Everyday Systems

Hi all,

After about six months of on/off shovelgloving mixed with other exercise stuff I decided to SG every N-day for 14 minutes as my main "thing."

Now, three weeks have gone by. I haven't skipped any days, so this is sort of like my 21-day check in. The cool thing is that I still like it and I still look forward to "hammer time" every morning.

A few more things are cool too. One is that I can do more push-ups now. I can't explain this since I have not been doing push-ups very often in the last month but I tested it this morning and good old "not a proper chest workout" shovelglove has done something for my push-ups. Another cool thing is that when I caught a weird glimpse in the post-SG morning mirror yesterday I looked closer and discovered that my back is definitely bigger and more muscular than it was a month ago. (This perhaps explains why my No-S fat loss is relatively slow.)

Mind you, I'm no stranger to resistance exercise. I've consistantly worked with weights and calisthenics for about the last 2 1/2 years but have never gotten the obvious results I have gotten with high-frequency sledgehammer swinging. In the past, I would have assumed that doing essentially the same resistance routine five days in a row would result in overtraining. I'm glad I overcame this concern and finally gave myself a chance to do a protocol that works.

I think my next step is to upgrade from a 10-pounder to a 12-pounder--don't worry Reinhard, I'll take it slowly and carefully!

thanks,
David

David you can use a 12 lb one..
That's the weight I use...

Good for you on your great back muscles and SG enhanced pushups!!!

Shovelglove kicks ass!!!

Peace and Love,
Deb

Deb,

I'm not worried about upgrading. It's just that with my current hammer I'm using as much leverage disadvantage as I can and I tend to swing with a good bit of velocity then bring the hammer to a sudden stop. I know I'll need to take it easy at first with the new tool.

Yes, Shovelglove kicks rather serious ass!

How often are you SG-ing now?

thanks,
David

Very sporadically...
I was really gung ho at this time last year for about four months..
Then I got into Yoga last Summer, and now I do it once in a while..
But I should figure out how to get back to it every day, or at least four days a week...
Whenever I do, I feel great, and always say, "Why am I *not* doing this every day?" LOL..

There's something about our new cottage and my room that seems to discourage me from working out in it... My son has the main bedroom in a one bedroom cottage and I sleep in the livingroom.. The main bedroom has two large sunny windows and when I used to Shovelglove at my Mom's house last year, the room was big and airy with three windows...
Now my room has one tiny window in the front door and otherwise is windowless... I just don't feel like I have space and light in there...
Also, some weeks when I have several massage sessions in a row, I feel like I don't want to do any more working out with my arms.. LOL..

Yeah.. I don't think abrupt swinging at high velocity would be great at over 10 lbs, unless you are built like Paul Bunyan or something...

Shovelglove is so much more fun than plain boring dumbells!
LOL..

I think once the warm weather hits and I can open up my door for some light I will start up again.. I'm just in the doldrums at the moment...
I want to start walking too! Boy am I in a lazy place.. Bleh....
Lame!

Enjoy and keep it up!
Peace and Glove!
Deb

I've noticed the pushup carryover, too.

I think for people who just want to be "country strong," shovelglove gives plenty of chest workout.

But those who yearn for bigger chests should not be ashamed to bang out a set or two of pushups during their 14 minutes (and ignore my "degraded beast" comment on home page). You can get ridiculously pumped up doing this without ever going near a gym.

Glad to hear you're both (carefully) kicking ass,

Reinhard

Hi all,

After a bit of searching I was able to purchase a 12-lb. hammer on Saturday. It is basically a big-headed twin to my 10-pounder. I was happy to have found one with a hickory handle.

I took it slow and easy doing Shovelglove with the 12-pounder this morning and I think the transition will go just fine.

more later...

David

hee! Mine's also a 12 lb hammer with a hickory wood handle.

It weighs closer to 14 lb though if I put it on my bathroom scale.
C.

I have completed one week with my new 12-pounder. I took it slow and steady and experienced no undue soreness, etc. On some days I used the bigger hammer for the entire time and on other days I switched between the two hammers. Today I did 21/14/7 and I did the 21 and 7 sets with the twelve pound hammer and the 14 set with the ten pound hammer.

For the fourth week in a row I feel like I have added some muscle doing SG.

I'm wanting to fit in rope skipping again so I may go back to a routine I used to call "21 Minutes of Hell." (even though it's actually sort of fun). I start with three minutes of rope skipping, go immediately to fourteen minutes of shovelglove and end with four minutes of rope skipping. This is pretty much a total package deal where I induce a muscular response and a cardio-vascular response all at the same time.

Also, I would like to figure out something to do with one hammer in each hand--any ideas?

thanks,
David

Ask Big Phil!
He does Indian club exercises with both arms!

One day, maybe he will post a picture!
I want to see what the Mighty Philosaurus looks like!!!
Hee hee!!!

Also, I think Kevin uses little four pound hammers for setting stones..

Just don't be a spazz or you might smash them together!
LOL...

Congrats on your new sledge and hope you have fun in "hell"!!!
Have a great weekend David!
Oh yeah, by the way,,,,
Love the sledge dudes avatar!
Which one are you???

Peace,
Deb

Deb,

I'm represented by the sledge dude on the right since the one on the left is actually a "dude-ette."

thanks,
David

Oops! LOL..
I thought that dude had big pecs...

Hi all,

I'm still gettin' down with the hammer several times a week. I switch back and forth between the 12 lb. and 10 lb. hammers. You could say I use the 10-lb. for speed work and the 12-lb. for slower, "time-under-tension" work. The wide range of scalability in Shovelglove is still very impressive to me--I almost never repeat a "routine."

For the past couple of weeks I have done SG and rope-jumping on Mon/Wed/Fri. On Tue/Thurs I do squats, push-ups, pull-ups, etc.

I've been considering doing SG five times a week with a five minute period before hand to do as many of a given exercise as I can. For example, Monday I could do 5 minutes of pull-ups and then 14 minutes with the hammer. Tuesday could be 5 minutes of squats then 14 with the hammer. You get the idea. Any opinions?

thanks,
David

David,

Glad to hear you're still at it, thanks for keeping us posted.

Mixing shovelglove up with other exercises is fine by me. I sometimes throw in some squats and pushups myself (I just treat it as any other movement, for timing purposes).

Reinhard

Thanks Reinhard!

I intended to do squats, pushups, etc. this morning but I decided I really preferred SG so I did that instead. I did a few overhead squats at the end.

David

Hi all,

I'm still shuggin' away! I've fully adapted to the 12-pounder now--I haven't used the lighter hammer in a couple of weeks.

I decided that I need a bit more sleep so I cut down my morning exercise time. Rather than doing 30 minutes total with SG for 14 minutes of it, I set the timer for 14 minutes and get moving. I cycle skipping rope, pushups, squats, SG, bent presses with a dumbell (an awesome exercise, by the way), lunges, etc. I feel that I've been pretty successful in packing enough intensity into my shortened time and the extra sleep has certainly helped my mood.

This morning I woke up a bit early so I did the 21 minutes of hell as described in a previous post. It certainly fires up the metabolism!

Happy Shugging!
David

Hi all,

This was my 14 minutes today:

18 pushups
30 shovel r/l
20 churn r/l
20 fence posts r/l
7 flip lever r/l
20 standing paddle canoe r/l
15 chop tree r/l
~3 minutes of rope skipping
then beep beep beep beep

good stuff!

David

Thanks for the update, David. I did some pushups this morning, too.

I'd really love to see video of your "paddle canoe" some day.

I think I'd just been doing it wrong... I've been doing something the last few weeks that kinda sorta could be construed as paddling, tossing the sledge between arms, swinging back, then swinging forward, than tossing again, that is pretty satisfying.

Maybe I'll post a video and you tell me if it's what you're doing (still owe "chop the tree" and might as well do both at once).

Reinhard

Reinhard,

I don't have video capacity right now, but I'll describe the paddling motion the best I can:

I always start with my left (weaker) side, so, I stand with my right foot well forward and my left leg back and out of the way. My left hand grips the hammer in the middle of the handle with the knuckles forward, the left is at the end of the handle away from the hammer head at about the center of my chest also knuckles forward. I angle the head forward and down and then pull the head through the "water" using shoulders and hips mostly. The right hand is really just a pivot point while the left side does almost all of the work. As the head leaves the water I let it arc up and over until it re-enters the water. Repeat. I call it a paddling motion but it may be more helpful to imagine cranking a huge vertical wheel with (mostly) one hand.

Today I woke up a bit early (got enough sleep, apparently) so I did a bit more stuff than usual:

4 minutes rope skipping
14 minutes Shovelglove
3 minutes rope skipping
10 minutes stretching

Shovelglove consisted of:
10 shovel left
10 one-handed churn left
10 fence posts left
repeat all three movement right 10/10/10
then the same pattern with 20 reps L/L/L, then R/R/R (2-handed churn)
THEN,
20 paddles L/R
10 drive spikes L/R
15 chop tree L/R
7 flip lever L/R
~10 hoist sack L/R

Doing the L,L,L/ R,R,R thing is a killer!

thanks,
David

Hi David!
Looking good!!!!!
Post a photo soon!
I bet you are looking like some kind of Greek Okie God!
Woo hoo!!!
LOL..

Peace and Love,
Deb

Deb,

Thanks for the support!

I have a "before" picture in mind, but I'm going to wait a while before snapping a "during" picture.

I certainly look and feel better than I used to, but I have a ways to go before I resemble any sort of god--Greek, Okie, or combo.

David

::drive up window voice::

Will you have the Greek, Okie or Greek Okie god combo, with your order???

LOL...

Have fun David!
Peace and Love,
Deb

Hi all,

I'm still Shovelgloving on every N-day. I start off with some push-ups and Hindu squats--increasing the number by one each week. I am currently at 21 and am aiming to get to 50. Then I do some "Persian meel" swings with my 12# hammer in my left hand and my 10# hammer in my right. This is just to warm up so I hold the hammers pretty close to the heads for these. Then comes the SG proper--I usually shovel, churn, chop wood, flip lever, paddle canoe, drive spikes, and chop tree. I add "spring up, smash face" or drive fence posts when I have time before 14 minutes are up.

I'm still often surprised by the physical improvements I've experienced with Shovelglove, but the coolest thing is how much I still enjoy doing it. This weekend I was really looking forward to Monday morning so I could SG again!

thanks,
David

I'm gonna spring up and smash you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you make Ninja sounds when you do that one?
LOL! Sounds great! I'm gonna try it out!!!!!!!
Yeah!!!!

Glad you are having such fun Dave!
I did about an hour of real hammering today in my woodshed, which I'm now setting up as a music/rumpus room...
The pointy ends of the nails which were facing inward from the aluminum siding on the outside just made me think

"This resembles a torture chamber, not a fun room"
So I smashed down a couple hundred of them so they wouldn't hurt anyone who might scrape themselves on them...
I was really getting into the smashing aspect and did quite a bit of two handed hammering!!!!

FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a nice week shoving it!!!
I mean, shovelgloving!!!!

Rock on in OK!
Peace and Love,
Deb

Deb,

No ninja sounds, just grunts that mean "holy sh#t this is tough!" Spring up, smash face just annihilates my thighs.

thanks,
David

You just have to do a quicktime video of this move!
And wear a ninja outfit!

Good for you and your quads of steel!!!!!!!
Let the annhihilation time begin!!!!!!!!!

Peace,
Deb

Wow, I haven't updated in this thread since April!

Well, I have still been doing SG 3-5 days per week.

I just got a 16-lb. hammer a couple of weeks ago and I am currently easing into it.

I also mess around with pushups, squats, pullups, etc. but shovelglove is still my favorite.

By November, I plan to start a cycle of every N-day SG with the heavier hammer.

As far as the effects, shovelglove has a more profound influence on my strength and my look than any of my other exercise activities IMO.

--david

Awesome! 16# sounds like a serious challenge - you're an inspiration, Dave.

Nice! I would give all kinds of warnings about going nice and slow, but you seem to have that part down. Every time I've upgraded (just twice) for the first couple weeks I thought "no way in hell I'm every going to be able to do my old routine with this." But then surprisingly quickly, without any spectacular effort on my part (in fact, I'm making efforts to go nice and slow) I find myself able to do it.

reinhard

Yes, 12# to 16# is a tough jump! I'm taking it slowly and carefully, of course.

On another note, Friday night I took my wife out for her birthday. I wore a dress shirt that I haven't worn since March. It doesn't fit anymore! There is too much material around the waist and not enough around the collar. In other words, my waist shrank and my neck grew. I had never thought of "a buff neck" as a shovelglove result, but it makes sense, now that I think about it, that the neck muscles must work to stabilize the head during hammer swinging.

Anyway, thanks for your support, everybody!

--david