How to test your back
There are many things one can do to test your back, but my method this weekend was to seal coat the driveway.
The cost of hiring someone is about equal to buying the seal coat myself but there's an advantage: the quality of the seal coat I purchase is much higher. Thus it's longer lasting and more durable. In fact, it was looking like I would be able to do it for /less/ because the quality seal coat was going further (thanks to last years application).
However, the township tore up about a quarter of our driveway late last fall (to install storm drains) and so I ended up using all the buckets I purchased. (As new asphalt tends to require a lot more seal coat.) Still, I came out of it with a better protected driveway and only a sore back, and legs, and arms, and neck and....
Er...Well, I came out ahead and that's the story I'm sticking with. 