Everyday Systems

Post any questions/comments/concerns you have about this move here.

Official movement description at:

http://shovelglove.com/movements/flip_lever/

I've returned to shovelglove after a long hiatus from it and any type of exercise and I found that my wrist was hurting after I performed this move whereas in earlier periods of shovelgloving I had no problem with it. So what I'm doing is I hold the hammer so my arm is at a 90 degree angle to the handle.

As a woman w/ the typical lesser upper body strength, I've always had to hold the hammer just below the head. Consequently, I'm not sure how well this grip would work for those of you who grasp the hammer about midway up the handle. For me, at least, the move feels the same w/out the wrist pain.

I expect that I will be able to return to the more "canonical" grip at some point in the future. Until then, I'm able to enjoy the full benefits of this move.

jules

Thanks for posting this modification, Jules. This is one of the toughest moves for most people. It's great to have a version that is more "accessible."

I think I'll try it out myself!

Reinhard

I noticed that I've been doing "flip the lever" wrong. Well, maybe not wrong, but in a different way. Instead of swinging the head of the shovelglove until it's straight out, I let it swing until it's straight up. But my forearm is still parallell to the floor. When the shovelglove is pointing to the ceiling, I balance it in that position for maybe a second, and then start the downswing.

I feel my forearms getting a good workout from the balancing, and I don't feel any discomfort in my wrists. And just so you don't have to figure that out by yourself, don't make the up-swing too powerful...

From Reinhard's video of flip the lever, it seems that the momentum of the swing is doing a lot of the work. Perhaps it's just the way it looks, or maybe that's what was intended.

Allowing this swing seems to make the exercise way too easy. So I've been experimenting with slowing way down with the flip. Rather than swing the shovelglove up and letting it swing back, I slowly lift it up, and lower it down and back a little.

This makes the exercise MUCH harder... I can really feel the burn now!

And I see that as a good thing!

You are not alone in doing flip the lever in a slow and controlled way. It is a common technique from weight lifting which makes the muscles work much harder than when a fast swing with a lot of momentum is used.

I have experimented with doing some of the other movements in a slow and controlled way as well (cut down tree, drive post). They feel different and seem to affect different muscle groups when done slowly. But unlike flip the lever, controlling the momentum is part of the fun (and a lot of of the workout). So I just do them full speed sometimes and slowly at other times.

From Reinhard's video of flip the lever, it seems that the momentum of the swing is doing a lot of the work.

Yup. Doesn't bother me. Real world work uses momentum, too.

There's a limit in shovelglove as to how much you can cheat with momentum because you have to "catch" the darn thing at the end of the arc. If it's going fast, that's going to be a harder catch. So it's kind of self-correcting.

Allowing this swing seems to make the exercise way too easy

You must be a hell of a lot stronger than I am! I find this one of the hardest moves, momentum and all.

Rather than swing the shovelglove up and letting it swing back, I slowly lift it up, and lower it down and back a little.

I guess that is more or less what I do... you're right, maybe the video is misleading.

Thanks for the tip/clarification!

Reinhard

I don't actually use flip lever (my elbow tendons dislike curling-type movements in general), but for what it's worth I think that overcoming the inertia of the weight at rest is probably the hardest part of most lifting, so it's very satisfying for me to snap the weight up quickly (this also makes the workout take less time, which is an added bonus).

It really depends on your goals, though. Explosive strength is just different from maximum strength, so there's obvious benefit in both methods.

The main thing is that your muscles are working and you're having fun. -_^

phayze wrote: Explosive strength is just different from maximum strength, so there's obvious benefit in both methods.

Thank you for a much clearer explanation than I could manage of why I like to do both fast and slow (but always controlled) versions of many of the movements.

I did this for a while, but I found it really bothering my wrists and thought it felt somewhat dangerous (and it's even tougher now since my homemade hammer has a much thinner handle than a regular sledgehammer).

Here is my wussy alternative for working the bicepts that I've started using:
http://tinypic.com/r/k9dh0h/3
(I screwed up the first time on the second side, I've found it's better not to raise the leverage side.)

If it's hurting your wrists you are using more leverage than you can handle. I got sore wrists for the first few days and moved my hand much closer to the head of the sledgehammer to relieve the pressure in the wrist. Over only a few weeks I was easily able to move my hand further away again.

Bushranger wrote:If it's hurting your wrists you are using more leverage than you can handle. I got sore wrists for the first few days and moved my hand much closer to the head of the sledgehammer to relieve the pressure in the wrist. Over only a few weeks I was easily able to move my hand further away again.

Hmm, I will give that a shot. I never bothered doing it too close because then it just felt like a really light curl without the extra weight from the leverage, but I hadn't thought that I'd be developing my wrists in the process.

I've started doing a modified flip the lever based on a video I found in one of the posts in this forum.

http://youtu.be/x1qKW5e-PPw?t=1m18s

I start with the shovelglove in the standard flip the lever, but instead of going back down once the swing ends, I bring it over my back, before returning it back to the upright position, then back down again.

I may swing the shovelglove to bring it to the upright position, but I bring the shovelglove to a controlled stop in the upright position before continuing the movement. I control it (as opposed to swinging it) as it goes over my back and then back into the upright position.

I use a six pound hammer with the regular choked up flip the lever grip, so it is easy to stay in control.

This is a regular flip the lever that just continues over my back, returns to the upright position, and then swings down (unlike the video which has him swinging his "shovelglove" between his legs).

To make this just a little more difficult I twist my wrist as I raise the hammer. That doesn't sound too clear; the handle still lays on my forearm for the whole movement, but as I raise the hammer my palm goes from facing my body to facing up.

This allows me to raise the hammer just a bit higher and the biceps seem to work even harder.

-ted

Instead of swinging the head of the shovelglove until it's straight out, Allowing this swing seems to make the exercise way too easy. i think this will help

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DC++ wrote:You are not alone in doing flip the lever in a slow and controlled way. It is a common technique from weight lifting which makes the muscles work much harder than when a fast swing with a lot of momentum is used. https://www.giannasgrille.com

I have experimented with doing some of the other movements in a slow and controlled way as well (cut down tree, drive post). They feel different and seem to affect different muscle groups when done slowly. But unlike flip the lever, controlling the momentum is part of the fun (and a lot of of the workout). So I just do them full speed sometimes and slowly at other times.

It can easily be generated to those which are not so common among stars..