Long time Shovelglover, rare poster

Take a sledgehammer and wrap an old sweater around it. This is your "shovelglove." Every week day morning, set a timer for 14 minutes. Use the shovelglove to perform shoveling, butter churning, and wood chopping motions until the timer goes off. Stop. Rest on weekends and holidays. Baffled? Intrigued? Charmed? Discuss here.
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Freelancer
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:53 pm

Long time Shovelglover, rare poster

Post by Freelancer » Wed Mar 05, 2008 10:50 am

For the past 3 months or so I've been into Shovelglove and I'm absolutely loving it.

For a long time I played a ton of soccer, a few months ago (4-5 months ago) I decided to quit. Partially because of soccer I managed to get a rigid big toe (yes my big toe), basically what happened is that when I normally walk I put all the pressure on my big toe and the joint. Just imagine a normal foot walking where all the pressure is devided equally amongst all toe's. For me its instead of all toe's I put all the pressure on my big toe. So at one point I played a double match (two teams needed me :p) and at the end of the afternoon I couldn't walk normally anymore. This lasted for 3 freakin days. At that point I decided, I've had enough. No more of this crap and just outright quit soccer.

Now since then I've been on the look out for something different to do. Shovelglove caught my eye because its cheap, I can do it at my own place in my own time (versus for instance fitness) and it seemed fun.

So out I went to buy myself a sledgehammer and the adventure started.

The first 2 months or so I probably ended up doing it 3-4 times a week on average. I'm already a reasonably muscled guy and so I expected this to be easy lol. Well it turned out this was tougher then I imagined, sweet sweet burn every time.

Now because I didn't change my eating patterns I gained some fat% and lost some muscle (in my legs mostly).

I went from:
~10% fat
48% muscle mass

Towards
16% fat
44% muscle mass
(measured last Monday)

So I managed to lose gain fat and lose muscle mass. Not what I want at all.
Even the lovely Herbalife products couldn't avoid this considering I overeat compared to the amount of exercize I do. I was used to be able to eat pretty much anything whenever I felt like, I especially have a weakness for snacking in the evening.

Since I'm a Herbalife Distributor this isn't exactly the best advertisement, imagine this;
Hey guys, I had a ton of health benefits from these products (no more antibiotics, reduced allergies, dramatically reduced hayfever, reduced sickness, no more clogged up nose) and you can lose weight as well with them, they'r the greatest really !
Oh yeah I did gain 6% fat and lost some muscle after I started.
Dang takes the bang out of the story...

Anyway so I decided to change all this.

From this point I'm going to follow the Herbalife lifestyle strictly, no more bad stuff for me. We've got a program where I can track exactly how much I need of everything, I'm using this a lot right now.

On top of that I am also doing shovelglove 5x a week to account for exercize.
I'm also getting into the whole Urban Warrior thing to retain my muscle mass in my legs, I'm going to need it for rowing.

In about a month (thats when the season starts) I'm going to start rowing 2-3 times a week, really looking forward to this.


My goal is:
~6-8% fat
~48% muscle mass
And visible abbs. Yeah I'm vain. :D



Some additional stuff;
Recently figured out two new moves. They are extremely and I mean extremely tiring. 5 minutes of this gets me out of breath...

Move 1
The Whirlwind of Doom

You will need more room for this then your regular Shovelglove exercizes.
- Stand and swing the Shovelglove in the same way you do when Chopping Wood.
- Instead of stopping the Shovelglove mid orbit keep it swinging.
- Now make a swift circle.
- Continue swinging the Shovelglove, careful not to knock out your mom.
- Rinse repeat untill you reach the other end of the room.
- Switch hands while turning back again.
- etc.

This move requires some practice at first but once you get the hang of it you'll move back and forth the room incredibly fast and you'll be tired in no time.

Move 2
The Push of Destiny

Once again you will need more room then you usually do.
- Stand with your right foot in front and left foot behind. (triangle)
- Hold the Shovelglove with your left hand at the end of the shaft and your right hand at the metal piece (?? the top of the sledgehammer ??)
- Push the Shovelglove forward while moving both feet forward at the same time. You push with your left foot.
- Rinse repeat untill you reach the end of the room.
- Switch feet and hands.
- Repeat moves in opposite direction.

Once again you'll be tired in no time.

sgtrock
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Jan 31, 2008 5:18 am

Post by sgtrock » Mon Mar 10, 2008 3:26 am

Hi Freelancer,

The moves sound interesting. I just tried out the Push of Destiny (cool name!) and I think I can see what you are saying. Would you say it is basically a moving variant of Stoke the Oven?

Also, I can't quite picture what you mean in The Whirlwind of Doom (ultra cool name!) when you say "make a swift circle". Do you mean you personally turn 360 while keeping the shovelglove at your waist level to propel you through the turn? Or do you remain stationary and (at the end of the Chop Wood movement) move the SG from your waist up and around in front of you as if you were looking through the circle? In that one the "end" position is right back at the beginning of the Chop Wood move, so you can continue through in a smooth flow. I just tried both and the stationary one rocked my sides something fierce. I've done medicine ball moves like that as well.

Thanks!
"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." -- Confucius, an early Everyday Systems pioneer

Freelancer
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:53 pm

Post by Freelancer » Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:27 am

sgtrock wrote:Hi Freelancer,

The moves sound interesting. I just tried out the Push of Destiny (cool name!) and I think I can see what you are saying. Would you say it is basically a moving variant of Stoke the Oven?

Also, I can't quite picture what you mean in The Whirlwind of Doom (ultra cool name!) when you say "make a swift circle". Do you mean you personally turn 360 while keeping the shovelglove at your waist level to propel you through the turn? Or do you remain stationary and (at the end of the Chop Wood movement) move the SG from your waist up and around in front of you as if you were looking through the circle? In that one the "end" position is right back at the beginning of the Chop Wood move, so you can continue through in a smooth flow. I just tried both and the stationary one rocked my sides something fierce. I've done medicine ball moves like that as well.

Thanks!
Not quite a variant of that, to better get it. Imagine somebody is standing in front of you and somehow (for whatever reason) you decide to push them over. Pop comes a sledgehammer in your hands (where did THAT come from!?) now what would be the most intuitive way to hold it?
Now just pretend you push somebody a few times, then turn and do the same thing only holding the shovelglove the other way around.
A bit more clear now?

Yeah The Whirlwind of Doom is exactly that.

Meh this stuff is tough to explain. :p



If you want you can add in a halleluya with The Push of Destiny and resonating Doom to ALL OF YOU !! for The Whirlwind of Doom.
Its also important that during The Whirlwind of Doom you imagine yourself as Satan bringing revenge to human kind.

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Jammin' Jan
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Location: The Village

Post by Jammin' Jan » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:13 pm

These sound like great moves, just what I need after a day like today. Any chance you could put these up on youtube?

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:42 am

Freelancer,

Thanks for this detailed status update and the new move descriptions. Sorry it's taken me a full week to weigh in -- this no s book stuff has been distracting.

If you do get a chance to take some video, I would LOVE to see Whirlwind of Doom (just make sure not to kill the cameraman!). I can imagine that one pretty clearly, though I don't know if I dare attempt to reproduce it, but I'm having a hard time envisioning the Push of Destiny. Not to knock your descriptions -- I don't think I could have properly described any of my moves without video either. In any case, great metaphysical names, both of them.

Reinhard

Freelancer
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Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:53 pm

Post by Freelancer » Thu Mar 13, 2008 6:48 am

Jammin' Jan wrote:These sound like great moves, just what I need after a day like today. Any chance you could put these up on youtube?
A bit tough, would be the first time I'm putting ANYTHING on youtube.

I've got a shitload of things right now on my mind, so right now I don't have the mental RAM to consider this as well.

Its going to be hectic for me the upcoming 4-6 months so don't expect any vids from me for the time being.
Freelancer,

Thanks for this detailed status update and the new move descriptions. Sorry it's taken me a full week to weigh in -- this no s book stuff has been distracting.

If you do get a chance to take some video, I would LOVE to see Whirlwind of Doom (just make sure not to kill the cameraman!). I can imagine that one pretty clearly, though I don't know if I dare attempt to reproduce it, but I'm having a hard time envisioning the Push of Destiny. Not to knock your descriptions -- I don't think I could have properly described any of my moves without video either. In any case, great metaphysical names, both of them.

Reinhard
Yeah these moves are tough to explain properly in words. I'm actually not doing them anymore, replaced these with burpee's. In the process of working up to 100 burpee's+15 minutes shovelglove every morning (+get up 5 AM and meditate 20-30 minutes :p). I'm now at 19 burpee's+15 minutes shovelglove.

Haha I give everything in my life metaphysical names, for instance my room:
The Command Centre
My Shovelglove:
Angelic Light
My clothes:
The Pimp Deluxe outfit
Grumpy Old Neighbour:
Satan (makes me smile each time when she pulls a grimace again :D)
etc.

Loving it.

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