NH:

I spent a year 'training' getting into top notch (parden the pun) shape when I knew I was going to hew the second story logs for my house.

I could hew 24' logs both sides of pine with an 18" butt in 2 hours but that included scoring with a chainsaw.

The limiting factor of hewing is not strength, sharp tools take care of that, but cardio capacity!

I could hew 2.5 logs a day before I could not lift my hands again and then proceeded to eat everything I could find to replenish lost energy.