Everyday Systems

Terrific new bulletin board!

Hello, everyone. Just some status from the most insane shovel glover of the bunch (mostly because I do it outside in full view of neighbors).

My shovelglove workout consists of the following:

Squat, grab, pick up and toss a 31x16x10 truck tire as far as possible. 50 reps. (Okay, this isn't shovelgloving, but it's keeping with the spirit of doing useful motions. And one is really breathing hard when one is done. This move develops big work capabilities)

"Setting the railroad spikes" (full-bore overhead swings at the tire) 75 reps each side.

"Ice breaking" (one armed ice chopping motion on the tire) 60 each arm.

Shoveling, alternating between "tossing the dirt" behind and in front, 60 each side, pushing the tire along a straight line with each stroke.

"Tucking the bales", 30 each arm (these are hard!)

"Busting the ledge" (one armed upward hammering - a forceful curl like motion), 50 each arm

With a four pound setting sledge hammer, 100 hard-and-fast hammer strokes with each hand on the tire standing upright.

Have a beer (beer is clearly free of the letter S).

I can do yardwork like a big dog on weekends.

Welcome, Kevin. I'm surprised you haven't made any converts! That is hard core. The beer is a nice touch, too, very historically accurate. Thanks for all the details. I'm glad people aren't constrained by my suggested routines. As for the truck tire, it's perfectly in the spirit of shovelglove. Maybe not everyone's in a position to conveniently do this, but you are, and the movement sounds about as functional and fun as they get.

Well.... I hurt the shoulder holding pads for someone at Karate. The guy threw a roundhouse after I relaxed, torquing my shoulder quite hard.

My shoulder is much better, although I don't know that I'll ever get complete range of motion back. But I can sleep on it, do work with it, raise it to almost straight up, put a belt on with it, take a T shirt off with it, and put my coat on. Good to go.

In addition to SGing, I also have rings that look alot like gymnastic rings (www.ringtraining.com). I believe these really helped me get over my shoulder injury by allowing me to build strength through bodyweight exercises while not having to hold my arms in a fixed position. Holding the rings in place while you're doing pushups, pullups really pings on the little muscles in the rotator cuff. I can do 75 standard pushups now, but can barely squeeze off 30 on the rings before the little muscles are shaking. I can do 10 dips (a motion I never thought I'd be able to do again), but still only a few pullups (maybe if I lost the 30 extra pounds...)

It's not as much fun as SGing, though. :0)

Hey T.K.!
I bet that was the last time you played "punching bag" for someone else!
The shoulder is so overused anyway, in most cases, so that was probably just the straw that broke the camels "rotator cuff"...
Glad you are back to tossing tires and smashing ice!
Something tells me you really enjoy what you do

Well, here I go... Gonna give SG a try again...
I've been swimming and massaging, so I guess I'm strong enough now, to start that up again. And, I wrote this to Reinhard offlist, but now might be an appropriate time to mention my previous shoulder injury too, since we are mentioning shoulders etc... Last year, I tried with great pain involved, to go swimming and do the backstroke. This was pre NoS and pre SG... Each time I would try to bring my arm back down to my side, with the water providing resistance to my injured shoulder, I would get major stabbing twingelike pain... I had a really bad case of tendonitis, and I also think the long head of the biceps was just getting "clipped" under the acromion (top bony prominence in the front of the scapula")
Well, I will say, that now that I am swimming again, I have absolutely no pain at all in that region when I try the same exact movements... I am sure this is due to the strengthening/rehab effect SG has had on my arm..
Also, that wrist pain I first mentioned when I joined up with SG in Sept is totally gone too!
Since taking a hiatus from SG, my weight hasn't changed much, actually it is down a pound today, yay!, but somewhere after stopping SG during March and April, I managed to get seriously mushy where before my arms felt like steel...

They will be steel again!
The Pact is Back!!!
Deb