Everyday Systems

I recently saw this community linked in an online forum as an example of "strange exercise equipment." Immediately, I knew I'd found a winner.

My job tends to make me sedentary (I'm a professor), and a life in a suburban jungle for the past eight years made me a bit overweight and awfully unfit. Finally, I found out I had type 2 diabetes (very early onset--I'm in my early 30s).

This last year, I've moved to a smaller college town, got a house in a place where I can walk everywhere, let the car gather a bit of dust, and have been trying to get into tolerable shape through walking and biking.

My legs are getting stronger, but I wasn't doing anything for my upper body. Shovelgloving seems like the perfect solution: no expensive equipment or gym memberships (I know myself too well to imagine I'd go to a gym I have to drive to). It appeals nicely to my natural goofiness and my desire to swing around sticks (my only previous sport experience was in college half-assedly fencing).

After reading through the board and watching the videos, I immediately went out and bought a 10lb sledge with a comfy wide textured fiberglass handle (they were out of 12lb-ers, and I'm glad they were: the 10 is kicking my out-of-shape ass quite sufficiently).

This is day 3 of the 14-minute workout (the first day, I got so excited I did the routine twice, and blasted my arms and shoulders a bit). I shovelglove immediately upon waking up, and find myself already having a little more energy (and much sorer arms).

Look forward to posting progress (once I get to making progress). It's a very cool and common-sense thing you've got going on here.

Welcome!

One of the trickiest bits about shovelglove is throttling that initial enthusiasm into something moderate and sustainable. The hard part is not doing too much. Because if you do too much, not only do your risk injuring yourself, you also make the less superheroic efforts that are all you are going to be able to muster most days seem not worth bothering with (so you won't).

Don't get me wrong, shovelglove stays fun. 5-6 years into it, I find it as fun as it ever was. But fun alone isn't enough to keep you going. You also need to get that less flashy moderate, sustainable, unambiguous, almost pedantic regularity down: Crazy fun -- tightly regulated.

Reinhard

Just checking in.

I haven't been particularly good. Probably SG about 4 times a week: my odd schedule has been troublesome: if I can't do it in the morning, I try to do it in the afternoon. But doing it at might makes it impossible for me to sleep. Ehn.

I've been adding SG to a "walk everywhere I can" program, and have lost about five pounds and I'm feeling a little stronger and healthier most days.

The key thing is the ability to “recover†when we get off the habit for a day or two. I missed last Thursday, but I got back at it on Friday. In the long term that missed Thursday will mean make no difference to my overall fitness and I choose to not let that missed day weigh at all on my psyche. As a former yo-yo exerciser I really like Reinhard’s emphasis on long term health/fitness benefits.