Fsck the gym!

JWL · Post by **JWL** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 4:13 am

Greetings all, I've been away from the forum for the better part of a month now. There are several reasons for this, but I'm back now. The main reason is that I was without net connectivity for nearly 3 weeks. But I'm back online.

I no longer live on the beach; now I'm back in beautiful Portland Maine, and have already begun my Urban Ranger training. Damn, have I missed walking....

But this is the shovelglove forum. And do I have a story for you. My wife and I have been exercising together for several months now; we both bought a gym membership and went 2-3 times a week. We both could feel the improvement, and enjoyed going. It was good for us.

Then I discovered Shovelglove (and No-S and UR).

I started doing it religiously, and for a variety of reasons, we stopped going to the gym over the move. Anyway, long story short, we decided to go back yesterday. I had convinced myself that I'd continue with shovelglove and No-S, add Urban Ranger, and just for good measure go to the gym twice weekly on top of it.

So we get to the gym (they have a Portland location) and walk in to transfer our memberships to that location. First, the RetailFitnessDrone tells us they can't transfer the memberships, we have to go online and do it. So a manager comes over and tells us we can still work out today if we want. OK, good. So I take our daughter (she's 8 years old) over to one of the available tables to set her up with a book, something we'd done for months at the other location.

"Sorry," the RetailFitnessDrone says, "children aren't allowed in the gym. Our insurance company prohibits it."

So we go round and round, but they're firm. Our daughter, for her own protection (yeah right) is not allowed to sit at a table with a book while Mom and Dad work out.

Note that this experience was AFTER we had gone to a different gym altogether, only to discover that we were misquoted the price on the phone.

Now, my wife and I are sensible people. We immediately say "Fsck the gym!" and stopped by Home Despot on our way home to get her a sledgehammer. We get home, and I show her the shovelglove moves.

We're both committed to the Everyday Systems plan now, to seriously give it a go and watch ourselves get healthier.

Incidentally, I have a pair of dumbells at home also, which I hadn't used since well before I started Shovelgloving. I feel that shovelglove does a great job with upper body exercises, though I missed an exercise that gets the pectoral muscles well, like bench pressing. So I got the dumbells out again.

Shovelglove definitely helps strength; I did bench presses with them at 30% more weight, and double the number of sets, than I could do just a few months ago. Wow!

Anyway, I'm back, more committed to shovelglove than ever (thinking of picking up a 16 pounder soon), and have my wife on the Everyday Systems bandwagon now too.

Kevin · Post by **Kevin** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 1:29 pm

I noticed the same thing about SG. Swinging that hammer around makes one stronger even by traditional weight lifting measures. My realization came through pull ups - I could suddenly do five. I mean, how does SG help your lats? Maybe I was doing them all on triceps, but I don't think so.

You'd think that you'd need to push big weights to be able to push bigger weights. I guess this is an indication that high reps work, too.

I don't SG makes you as "big", though. But I can deal with that.

Post by **reinhard** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 2:38 am

Welcome back, Freakwitch (and family!). I'm afraid the everydaysystems server has been fscking itself a bit the last few days... may have to replace it soon.

How funny and sad about the gym/insurance company. But don't worry -- I'm not insured, nor do I have any money. So go crazy

I'm curious what I could do now at the gym, just as a metric. My guess would have been that I wouldn't perform up to my general fitness level on a lot of stations just because they're so contrived and specialized, but your reports are encouraging. Sure would be nice for bragging purposes...

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 2:44 am

Hey Reinhard... Next time you come to NY to visit your Mom, come out to Great Neck and I'll give you a free pass to visit the branch of NY Health and Racquet Club where I work!
I showed your picture to one of the main trainers at our club and he was pretty impressed

I'm sure you would be able to do loads of stuff with much more ease since you've been using a 16 lbder for so long now...
Peace and Pushups!

Deb

margaret · Post by **margaret** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 2:05 am

I'm not even thinking about shovelgloving, but for deep bellylaughs, it's the best. R., who took the stills? Does your wife think you're a nut? Since you went to the trouble to develop the site I wanted to tell you how much I've enjoyed it.
I wonder how people from a century ago would few us and our nonproductive exercising, at least you'll be prepared with your functioning muscles.

Margaret Of the Eighty Exercise Videotapes Collection

oldfox · Post by **oldfox** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 9:41 pm

Reinhard, I test myself by just doing some situps and a run and if you can find a pullup bar do some of those. Those classic general fitness type exercises that work off bodyweight are good because they are proportional to everyone. You can compare yourself against some of the armed forces fitness guidelines if you want to see how you stack up against different levels of really fit dudes without compairing yourself to anyone specific.

Pullups are hard to workout for without actually doing them! I am curious what you can do because this is all I do for strength so your results should be close to what I can expect a couple years down the road. I have been at it a few weeks now but I can see myself sticking to it for the rest of my life.

I personally want to be able to score a perfect 300 on the Marine Corps test some day (I am a civilian but that is my yardstick, I have some military friends). That is a 3 mile run in 18 minutes, 20 pullups (!) in a row with no time limit but not letting go, and I think 100 situps in two minutes. That run seems impossible but I am going to try to get there. Right now I am nowhere near. I am doing no strength exercises except Shovelglove and similarly styled movements (I added about 10 exercises) and I'm running. So I can participate in the pullups experiment too. But right now I am still in the beginner phase.

I think I read that you got pretty strong at arm wrestling from this too...that is a complex movement that is hard to work out for too so I have high expectations of the effectiveness of this workout. I've had a similar experience with arm wrestling strength with real work exercise vs. typical isolated weight workouts when I beat a slightly bigger guy who used weights and I am a skinny guy.

Mararet, I am not sure about Reinhard's wife but mine knows I am a nut but so is she and she does this right along with me. You'll probably enjoy it, it is a laugh with your partner. You can't help but have a good time. Unlike with a bench press you won't crush your larynx if you laugh while doing this.

margaret · Post by **margaret** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 9:34 pm

well, now, maybe I could team up with my husband on this. He loves being economical. I'll ponder it.

Jammin' Jan · Post by **Jammin' Jan** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 9:55 pm

I have felt frustration for years at not being able to move beyond 5 pound dumbbell (petite middle-aged mom that I am), but after doing Shovelglove for a while, I went back to the dumbbells and easily did my routines with 8-pounders. So, Reinhard, my guess is that with all your experience with the sledgehammer, you would probably do very well at any of the upper body & abs gym stations.

JWL · Post by **JWL** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 4:47 am

Yeah, if you can get through the "flip lever"/"no name" (I just call them "forearm curls" with even a small sledgehammer, you should be able to use much larger dumbells.

I plateaued for a long time at 25lb bicep curls, at least if I'm going to do a full set of 10 or 12. But after shugging for a few months, I now do twice as many sets at 35 pounds. And I can do more, I'm certain. I can get the weight up to 40, but then I'm out of freeweights for my dumbells.

But I'll still shovelglove over dumbells any day.

Post by **reinhard** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 2:06 pm

Margaret, my wife does think I'm a nut, and I took the video/stills myself. I balanced the camera on this funny hatbox/table we have. It was a bit tricky and involved some serious furniture rearrangement which is why it may be a while before I get footage for "chop the tree."

oldfox, 20 pullups, wow! Is that the royal marines or U.S. (or both)? I'll let you know how many I can do when I find a bar but honestly if I can do half that many I'll be thrilled. I don't think I could ever (even when I did them daily for a bit in college) do more than 5 or 6.

oldfox · Post by **oldfox** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 6:40 pm

That is US Marines, some of those guys are fit on the level of pro atheletes. I am sure the Royal Marines have similar goals. I'm actually American, wife is from over here so I'm hanging out in the UK for a few years.

Yes a perfect score on the pullups is 20 without letting go but you can take as long as you want if you don't touch the ground! (I can only do 7 right now.) You have to go all the way down though so the elbows are straight. Just imagine some green colored guy yelling criticisms at your technique while you do it.

That intimidating 20 is "perfect". You can do worse and still pass. -Also it is adjusted for age. I am going to stick at the shuggin' for a couple months and see what happens with the pullups. I bet it works better than weights since pullups involve so many muscles.

Good luck if you try it!

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:56 pm

Hi guys! Thinking of your post today had me trying to do a pullup at the gym...
I made it a whole one inch! LOL!!!!

Maybe next year!

But I did do a headstand against a supporting wall (with a huge amount of effort)
I'm adding in weighted squats to my weekly regime... I want my quads to be strong and healthy so I can burn more calories overall.. since that's a big muscle group it can help boost my resting metabolism...

Hope you reach your personal goal Old Fox... How's your wife like SG'ing?
with you? I think that's great when people back each others hobbies up like that!
Peace,

Deb

oldfox · Post by **oldfox** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 3:55 am

Deb don't feel bad about that. Most women have a hard time with pullups due to the upperbody strength to weight. It is a tough one for almost everybody. I don't think my wife can do one either. Just stick at the stuff you can do and you will make progress while burning a ton of calories.

Yeah she likes it, but not as much as me! She's doing it for herself too not just backing me up! I'm seriously addicted. Even on my off day I keep picking it up and trying to invent new exercises. She's not that into it but she likes it the most of any workout I have done with her other than running which I don't like much.

Good luck with the squatting!

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 12:38 pm

Foxy!
Hey thanks! I didn't feel bad at all about the pullup... I was instantly laughing once I tried... You know when you think you want to try something and you're not prepped yet, then your body just says
"Yeh right! Not today you're not!".... LOL.....

But my emphasis has been on Yoga this last two months... And I am progressing wonderfully there... I am able to hold and get into poses with much more stamina and flexibility... Even advanced poses like the "Wheel", which is where you put your hands under your shoulder on the floor and lift your body up into an arch, like making a backwards bridge... That works my arms, back, legs and stomach... When I first did that, my body was just quaking and shaking, but now I can hold it for a good period of time with no buckling or feeling like I'm going to pop and anyurism.... I'm carrying a bunch of pounds since not only do I have fat but I've been an on and off exerciser for the past six years and have a decent foundation of muscle mass as well... I have a 37 inch waist but I weigh 207.... Most people I meet are shocked when I tell them how much I weigh, and usually say, I look more like I'm in my 170s..... Maybe when I actually get to 170 I'll be able to do a pullup... The last living memory I had of doing one of those was in 5th grade!

The squats are challenging but I am really also doing them for self rehab, because I hurt one of my quad muscles and have some tendonitis there... I had spazzed out while walking into a parking lot about four months ago, and I misread the step down from the curb, since I was a little distracted and looking for passing cars, and must have been tired... I twisted my ankle big time, but no sprain thank goodness.. I caught myself right on the edge of the twist but all my adductors on the opposite leg got whacked out and I know I strained something in my knee... Was worried that I had a little meniscus tear, but at this point I'm sure it's not that since I'm able to do all kinds of activity which would be severely restricted if it was that....
Another great pose in Yoga is the "Chair" pose for the whole lower body, and core... From a standing position, you place your legs together, with knees touching, then crouch down to the floor and touch the floor with your hands to get in position, then stay bent like that, as if you were lowereing yourself into a small chair, but raise your arms up above your head and in front of you at about a 45 degree angle....
That gets those quads good!
Have fun in Merry ol' England mate

Peace,

Deb

oldfox · Post by **oldfox** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 8:42 pm

Deb check out this site. This lady knows A LOT about weightlifting. it is a really informative site. And I actually originally heard about Shovelglove from her. She loves squats and I am sure you will learn a lot from it. http://stumptuous.com/weights.html

JWL · Post by **JWL** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 10:06 pm

the stumptuous site is where I first heard about shovelglove, too...

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 12:05 am

Thanks Foxy!
I actually have had a couple of nice email correspondences with Mistress Krista herself....
She is hilarious!!!! And, yeah, she knows her stuff and is in great shape...
I think her exact words about Shovelglove were "I love that stuff!"....
I especially like the "Dork/Diva" rating on form... LOL...
Fortunately for me, I'm surrounded by personal trainers where I work..
I do massage therapy at NY Health and Racquet Club, and when I first got the job, I offered freebies to each and every one of them...
Now, they recommend me to their clients, and if I need a few pointers they are very free with their helpful advice...
Peace and Love,

Deb

Kevin · Post by **Kevin** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 1:31 am

A lot of old time strong men (and many new time functional fitness guys) like unweighted "Hindu" squats in huge numbers rather than weighted squats. You can google it to see it performed.

I like to do bodyweight exercises, so it fits in with my regime. When I'm working at them, I can do maybe 200 in a set - I probably couldn't do 100 right now, because I'm working them in sets of 50 during SG workouts. It's an amazingly compact exercise taking no apparatus, very little space, and providing wind-sprint-like cardio.

Like SG, I find that high rep low weight exercises seem to strengthen the muscles a suprising amount and have a much higher cardio impact.

You might want to try them. They're easy on the knees and don't cause - uhm, how to put this delicately - hemmoroids. I guess I didn't put that delicately, did I... and I probably didn't spell it right.

JWL · Post by **JWL** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 4:47 am

Wow, Kevin, those Hindu squats look awesome. I think those might help whip my legs into shape, in addition to urban rangering, of course. I tried a couple tonight, and to my amazement they don't slaughter my knees. This realization reminds me of when I first discovered an elliptical machine in the gym; low joint impact, but a great workout.

Cool, I want to try to get a rhythm going and see how many I can work up to. I have very strong legs, but then I need them as I'm carrying around 340 pounds of body weight....

Post by **reinhard** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 3:22 pm

Of all non-shovelglove exercises, squats appeal to me most. I don't do them in a regular way as exercise, but my daughter finds them disproportionately amusing (both to watch and to tag along for the ride), so they come up as entertainment a fair amount. I haven't quite grasped the distinction between hindu squats and the regular kind.... is it just the lack of weights? If so, I guess that's what I've been doing.

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 4:55 pm

I'm not totally sure, but I think with Hindu squats, you cross your arms infront of you and say a prayer to Shiva...
How big is your baby these days? Could she be considered your "Weights" yet? LOL....
Love,

Deb

Kevin · Post by **Kevin** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 5:18 pm

Hindu squats are done on your toes: it really changes the dynamic. I found that my long-lasting, low-intensity-but-annoying-knee-pain gone after just a few days of them. There is a balance component too: I wouldn't want to do them with a baby in my arms. Google "hindu squats" or go to Matt Furey's combat fitness site (www.mattfurey.com, I think). He's done quite well preaching functional fitness, and this is one of his big three exercises.

I'm going to get serious about them again and see how many I can get up to in one set. I would consider 350 to be excellent, because that would be like running up hill for 20 minutes or so, and I'm getting too old for that kind of macho stuff.

You will be huffing and puffing if you do a set of 100.

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 5:48 pm

Somehow I liked the ring of this thread title and it seemed apropos for the occasion.. LOL..

I called the gym today after having a fairly sleepless and miserable night, wondering how in the world I'm going to pay for between 40 and 80 dollars a month, for attending Yoga classes... And then I thought, this is bogus and I shouldn't be paying anything if I work there...
So I called to give notice... I had someone coming in this Friday who had two hours of massage left with me from a pack they bought through the club, so I wanted him to get his session in, not lose the money he spent... When I told this new "great" manager that I was going to be there Friday but after that I'd be leaving soon and that this was my "giving notice" call...
She said not to come in for the session, flew off the handle and started screaming at me, and proceeded to ban me from ever coming to the club again...

Well let's see how long she lasts... I took the head offices number and when a few days or weeks pass, I'll give them a holler and tell them how she treated me on the phone, and then today when I got my belongings and she threatened to call the police if I don't speed it up on getting out of there...
What am I??? Some kind of menace to society!!?? LOL...

I felt like saying, in the voice of "Ahnold"

"I'll be back"... But I figured it would be a waste of breath and she wouldn't appreciate a joke.

As I left, I told one of the members whose known me for about nine months now, not as a client, but just someone I always said "Hi" to.., told me he was really sorry to see me leave...
I asked if he could just keep in touch with me and let me know if *she* ever leaves... She probably will... None of the managers seem to last in that location... I also asked him to put in a call to the head office and express his disappointment about me leaving to them, if he felt like doing me a favor...
If I come back in the future, it will be as a member, as I don't see how anything I did in talking with her constituted grounds to be banned.

On the lovely and light side, I was able to enjoy a wonderful choral concert which Richard sang in today, to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..
I learned something, too...
He was my age when he was shot...
Never knew that before...

They did a beautiful job and I was pretty much all teared up during the show from pride and also from the great messages contained in the music.

It spoke to me and gave me hope!

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine"....

Peace and Love,

Deb

ert · Post by **ert** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:59 am

No more gyms for me either. I was a devoted gym rat before I moved 1500 miles; but here, the only gym within a reasonable distance wants an absurd sign-up fee ($300? Just to sign up) and an absurd amount per month. I can wiggle my extremities for free, in the privacy of my own bedroom, and I don't have to drive anywhere to do it.

I haven't started Shovelgloving yet, but only for lack of a sledgehammer. I'll start as soon as I get one. Meanwhile, I'm doing calisthenics and yoga, which is nice too.

That guy · Post by **That guy** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:10 pm

Deb,

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Usually good comes from these kinds of tribulations, it's just a matter of changing channels

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:24 pm

Thank you "Guy"!
I appreciate your support!
Hey I just now did my shovelglove and crunches and a bit of Yoga too!!!
If I was at the gym now, I wouldn't be doing that! LOL..

You are right... and I am really excited about this year being a very prosperous one and successful one, both Spritually and materially...

Have a great day!
Peace and Love,

Deb

fungus · Post by **fungus** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:12 pm

reinhard wrote:I haven't quite grasped the distinction between hindu squats and the regular kind.... is it just the lack of weights? If so, I guess that's what I've been doing.

You move your arms in sync and you do them on your toes.

larisa0001 · Post by **larisa0001** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 11:29 pm

I wish I could do Hindu squats... <sigh> Stupid knee.

Everyday Systems

Fsck the gym!

Fsck the gym!

Strong is strong...

"Hindu" squats

Hindu squats

I agree!