Chopping wood, no, really chopping wood.

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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~hf
Posts: 144
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 6:28 pm
Location: Ca

Chopping wood, no, really chopping wood.

Post by ~hf » Mon Nov 21, 2011 5:33 am

So we ended up with a lot of fire wood that needs to be chopped. Being a single mom I decided to delegate that job to my 2 teenaged sons. They've been going at it for a week now and both are saying how much stronger they are feeling and we are noticing more muscle definition too...Now they are telling me that I should join in too. I'm not strong enough to swing the 8 lb. maul but I can see how this is great exercise, efficient and and productive....I guess I could start practicing with a much lighter sledgehammer...do they make 4 pounders?

My question is, is there any area of the body that is not worked by shovelglove? and if so, what do you all do to address those?

Heidi
SW 236.4
10/26/11 restart date
1st goal 21 day club !accomplished! 11/24/11
2nd goal 10% loss
3rd goal...????

slothlike
Posts: 86
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2011 5:16 am
Location: Minneapolis

Post by slothlike » Tue Nov 22, 2011 10:04 pm

Hi Heidi,

Chopping wood for real is great exercise - it takes me forever to split and stack a load of wood. Definition after a week? I guess all those hormones coursing through the teenage body are good for something.

The smallest sledgehammer I've seen is a 6 pounder. If you go to an old fashioned hardware store they might be able to put a sledgehammer handle on an engineer's hammer, but the eye is different, so it might be more of a hassle than they want to deal with. To make the hammer feel lighter until you get stronger, you can choke up on the handle and/or swing slower. Near the bottom of this thread http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8132 Tim and Koopa have some sensible methods for easing into it.

Try it out for a few days, if you have any body parts that aren't sore, you've figured out what isn't getting worked hard enough :D I think Shovelglove is a really good all-over upper body work-out, but that the legs aren't hit hard enough, so I add in a set of squats. However, squats are the hardest and least fun part of my circuit. Some people say that the abs aren't worked very hard, but I tighten up as I swing and some days my abs are burning by the end.

Have fun and good luck,
-ted

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~hf
Posts: 144
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 6:28 pm
Location: Ca

Post by ~hf » Fri Nov 25, 2011 5:12 am

Hi Ted,
Thanks for the input. Good to know about the abs and squats. Ugh, squats are not fun. at. all. ;) My son has really been enjoying chopping the wood. He went out twice today (Thanksgiving) before and after dinner. Of course, he likes me to come out and cheer him on. He's doing great and we have a nice stash of chopped wood ready for the fireplace. In all I think we have about 1 1/2 cords, maybe 2, to go through. Maybe I'll try my hand at it tomorrow.

Heidi
SW 236.4
10/26/11 restart date
1st goal 21 day club !accomplished! 11/24/11
2nd goal 10% loss
3rd goal...????

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