retired from shovelglove

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
chiangmaiboss
Posts: 88
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:20 am

retired from shovelglove

Post by chiangmaiboss » Thu Oct 15, 2009 11:50 am

I am sorry to say I may no longer be able to do shovelglove. I have herniated disk in my back and though it is improving slowly I do not know if I will ever be able to do shovelglove or sledgehammer exercises that involve twisting the back or put pressure on spine. I regret this as I really liked doing it and feel sad whenever I look at my crochet hammer. I have been doing isometrics which do not involve back muscles and walking a lot but I cannot lift weights or run. However I have not given up. I live in Chiang Mai which has many tai chi and chi kung classes which are supposed to be good back exercise and will eventually be able to run again according to doctor.
Chiang Mai and Nakhon Sawan, Thailand

Kevin
Posts: 1269
Joined: Mon May 02, 2005 9:02 pm
Location: Maryland, USA

Re: retired from shovelglove

Post by Kevin » Thu Oct 15, 2009 1:33 pm

I'm sorry to hear that. I do hope that things improve for you and, even if SG is out, you're able to keep up all your other activities.
chiangmaiboss wrote:I am sorry to say I may no longer be able to do shovelglove. I have herniated disk in my back and though it is improving slowly I do not know if I will ever be able to do shovelglove or sledgehammer exercises that involve twisting the back or put pressure on spine. I regret this as I really liked doing it and feel sad whenever I look at my crochet hammer. I have been doing isometrics which do not involve back muscles and walking a lot but I cannot lift weights or run. However I have not given up. I live in Chiang Mai which has many tai chi and chi kung classes which are supposed to be good back exercise and will eventually be able to run again according to doctor.
Kevin
1/13/2011-189# :: 4/21/2011-177# :: Goal-165#
"Respecting the 4th S: sometimes."

chiangmaiboss
Posts: 88
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:20 am

Post by chiangmaiboss » Fri Oct 16, 2009 3:28 am

Thank you for kind words kevin.
Chiang Mai and Nakhon Sawan, Thailand

User avatar
reinhard
Site Admin
Posts: 5918
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:38 pm
Location: Cambridge, MA
Contact:

Post by reinhard » Fri Oct 16, 2009 4:16 am

I'm so sorry to hear this, Changmaiboss -- and best wishes for a speedy and total recovery.

You (and your family!) have been great contributors to this bulletin board.

I hope you'll continue to keep us posted -- who knows, maybe there's an aspect of shovelglove (14 schedualistically insignificant minutes?) that will stay useful.

Reinhard

chiangmaiboss
Posts: 88
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:20 am

Post by chiangmaiboss » Sat Oct 17, 2009 6:40 am

Thanks Reinhard, you are very kind. I have enjoyed both the exercises and your forums and I will continue to read the forum daily and as I still walk a great deal I can still involve with the urban rangers. Some interesting shovelglove information though. I have moved to Sansai which is about
7 kms from Chiang Mai. My crochet hammer stands out front of my new house and people ask what it is for so I explain how shovelglove works and some Burmese workers who are building house nearby were doing the exercises such as the butterchurn and the chopping wood and enjoyed it immensely. So you see now shovelglove is spreading in Thailand and perhaps they bring it back to Burma. Also I have been doing Chinese tai chi and chi kung exercises for back and it is much better and even doing shovelglove moves with wal;king stick. Back is much improved and God willing perhaps some day can do shovelglove again.
Chiang Mai and Nakhon Sawan, Thailand

User avatar
Jammin' Jan
Posts: 2002
Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 2:55 pm
Location: The Village

Post by Jammin' Jan » Sat Oct 17, 2009 12:00 pm

Tai chi and chi kung are very healing. Don't get discouraged, just do what you can do!
"Self-denial's a great sweetener of pleasure."
(Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner")

chiangmaiboss
Posts: 88
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:20 am

Post by chiangmaiboss » Sun Oct 18, 2009 9:44 am

Thanks Jan. By the way i also liked The prisoner but didnt understand it. If they had dvds I would watch them again.
Chiang Mai and Nakhon Sawan, Thailand

chiangmaiboss
Posts: 88
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:20 am

Post by chiangmaiboss » Wed Nov 18, 2009 1:17 pm

Today I participated in Habitat for Humanity project in Chiang Mai. As I am just recovering from herniated disk I did not plan on doing any heavy lifting, as only exercises I have been doing are Chinese and isometrics, but trying not to stress back. Problem is although I have lost weight I am still 200 pounds and so much bigger than little Thai guys. So everytime there was something heavy to lift boss comes to me. So being an idiot and because I felt guilty watching little Thais and even women trying to lift heavy stuff like roof trusses and purlings, I said the hell with it and carried the things anyway, even up onto the roof. The reason I am writing this is that since I was able to do this and seem to be okay, I am planning to start doing the shovelglove tomorrow. Maybe just the butter churn exercise as there is no back twisting with that. On a separate topic, I rented a 3 story building and my wife Marisa is opening beauty salon and massage on first and second floors. I have project for third floor which is sort of charity deal. Marisa's photo is in shovelglove website and she says hello to Reinhard and all the "shuffergrove" people. (it is very hard for these people to say r and l, just like the Chinese.
Chiang Mai and Nakhon Sawan, Thailand

User avatar
reinhard
Site Admin
Posts: 5918
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:38 pm
Location: Cambridge, MA
Contact:

Post by reinhard » Fri Nov 20, 2009 6:11 pm

chiangmaiboss,

I admire your determination, but please do be very careful!

Hello back to Marisa from me and the other "shuffergrove" people :-)

Best wishes and let us know how it goes,

Reinhard

chiangmaiboss
Posts: 88
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:20 am

Post by chiangmaiboss » Sat Nov 28, 2009 2:31 am

Thank you Reinhard. Marisa says hi back and happy thanksgiving. I did butterchurn exercise with no problem. I also built house here with habitat for humanity. I went there with other volunteer police officers. They told me I just had to work as translator but since I was biggest guy working on this particular house every time there was something heavy to carry the foreman asked me to do it. As I am too proud and stupid to say no, and since everyone else working on house was a little Thai guy except this one guy from Belize, I did it. Carried some really heavy stuff. Had some back pain but nothing terrible. After this I figured maybe I could try shovelglove again and so far just butterchurn but did not have any pain so I will try to do more.
Chiang Mai and Nakhon Sawan, Thailand

Post Reply