Ted's Anti-Sloth Workout & my over-thinking

Which movements do you do? How many reps? In what order? When? Do you mix in other non-shovelglove moves? Post here or browse to get ideas.
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slothlike
Posts: 86
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2011 5:16 am
Location: Minneapolis

Ted's Anti-Sloth Workout & my over-thinking

Post by slothlike » Tue Sep 27, 2011 5:20 pm

• 1 minute of pain (planks)

• 100 kettlebell swings w/16 k. kettlebell
• 100 goblet squats w/kettlebell

Main Shovelglove routine (3 sets of 15/side ~ 14 min.)
• Fireman
• Shovel
• Chop Wood
• Spear Thrust
• Churn Butter

Finishing Moves (1 set of 15/side)
• Flip the Lever
• Back Scratchers

The name is because I get up two hours early to workout and spend the rest of the time doing housework or schoolwork.

At first I did old-fashioned sit-ups because I skimmed the archive and saw all the posts from people thinking they needed more ab work. I hated them, so I started doing planks. Now that I've done it for a while, I think my core gets enough work from shugging. I think I keep doing them because I grew up old-school Catholic and think suffering is good for you.

Kettlebell swings strengthen my lower back and hamstrings, which helps with my muscle imbalance due to years of bike racing. This keeps my back happy.

The squats hurt, I mean really hurt. I wouldn't do them if I didn't want to race again. I do the first ones as fast as possible, but I slow down, and by the end, as fast as possible is excruciatingly slow. I figure this way I've hit both fast and slow twitch fibers.

Originally I did squats as part of the main circuit, but it felt like I was giving my upper body a rest, then I did them as a mini-circuit with the swings. I finally made them separate to replicate the effort it takes to climb a hill - 2 or 3 minutes will get you up most hills in Minnesota.

I do the shugging with a 12# sledge, I go fast and hard. For motivation I listen to old metal (Ozzy, AC/DC, etc.), if that's not enough I imagine I'm fighting zombies. I wanted to maximize my metabolism, so I limited my main circuit to multi-muscle moves and try to work with zero rest for the whole 14 minutes. I keep a bend in my knees and tighten my abs as I swing, this also keeps my back happy.

Flip the lever used to be in the main circuit, but it seemed superfluous since everything else works the arms. Since they aren't full body, I took them out, but added them back in at the end since I want big biceps. I added backscratchers for balance.

I used to end with a set of push-ups and assisted pull-ups, but I didn't like it and my routine was too long.

My whole routine takes 21-23 minutes. I'd like to get down to 20 minutes, but I don't see anything I want to take out. Besides, this routine seems to be in the sweet spot of being strenuous enough for benefits, but not so hard that I'm not recovered by the next day.

Feel free to critique,
-ted

mattman
Posts: 44
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 12:36 pm
Location: Ohio

Post by mattman » Tue Oct 04, 2011 7:30 pm

That is a cool routine. I love the kb swings and goblet squats. Huge bang for the buck. For my actual shovelglove routine I do lots and lots of well, shoveling, stoking the fire, driving the fence, axe chops of various types. I also keep a bend in the legs and the abs tight. After the 14 mins of sledgehammer fun I do my push-ups and ab wheel roll-outs. I loath sit-ups.
two wrongs don't make a right.
But three lefts do.

mattman
Posts: 44
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 12:36 pm
Location: Ohio

Post by mattman » Tue Oct 04, 2011 7:33 pm

i forgot to add that I try to walk 60-90 minutes every day I am not at the fire station. Mornings that I am on shift, I try to just to the sledgehammer routine before work and the push-ups while on shift.
two wrongs don't make a right.
But three lefts do.

slothlike
Posts: 86
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2011 5:16 am
Location: Minneapolis

Post by slothlike » Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:21 am

Thanks Mattman. I really liked kettlebells when I did them at a studio, but all the twisty movements felt too awkward to do at home, so I just mix in the straight-forward movements.

I tore my rotator cuff about 20 yrs ago when unloaded trucks at UPS and then dislocated that shoulder in a mountain bike race, Flip the Lever is starting to aggravate it, so I'm going to do kettlebell cleans instead.

slothlike
Posts: 86
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2011 5:16 am
Location: Minneapolis

October workout

Post by slothlike » Sat Oct 08, 2011 3:19 pm

This goes against the Shovelglove philosophy (which I think is a good one), but I'm trying to find my maximum daily sustainable workout. This is what I'm doing for October.

I do this circuit twice - it takes 27 or 28 minutes.

Kettlebell Goblet squats (50)
Kettlebell swings (50)
Fireman (all shugging X21)
Shovel
Spear
Chop Wood
Churn Butter
Kettlebell Cleans (12)
Kettlebell Floor Press (6) - I have a wimpy chest.
Spider Planks (20) - I can't quite do these with a full push-up yet.

I tried doing 3 sets with 35X squats/swings and 14X shugging, but it took 33 minutes and it left me wiped out the next day. That extra 5 minutes makes a big difference.

Rocker
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Joined: Tue May 06, 2014 3:14 am

Post by Rocker » Tue May 06, 2014 3:19 am

Hey Slothlike,

Saw the title of this post and the word "over-thinking" reminded me of myself and drew me in...

Sounds like a killer routine! Both kettlebells and pushups sound intense at those volumes!

Best of luck with it all!

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