Shovelglove women!

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.
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Gia
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Shovelglove women!

Post by Gia » Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:07 pm

Hi everyone

Are there any ladies out there who use shovelglove regularly!? If so, please post if you've had success with the program. It looks like it focuses a lot on back, shoulder and arm strength but this may be my own misunderstanding of how the movements work. Ladies who do shovelglove please let me know!

thanks!!!

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NoelFigart
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Re: Shovelglove women!

Post by NoelFigart » Thu Mar 25, 2010 6:45 pm

Gia wrote:Hi everyone

Are there any ladies out there who use shovelglove regularly!? If so, please post if you've had success with the program. It looks like it focuses a lot on back, shoulder and arm strength but this may be my own misunderstanding of how the movements work. Ladies who do shovelglove please let me know!

thanks!!!
I do.

I don't do ONLY shovelglove, though. It's my fallback exercise if I need something interesting I can do at home in my underwear.

Why would back, shoulder and arm strength be a BAD thing, out of curiosity?
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My blog https://noelfigart.com/wordpress/ I talk about being a freelance writer, working out and cooking mostly. The language is not always drawing room fashion. Just sayin'.

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morganalefay
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Post by morganalefay » Fri Mar 26, 2010 12:59 pm

(waves) Regular Shovelgirl of nearly two years' standing here! It's some of the most fun you can have with a household implement, clothed or otherwise (you or the implement ...)

I probably should explain that, like Noel, I don't only do shovelglove - I do about 15 mins of yoga pretty much every N-day morning as well, swim at least once a week (and twice if I can) and, over the course of a week, average about half an hour's hard urban rangering a day. About once a week I exchange my lunchtime shug for a (longer) Pilates session with weights.

My 10lb hammer is starting to feel lighter after nearly two years but I'm not about to upgrade it yet. Instead I've taken to taken to supplementing the hammer movements with some dumbbell work after feeling sad about the fact that my pair of trusty 5kg dumbbells, which had done such a good job for a couple of years, were gathering dust. So, as well as the shovelling, churning, wood-chopping, sideways shovelling (like a one-legged squat with a shovel movement) rowing and Phayze's awesome martial arts-style 'hammer punch' move, I alternate with deep squats holding the dumbbells on my shoulders, bent-over rows, a movement similar to 'scratch the back' but holding a dumbbell in each hand, and kettlebell-type swings holding both dumbbells.

In terms of 'success': since starting on the shovelglove I've had two 10-day skiing holidays where the only part of my anatomy that bothered me after the first couple of days was my calves (as opposed to nearly my entire body on previous skiing holidays). I can do a couple of hours' hard gardening, including actual digging, without feeling like I've been walked over by an elephant the following day. Similar with DIY - I recently sanded and varnished my hall floor, stairs and landing using a small hand-held sander, with no ill effects in my hands or wrists. I'm sure my grip strength has improved. Sadly, my guitar playing hasn't.
It's vital to know exactly how ridiculous you are.

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Fri Mar 26, 2010 3:19 pm

I'll let the shovelgirls speak for themselves. Just wanted to pop in to say "welcome" and give a link to a discussion on the same subject from a few months ago:

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5270

Reinhard

jjmcgaffey
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Post by jjmcgaffey » Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:32 am

I've only been doing it a little over a month, and I already notice a) more arm strength (and fewer twinges from sitting at the computer mousing around) and b) abdominal dents (muscle shaping my fat belly). In six months my jiggle-belly may be gone, but in less than a month I've developed noticeably firmer stomach muscles. I need to change up my form a little to get my legs and butt more involved - that is, do it the way it is in the videos instead of how I ended up doing it.

Yes, it's primarily arm/upper body exercise - which is exactly what I was looking for. I walk, so I've got decent lower body strength, but my arms have always been seriously flabby and weak. Shovelglove is absolutely perfect to fix that.

As I said above - I used to regularly get pains in my wrists and forearms from working on the computer (it's my job). When I started sg, I had to be very careful particularly on my left wrist which was then painful - had to do very slow reps and relatively few on anything that twisted the wrist. Now I can do 30 shovels, 30 churns (15 and switch hands), 30 fenceposts, 15 sack-hoists (which is better than the 9 I started with), 30 wood-chops - and never feel a twinge. Everything but churns is # right then # left. Strength, flexibility, and toning are all noticeably improved in 3 days more than a month. I can't wait to see what I'll be like in 6 months!
jjm

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Djemps
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Post by Djemps » Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:48 pm

jjmcgaffey wrote: As I said above - I used to regularly get pains in my wrists and forearms from working on the computer (it's my job). When I started sg, I had to be very careful particularly on my left wrist which was then painful - had to do very slow reps and relatively few on anything that twisted the wrist. Now I can do 30 shovels, 30 churns (15 and switch hands), 30 fenceposts, 15 sack-hoists (which is better than the 9 I started with), 30 wood-chops - and never feel a twinge. Everything but churns is # right then # left. Strength, flexibility, and toning are all noticeably improved in 3 days more than a month. I can't wait to see what I'll be like in 6 months!
Wow, that's awesome to hear. Back in January I quit my customer service job of 5+ years. During that time I noticed a gradual decrease in my overall wrist strength and more 'kinks' in my wrist. Shovelglove is helping me get my grip and wrists back into shape at a fairly quick pace. I will often do bicep curls with my shovelglove by gripping just below the hammer and steadying the end of the handle with my other hand. I've noticed that if I have part of a sweater or something wrapped around the base of the hammer when I hold it my grip gets a much better workout because my hand is holding on to more 'stuff'. I might try to wrap some foam or heavy cloth around the entire length of the handle to help build more wrist strength during all of my various exercises.

mrsj
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Post by mrsj » Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:41 am

I shovel! In the winter. When I started I was so weak that I used a mop. Then I used the garden shovel. Now I use a 7 lb sledgehammer with a broken shaft.

I don't shovel now as I use a real shovel with real soil in my allotment garden. I also use a hoe and a cultivator. I'm surviving thanks to shovelglove.
Nothing is impossible-only improbable.

dittany
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Post by dittany » Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:50 pm

I've been shovelgloving just for over a year now. I started out some time after reading a book, "Strong Women Stay Young" which outlines how weight training can help ward off bone loss in women as we get older. Then I came across this site via Stumptuous (great site by woman weight-lifter) and it all clicked.

I'm a bit stronger than I was before and I'd say my muscles have firmed up somewhat, but not massive differences. I think the question is more about what sort of shape I'd be in if I wasn't doing it. This is good exercise for middle-aged people wanting ward off the weakening of the body and middle aged spread that start creeping up on you as you get older (aka me).

It's also a lot of fun swinging a hammer around. I love my shovelglove. :P

Vagabond1
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Post by Vagabond1 » Wed May 05, 2010 7:04 pm

This is my first time posting so hope it goes to the right spot. I started shovelglove last week and I love it. I use a 10 lb sledge and I'll stay at that size for a while.
I like the way I feel after doing it. I have the temptation to keep going, but I stop at 14 minutes. I also do a lot of other activities like walking, biking, turbo jam and medicine ball.

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sporkfancier
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Post by sporkfancier » Wed May 12, 2010 9:46 pm

My partner is a woman and a shovelglover, though she is new to it. I've been shovelgloving almost every N-day since September of 2009, and she finally started it about three weeks ago.

Like many of the other women here, it isn't the only thing she does (while it remains essentially the only thing I do). That said, she does enjoy it, and I enjoy the company. She's using an 8-lb sledge that I bought her, but she's finding it pretty easy after two weeks and wants to move up. I'm retrieving my (first) 10-lber from my buddy in a couple of weeks and then she'll move up.
Shovel glove? Isn't that the size of prophylactic I use?

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