Cheating? Is it allowed?

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.
Post Reply
ZTor
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:03 pm
Location: Israel

Cheating? Is it allowed?

Post by ZTor » Fri Aug 29, 2008 11:02 pm

Some days I find myself cheating - I shugg twice a day 8)

Hi guys, girls!
I've been shugging for the past 5 weeks (never yet missing a single workout, if I may say :lol: and please don't bust my balls for bragging - It's just a great achievement for me, a guy who never keeps up with anything good).

At first I started shugging in the morning, before work. But sometimes, I missed the morning workout because I was running late - so I shugged right after I came back from work.
And then I noticed, that when I do my workout after work, it's more... effective? Well, I don't know - it seems like I do the moves stronger and faster. I am applying much more force to each move I make, sweat a lot more, and generally feel much more satisfied with the workout.
In fact, when shugging after work, I easily squeeze in another 2 sets of 21 of various movements in my 14 minutes (that's 84 reps total, if you count the fact that each set is done with both arms).
Perhaps that's because the body is already warmed up after a day's work, or something. Although I punch buttons on computers all day long.

Anyhow, I started to cheat - every now and then I would do my routine morning workout, and then do another one in the evening.

After a few weeks of that, I decided to move my regular workout to the evening, and if I'm not running too late in the morning, do another 14 minutes then.

Are two workouts a day better than one? I mean, is that in any way effective?
I remember reading about that you should give your muscles some rest after a workout to allow them to grow.

Your thoughts?

User avatar
botulf2000
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2008 8:55 am
Location: Lycksele, Sweden

Post by botulf2000 » Sat Aug 30, 2008 9:20 am

The way I understand it, the risk of cheating by shugging twice some days, is that i could lead to the thinking "I did it twice yesterday, so I can skip today", or even worse "I can skip today, and make up for it by going twice tomorrow". That would break the habit, and that is a bad thing. If you're sure you can do the extra 14 minutes without seeing them as excuses to not work out, then it shouldn't be bad. In regards to habit-forming, at least.

I have no idea if it is bad from a health-aspect to shugg twice a day.

User avatar
winnie96
Posts: 264
Joined: Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:41 pm
Location: New England USA

Post by winnie96 » Sat Aug 30, 2008 11:53 am

I must admit that I "cheat", too, in that I am shugging 7 days a week. (I am only in my 2nd week, so not doing anything too intense). I have incorporated it as part of my morning routine, and it makes me feel so good :D and so ready to face the day, my thinking is: why wouldn't I want to feel that great on weekends, too?

Common sense tells me the danger is that I'll get tired of it if I don't take a break each week. Perhaps I should give up Sundays so that by Monday morning I'll be totally pumped to get back to it ... but why not feel good on Sundays?

But would also be interested to hear if anyone thinks 7 days is not good from a muscle recovery or other physiological standpoint ...

[Week 2 = 10 minutes; on each side = 14 shovel, 14 churn, 14 chop, 14 lever, 14 back scratch, 14 shoulder sledge, and 21 ab killers, using an 8 lb sledge. (Plan to move to 14 minutes beginning with week 3).]

User avatar
reinhard
Site Admin
Posts: 5921
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:38 pm
Location: Cambridge, MA
Contact:

Post by reinhard » Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:25 am

I have no idea, in terms of "efficiency" how much better extra shugging is or when you start to get diminishing returns on your effort.

But I do know that I'd never be able to continue something that (2x day or 7x week) grueling long term.

1) it would just take too much time. I love to shug. But I also love (and have to do) too many other things. I'd start to get stressed and resent the time it was taking.

2) Because I'd feel I'd earned the right to by my extra virtue, I'd start trading days etc. immediately as soon as other stuff got busy. This would lead to total chaos.

3) injury or overexertion becomes a far bigger danger -- and that's the mother of all excuses to quit altogether. I know I can safely manage 14 minutes 5x a week. I don't know how much more I could manage. And because I'm satisfied with the results I've gotten, I'm not especially curious to find out.

My primary goal is a long term (life term, preferably) "good enough" exercise routine, and I never want to risk that "core mission" unnecessarily. And every extra is a risk.

If you feel these risks are worth the reward, by all means go for it. But do be aware of them. I'm thrilled that you guys find shovelglove appealing enough to want to take it to the next level, but from my personal experience and from observing others, it seems like throttling enthusiasm into something sustainable for the long term is THE biggest challenge when it comes to exercise.

Reinhard

Post Reply