Everyday Systems

Hi all and special salutations to Reinhart, thank you so much for your invention and ideas.

For me, October marks a year of shovelgloving. I didn't do it as steadily as I would have liked, but I did it. Lately, I've raised my average from 3 days a week to a steady 4 days and I'm trying to do 5 days as often as possible.

I've been shugging with a 10 pounder since I started and it was going pretty well. For a while, I've been choking it quite short and a couple weeks ago I though that it would be a good idea to take the next step. As hardware stores around my place only keep 8-10 and 16 pounders, I was a bit afraid that the 16 would be a bit on the heavy side, but I decided to go for it. I figured that I could always mix both hammers for a while or choke my 10 even more for a while.

This morning was my first morning with the "heavy" hammer and I must admit that I was surprised at how I could go through "a simplified version of" my routine but I did all the 14 minutes with it! I'll see how the rest of the week will go, but I intend to stick with it.

For your Information, the routine was

Shovel coal 25
Firefighter 25
Hoist the sack 25
Butter churn 25
Paddle canoe 25
Chop tree 25 (not the swiss automaton)
Drive fence post 25
Flick the lever 15
and 1 minute freestyle.

Looking forward to see how I'll feel tomorrow morning, Keep you posted.

Le Mercenaire

Congratulations!

That's a significant jump. I'm surprised it didn't seem harder -- though it may take a few more hours for your muscles to properly appreciate this morning's accomplishment . Don't hesitate to take it easy (or off) tomorrow if you're feeling very sore.

My experience upgrading has been that it seems impossibly hard in the beginning, but then surprisingly soon I settle into the same routine I used to do at a lighter weight.

Take your time, though. There is no rush, and it's good to spread out the feeling of progress over as long as possible -- both motivationally, and for safety.

Reinhard

Hi Reinhard (sorry for the mistake in my previous post, damn frenchmen! )

Thanks for the nice word. I know it's quite a jump and that's why I feared that it would be really hard.

One thing that I forgot to mention though, is that my regular routine usually includes all the movements I mentionned plus some and I go for 50 reps. It usually adds up to a bit over 500 reps in 14 minutes. This morning, I was aiming for a score between 250 and 300 reps and it seems like I've got something around 380 plus a bit of time (and I took it really easy).

Another thing is that I choke my 10 pounder around mid-handle and I held "big George" (I think it just got a name) right by the weighted end. That helped for sure.

Tonigh I still feel great, tomorrow remains to be seen, but I don't expect anything bad to happen.

Keep you posted

Le Mercenaire.

Congratulations! Keep at it...some enouogh that 16lb hammer will feel light enough.