No work?

[tommi]

During the first days with shovelgloving i used to feel tired, expecially the morning after, with muscles aching - good thing i thought, it means i have been working out.

Nowadays things have changed:

After the 14 minutes workout i can feel my muscles, expecially my biceps and the muscles around the elbow and wrist, bulging because of the exercises; i can feel they're contracted and the veins are showing through the skin (how macho--).
Then, after i take a shower and i feel nothing, no more 'pain', no more 'muscle burn', just like if i didn't exercise.
I can't feel anything the day after as well, when i wake up, and this is confusing me.

I'm wondering if this means that i am not working out enough (muscle fibers not breaking to grow up stronger) or if it's just the way it should be (i'm doing exercises in the proper way, thus excluding pain and strains).

Somebody here maybe has an explanation for this maybe?
Thanks a lot in advance

[twa2w]

This means your body has adapted to the new work load. This is common when you first begin to exercise. You can now do one of 4 things to increase your work load
1) increase your weight - not recommended so soon.
2) increase your range of motion - this can be done by actually increasing the arc of your swing or the height you raise the hammer, or move your hand up further from the hammer end. this also ties in to # 1
3) increase your speed - do more reps in the same time frame
4) add in different exercises or variations thereof.

What works for me, although I use heavyhands more than a sledge is to alternate between heavy days with slower reduced range of motion and days that I use lighter weights with either increased range of motion or very fast reps.
Cheers
J
Eventually you will find that no matter how hard you work out you will not get DOM - delayed onset mucle soreness which is that soreness you feel a day or so after a hard workout.

I first read about a form of shovel glove a number of years ago in Leonard Schwatz's book Heavyhands - he attached weights to a shovel and used that to exercise. He then invented heavy hands. i did a similiar thing about 15 years ago- I took a shovel handle and inserted it through a weight plate and put a pin through a hole inthe handle below the plate. I still use this off and on for shovelling. Although I also have a sledge and Heavy Hands among other fitness apparatus.

Cheers
j

[tommi]

Thank you so much, you're very helpful.
This is actually the only in-depth answer i got, i have been talking to a couple fitness experts (gym teachers) and a guy that is studying sport medicine (i don't really know how to translate 'scienze motorie', literally it would be translated 'motion sciences') and all i got was 'you're just doing exercises the correct way, probably'.

This means your body has adapted to the new work load. This is common when you first begin to exercise. You can now do one of 4 things to increase your work load
1) increase your weight - not recommended so soon.

I own a really light shovelglove, it's only 4kg (8.8 pounds).
Do you think it would be too early to buy a 'proper' one, like 12 pounds?
Maybe i have finally found one.

2) increase your range of motion - this can be done by actually increasing the arc of your swing or the height you raise the hammer, or move your hand up further from the hammer end. this also ties in to # 1

Then i believe i should do SG outside, damn you low ceilings!

3) increase your speed - do more reps in the same time frame

I believe i am doing this already, i do reps as fast as possible - i will try to increase rate

4) add in different exercises or variations thereof.

Variating exercises would make different muscles work, right?

What works for me, although I use heavyhands more than a sledge is to alternate between heavy days with slower reduced range of motion and days that I use lighter weights with either increased range of motion or very fast reps.

Sounds good, i will try to alternate different workouts next week

Cheers
J

Eventually you will find that no matter how hard you work out you will not get DOM - delayed onset mucle soreness which is that soreness you feel a day or so after a hard workout.

Damn, i miss that (thank you for the word, i was going mad trying to explain myself )

[reinhard]

Thanks for the detailed explanation, twa2w. I didn't know the terminology, but I've experienced the same thing.

I haven't felt sore the day after in ages (though I do still feel pleasantly sore right after a workout). I think this is a good thing! I do this 5 days a week, I don't want to walk around feeling sore all the time .

There's always an initial jolt of progress when you start a new exercise. Then it slides into maintenance. DO NOT GET IMPATIENT AND CHASE AFTER MORE PROGRESS RIGHT AWAY. Keep doing the same thing and you will make subtle, largely painless progress for a long time. Permit yourself an upgrade when you've earned it by months (or years) of such good maintenance/simmering progress. That habit muscle is the important one to build -- killing yourself by overdoing it, that's easy. Throttling your effort over years and decades, that's hard, that takes real discipline, and ultimately results in much more progress. It's like tai chi with a sledgehammer, you want to progress as slowly as possible while still (big picture) progressing -- and it's far better to err on the side of too slow than too fast. "No pain, slow and steady gain."

Reinhard

[tommi]

I understand you point, it's easy -for me, at least- to be impatient and needing constant improvement.

I can definitely see changes in my body, thanks to SG + NOS.
This morning after taking a shower i took a look at myself in the mirror and i could see my shoulders being rounder, i could see some of my ribs through the skin (last time i could see them i was like 10 years old, i think), i could clearly see my biceps being more defined - this feels great!

Reinhard, thank you so much for being an intelligent and responsibile person who keeps on reminding to newbies like me that the important thing is the big picture!
I keep forgetting that it's not a 100mt race, where you have to rush as fast as you can; it's more like climbing a huge mountain, it may take days to cover even a little distance, but every meter you climb you get nearer to the sky.

Oh, i'm such a poet

[twa2w]

reinhard has a good point in not trying to push the weight up too fast. What happens to a lot of people is as their muscles get stronger they try to push up the resistance to match the increse in strength. What they don't realize is that tendons, ligaments and fascia tissue must adapt and grow thicker or stronger as well. What happens is often they end up with problems.
The second thing you often find is you progress is rarely linear. My experience has been that I will workout for ages with little progress then suddenly it seems overnight I have a sudden increase in capacity. I think this may be a sudden opening up of capillaries. I think the body has soem kind of mechanism that lets the system build up internally then opens it up once that new network of blood vessels or muscle tissue is ready. Of course sometimes it truly is a plateau and you have to shakeup your routine to burst through it.

of course that's just my opinion and experience. your mileage will vary.

Thanks Reinhard for developing and maintaining this great site
Cheers
J

[twa2w]

One more quick comment if I may, to the OP. You really may have started out with too light a sledge but as per Reinhard I would give it a month or so before you move up. You may want to move up 2 levels when you do. ie if you are using a 8 lber skip the 10 pounder and go to a 12 lber. Start out very slow with this - perhaps splitting your routine with the lighter one. If you find the 12lber is too much you can go out and buy the 10 lber and keep the 12er as motivation for the next step.

Not sure if R would agree??

Cheers
J

[tommi]

Unfortunately here it's hard to find a sledgehammer heavier than 4kg (8.9#), i don't really know why.
I managed to find a 5kg (11#) one and switched to it yesterday, couldn't really feel the change, today was harder to do exercises, though.

Maybe i have found a 16 pounds one but i would need to change the handle (it's shipped without a handle) and i really don't know how to - i think i'll just have to take the handle out of my 4kg by beating it with something (probably the 5k sledgehammer) while keeping the hammer head locked in a vise.

[twa2w]

What you could try is to buy the adjustable ankle weights. Look for the ones that are made of very heavy nylon fabric and have a flat area with 5 sleeves in them. In each sleeve is a one lb lead weight which is removable so you can adjust of course from 1 to 5 lbs. The flat area wraps around your ankle then is fastened securly with 2 velcro strips. I would put the ankle weight flat onthe ground and place the hammer head on it and wrap the weights around the head so the velcro straps can be fastened around the head on each side of the handle. i would only put about 2 lbs in to start. Once you atart adding more weight Iwould also duct tape the weight in addition to the velcro - igf you go ovve the velro strips it will hold them in place. Voila - an adjustable hammer. You would likely get some movement in the ankleweight which would add to the fun I believe teh ankle weights I have are everlast -
OOPs, I just tried mine - a little too loose - I think it would have to be seriously ducked taped - I think it would be OK to add up to 3 lbs though.

Cheers
J

[franxious]

You may want to move up 2 levels when you do. ie if you are using a 8 lber skip the 10 pounder and go to a 12 lber.

Hi,

I am just curious about the recommendation to skip a level. I also feel I've started with a sledge that's too light. I ordered a 10-lber from Amazon, but when it arrived, it actually weighed 12 lbs (I guess the handle was 2 lbs?). So I went to a hardware store looking for a real 10-lber, but all they had was 8 lbs. I've been using that, but fretting that it's "too easy." I've only been shovelgloving for about three months, so I suppose it's not time to change yet, but when I do I've been wondering if I should use the 12 lber from Amazon, or go in search of a 10-lber...any suggestions?

Thanks,

Lisa

[sgtrock]

For those concerned about 8lb being too light, 52 or more reps of any of the moves might convince you otherwise, especially the more shoulder-intense moves like Fireman.

Or, add deep squats to the churning-type moves. Or make them Hindu squats -- lift your heels off the ground so they almost touch your buttocks as you go down, then push back up. Or make it plyometric -- jump in the air as you explode up from the squat. (just be careful with that one).

Or, do the moves V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y. For instance, in Flip the Lever, don't let the hammer swing backwards (that uses momentum rather than strength to raise it back up, though the momentum movement is much more enjoyable), and when you quickly raise the hammer HOLD IT for a second, then s-l-o-w-l-y lower it back to the starting position. You will probably not be able to do it very slowly at all, and if you can you may need to move toward the end of the handle.

Or, do Indian club or clubbell-type movements. Just be sure not to break your knees sideways with that hammer!

Also, take it outside and beat the ground/stump/tire with it, minimum 10 reps per side per set, minimum 3 sets with only a very brief break in between to catch your breath. Or do it in Tabata intervals -- 20 seconds as fast and hard as you can, 10 seconds rest, repeat.

If it really is still too light, just use it single-handed for hammering moves, etc. Bet it's not too light then.

I have done all of these variations and a few more to boot. I routinely do the squats and high reps. The rest have only been experiments.

[tommi]

For instance, in Flip the Lever, don't let the hammer swing backwards (that uses momentum rather than strength to raise it back up, though the momentum movement is much more enjoyable), and when you quickly raise the hammer HOLD IT for a second, then s-l-o-w-l-y lower it back to the starting position. You will probably not be able to do it very slowly at all, and if you can you may need to move toward the end of the handle.

I have noticed i have been swinging the hammer while doing Flip The Lever and decided to do it SLOWWWWLY, paying attention to my form and without swinging my arm.

Man, that nearly killed me

You'll never be interested in physics until it helps you to cheat your own body while exercising

[sgtrock]

You'll never be interested in physics until it helps you to cheat your own body while exercising

Ha! That's so true!