good to have a boss with intelligence and compassion for fellow human beings.
Trying to use a big hole saw on the wrong kind of drill with one hand in an awkward spot will catch and try to twist the drill out of your hand and can hurt your wrist and thumb, I've been there and had to drill many, many holes like that until my wrist gave up. Some drill bodies are in-line and some are like a pistol, and the in-line body styles like to twist your hand off.
You can develop carpal tunnel syndrome trying to cut all your cable with dikes, for example - it's better to get cable cutters for the larger wire and MC cable. It's a lot easier and you won't strain your forearm muscles and hands.
[This message has been edited by Spark Master Flash (edited 05-13-2004).]
