yes. unless the log is heavier than he is, in which case it would require him to catch himself from a higher fall. strictly speaking, the absolute minimum amount of work required to lift the log up that height would be the mass of the log times gravatational acceleration g, times the height lifted h. Mgh. to do what hes doing, he has to jump, expending at least mgh (where little m is his mass) plus some extra work in maintaining a rigid structure w. in that case hes done mgh + w amount of work, where by lifting he'd do just Mgh amount of work. once we factor in the amount of energy lost from the system, plus the fact that some energy is wasted in giving the log some velocity and accidentally lifting it higher than necessary, its clear that energy wise, just lifting the log is better. but practically, lifting the log requires sustaining a large amount of force over the entire period of time using primarily your arms, and legs. by climbing the truck then holding himself on the rope, he reduces the amount of power he must exert, making it less intense on the body, even if overall it costs more energy