Everyday Systems

I don't have a sledge hammer yet, but am thinking about shovel glove nevertheless. A few months ago we cleaned out my Granddad's workshop since he passed away back in 2007 and Granny finally went to a nursing home earlier this year... One of the tools found in there that I took over possession of is a really long, heavy crowbar. This thing appears to probably be steel all the way through. I have been keeping it in the trunk of the car, but am starting to think about using it to do shovel glove type of stuff after work before heading home. It's probably about 3 feet wide and is more straight than a normal crow bar... more of a pry bar used for demolition (Grand dad used to be in to buying fix-er-uppers and then flip them in a few months after buying them)

I have started parking further away than most in the parking lot so I have to climb a hill to get there to add a little calorie burn... so doing a little workout like that seems like it might be just the thing to do. I was thinking about doing workout videos after getting home, but this might be an interesting way of doing things. The location of the car is sort of near a grove of trees so it's actually a sort of secluded place that not many people would see me doing weird stuff with the tools, lol... A few years back I used to use the place to do yoga type stuff now and then, but never stuck with that much... too much mud, etc. on wet days. Shovel Glove would be better since it doesn't seem to be much about laying down on the ground and stretching much unless you add pushups.

Anyways, could something like this work for shovel glove? I'm thinking maybe but maybe not since weight distribution is a little different... I'm thinking swinging it like a sword more or staff might be more suited for it than axe type moves, but am not sure yet... back as a teen I remember doing something similar with some old metal piping (just a lot of imagination and teenage angst after watching the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie, lol)... In college, way back in the 1990s, I used to swing around various tools just for the heck of it... I was in art classes back then so had various odd ball stuff... also had at least one huge hunting type of knife and some various oddball tools for trimming weeds, etc. that I kept nearby just because you never know what might happen when you are an artist out and about, alone in the middle on nowhere in city alleyways or probably trespassing on various properties to get better views of things to draw, paint, take photos of, etc...

Haven't gotten in to that odd mentality much lately, but thinking shovelglove type of stuff with tools that I have til I can get something like a sledge might be neat way of doing some stuff...

I've got a typical ol jack handle in car, this long pole mentioned above, and I have various hammers and stuff in a tool box I might start carrying around. Kind of interesting idea to try new stuff... kind of reminds me of how the martial arts really got started in the first place... just average folks looking to make self defense type of moves, etc. with whatever they had on hand... Anyways, I'm wondering if there are some like 'broadsword' or staff type of moves out there that might work like some of the hammer moves in shovel glove?... With the short jack handle and longer pry bar, something like what the samurai did with one short sword and one long sword and katas based on those might be a way to try to figure out something with this...?

Just a quick google brought up this:
http://youtu.be/7YVxmY_SwIA

and this
http://youtu.be/EQJ0DZBERkE

but... don't see anything for broadswords yet... somthing this heavy would be tougher in doing those sleek and agile moves.

well.. there are staff katas... but they look like it wouldn't work much since the traditional staff is longer than the thing I'd be using...
http://youtu.be/STtxUDYjK74

maybe there is some potential for this sort of thing as a workout?

staff katas might be best way to go...
http://youtu.be/uRqZeyrwpko

http://youtu.be/5mL1g5Hjw_k

http://youtu.be/0ymUOAINBF8

back in high school there was one semester that I did wrestling. Defintely not in the shape now I was back then... but might have to try to look in to some of those moves again for additional stuff since that's really 'real' self defense in some ways. Shooting for the legs of opponents with arms was one thing I remember doing a lot with that back then as a pre-workout stretching exercise... and really, in a real world situation where self defense is needed, that'd be the thing to do if you were in shape to do it... grab their leg and just start pulling or pushing to get them off of their feet as fast as possible, lol. Most people, including me currently, are not in enough shape to do that... lots of jabs involving sort of doing low squat while thrusting arm forward is required for that... lots of agility and ab strength

watching some kettlebell videos... looks like some of those manuevers could work with this thing.. not all of them due to the size, but some maybe...
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/ ... ll-workout

http://youtu.be/TOyZxI2Zs5w

I started on Bar Clamps before committing to the $30 hammer. Probably weighed in at 4# and 24 - 30". something shorter than this:

http://compare.ebay.com/like/1807278604 ... s&var=sbar

I wired two together, and with the full metal bar and oddly shaped end i think it's a good example of halfway between the hammer and a drop forged pry-bar (which I think is what you have).

Two big questions: How long is this crowbar? How heavy?
If it's under 8 or 10 lbs go a head and just swing it around and see what feels good. I'd imagine anything simple or mimicking low impact barbell moves would be a good starting point. Curls, shrugs, lifts, ect. If it's short enough (and balanced end to end) you could basically treat it as a free weight like that. The longer it gets the more you need to worry about it swinging way out and breaking your lamps.

All that having been said, Body weight exercises work really well with this workout format. Pushups, Situps, and similar all blend really well and are a decent place to start because you'll see some pretty quick gains there (as far as endurance goes). I don't really do this for bulk, but i have definitely noticed some showing up anyway.

I think I actually do have a couple of long clamps like that. I'm an artist, so sometimes use those huge things to hold canvas bars in place as the glue dries...

taken it easy today and didn't do a workout tonight. I did this morning with my regular power 90 morning routine. Yesterday swung the bar around pry bar around the first time... Did some axe/baseball type of swings, stirring a witches cauldron moves, and a few types of curls with it. ... then I foolishly went home and did a fit for duty cardio podcast thinking it'd be no problem... then I discovered that the military's pentagon channel that runs that thing considers 'suicides' as cardio...

Suicides are those crazy things where you squat, touch hands to floor, push feet back so you are in push up position, do a push up, then bring feet back in, and explode up doing a jump in the air like you look like you are on a toyota commercial...

http://youtu.be/yCjdH2zp2jQ

needless to say between the bar swinging and the suicides I'm full of tons of lactic acid today...