Everyday Systems

Hello Shovelglovers,

One of the commonly held beliefs for resistance training is that a muscle group should not be exercised on consecutive days. I've been doing the Shovelglove workout for about two weeks now and am getting some significant DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). The shovelglove workout seems, to me, to be a resistance type of workout. What are the opinions and experiences of doing this routine for five consecutive days?

stride88 wrote:Hello Shovelglovers,
... What are the opinions and experiences of doing this routine for five consecutive days?

It's fine, as long as you don't work your muscles to exhaustion. Any muscle group that you work to exhaustion should be given a rest day, hence the general recommendation. Maybe you need to cut back a bit on the intensity of your training and give your muscles additional time to adjust to the new challenge.

Hi stride88,

You'll get used to it. At 2 weeks, your body is just getting acclimated.

Don't think of shoveglove as "exercise." Think of it as physical work. The manual laborers whose movements were are emulating didn't take every other day off, believe me. And they worked a lot more than 14 minutes a day.

I think the every other day rule makes sense if 1) you are intensely working isolated muscle groups 2) want to squeeze out every drop of physiological efficiency from your routine. Shovelglove isn't about either of these things. It's about building a habit with complex, relatively full-body movements. The every N-day rule is helpful toward that end because it's simple, clear, and relatively uncontentious because it works with the power of the pre-existing structure of the calendar. If for some reason your schedule is very different (say, you work weekends) that would be a good reason for considering a shovelglove timing change, but I wouldn't do it just for sake of squeezing out a few more drops of physiological efficiency. Remember, "premature optimization is the root of all evil." You don't want to risk the great good of your habit for the minor good of a few extra calories burned.

On a practical note, you don't have to work equally hard every day of the week. The only hard parameters are "every N day" and "14 minutes." If you're feeling a bit sore, make it a relaxed 14 minutes. Better than nothing, better than overdoing it, and keeps the habit going. And of course, if you're feeling more than a bit sore, if something actually hurts, skip it. Skip the next day too, just to be safe. Nothing is more detrimental to habit than injury.

Best of luck and let us know what you decide and how it works for you,

Reinhard

Thanks for your comments. As you say Reinhard, I guess I just need to get used to it.

are you stretching? soreness is usually a result of lactic acid buildup unless is is 'real pain' which is something different where you've actually done some damage.

Fantastic! I can relate to many of the feelings you describe, and you state them well. After 16 months of No S, I am down 47 lbs. Yet, I do not feel deprived, and it has been very "doable." I also love food and this plan has actually helped me to enjoy my food more.
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well, i think a good question would be if you can still get all the benefits if you do this 2 or 3 times a week instead of 5...im not sure because i have not been doing this for years, but i think it is possible

i do shovelglove two times a week in the afternoon, for more less 40 mins per time, which is moreless the same time i would do if i did 15 mins 5 times per week, in the begining i was worried that it would be less efective, but i seem to get stroger every week, so i guess its working great