Everyday Systems

[kayvan]

Hi everyone,

Some days ago, I ran across the shovelglove web page and was amused and intrigued. I went to a local hardware store and got myself a 10 pound sledgehammer (13 pounds with the fiberglass handle) and made myself a shovelglove. I love it!!! Thanks, Reinhard!

This morning was my third 14 minute SG session. I've managed to stick to this routine every day:

1) 50 Shovels on each side.
2) 20 Churn Butter (first with left hand leading, then another 20 with right hand leading).
3) 20 Chop Wood on each side.
4) 8 Levers on each side (these are hard!)
5) 10 Hoist The Sack on each side.

The above takes about 10-12 minutes and then I just play around, making up moves.

"Kill The Dragon" is one of my favorites, where you use the SG as a spear.

"Paint The Eight" is weirdly hard. This is where I hold the SG with both hands in front of me and pretend to paint a figure eight in the air.

Anyways. I'm a bit sore, but in a fun way.

Best regards,

---Kayvan

[david]

Way to jump in with both feet, Kayvan!

Keep us updated.

--david

[reinhard]

Welcome, Kayvan.

"Kill the dragon" sounds like a nice stoke the oven variant.

If you want to run with that motif and turn it into a scenario, figure 8 could be "disembowel the dragon."

Reinhard

[phayze]

I love militant shovelglove.

Welcome to the crew, Kayvan! Be sure to let us know about any new moves you find.
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[kayvan]

Thanks, everyone, for the welcome.

As another former martial artist (Chinese Kung Fu), I was pleasantly surprised at the versatility and the difficulty of the shovelglove. After I have swung the sledgehammer around for a few months, doing a Kwan-Dao form will be a piece of cake.

This morning, I was slower than the previous mornings, so there was not that many extra "Kill The Dragon" and "Disembowel the Dragon" moves (thanks, Reinhard! That's a great name!).

I am definitely feeling it in my shoulders and arms for a few hours after the workouts.

---Kayvan
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Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

[kayvan]

I took the weekend off, then started again on Monday.

Today, the invariant part of the workout (50 shovel, 20 butter-churn, 20 chop-wood, 8 levers, 20 hoist-the-sack) took about 11 minutes, giving me three minutes to have unstructured fun. I used that time to repeatedly Kill and Disembowel the Dragon.

I can already feel a difference.

My fourteen year old son has joined me this week in the early morning 14 minutes. I got him a 6-pound sledgehammer and he's having fun with it. He was complaining that his arms are sore and I told him that the same happened with me and that as he continues, the soreness will start to go away in a day or two.

Best regards,
---Kayvan
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Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

[kayvan]

We finished the static portion of our routine in about 9 minutes today, and I even was able to move my hands a bit back from the weighted end of the sledgehammer (increasing the effort needed).

The rest of the time was spent playing around and my son and I sort of evolved a scenario that went like this:

The dragon is attacking our lands, so we must Kill The Dragon! (10-20 times on each side, spear-thrusting movements up at a 45 degree angle). The dragon is dead, let's Disembowel The Dragon to be sure! (5 figure eights in the air on each side).

Okay, now that the dragon is dead, we have to get back to our farm. We cross the lake by gondola (10-20 rowing motions on each side).

When we get there, we must feed the chickens (hold the shovelglove horizontally in front of you, and making shaking motions as you move it from side to side, to mimic spreading bird seed).

This idyllic existence is shattered when the Dragon's mate finds us!! Oh no!!! Kill The Dragon again (another 10-20 spear thrusts).

The mommy dragon falls and is dying....

Wait, this dragon was pregnant! Even as it dies, it's giving birth to baby dragons. The baby dragons are trying to eat our chickens!

Kill The Baby Dragons!!! (10-20 spear motions downward, killing the baby dragons). Okay, it's all over now. What a mess! We must clean ourselves up (being covered with dragon blood and guts), which means we need to pump some water (Make 10-20 pumping motions with the shovelgvlove on each side).

The timer then went off... I hope you enjoyed this fantastical shovelglove adventure.
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[phayze]

hahahahahaha! Beautiful.

Glad to see you boys having fun.
_________________
1 Picture = 1,000 words
0:01s Video = 30 pictures
therefore, 0:01s Video = 30,000 words

[kayvan]

Even though Monday was Christmas, I treated myself to a normal shovelglove session.

This morning, I finished my third week of shugging.

I can now do 15 chest down to the floor pushups, slowly, with good form, without needing to rest. Shovelglove is great!!!
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[ProfMom]

Hey guys,
I am a 42 mother of 4 boys and one girl. I found shovelgloving from Joel Ellis' 20 minute workout site (he is an old friend). Since I am not up to a full fledged sledge hammer, I went out to the garage and got my husband's 5 pounder. The handle is a bit short, but I can use it. This is a great workout and so much fun. I love kayvan's dragon slaying theme, this may be the ticket to get my teenage boys to workout with me. The stoke the oven (Kill the dragon) move is my favorite. I have started with 21 reps each Driving fence post, churning butter, shoveling, chopping wood, stoke the oven, and tuck the bales. And 14 reps each of flip the lever and hoist the sack. Then I finish out my time with Hindu squats and stretching.
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Prof Mom of 5
I have not greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth
3 John 4

[kayvan]

I'm in the weekend now, so no shugging, but yesterday I finished my 4th week.

My son is still doing it with his smaller sledgehammer.

Have a great weekend, everyone!
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Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

[reinhard]

Glad to hear you're still with it Kayvan (and that you've got the kids involved!)

Belated welcome, ProfMom! Thanks for sharing your routine. Say hi to Joel for me.

Reinhard

[kayvan]

Thanks, Reinhard. I'm amazed at what little consistent effort is needed to build muscle!

I can now do 25 down-to-the-floor slow and steady pushups at a pop, where a month ago I could only do 8 before I had to stop.
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[kayvan]

I've noticed that my left arm is noticeably weaker than my right arm.

Applying the idea that to strengthen a system, you must strengthen its weakest link, I decided to add 5 reps of whatever exercise I am doing with the shovelglove, but just for the left arm.

Today was the second day of doing it. My routine with my 13-pound hammer now looks like this:

1) 50 shovel right, 55 shovel left.
2) 20 churn butter right arm, 25 churn butter left arm (I'm doing these one-handed now).
3) 20 chop-wood right, 25 chop-wood left
4) 10 right handed flip-the-lever, 15 left handed flip-the-lever
5) 15 right handed hoist-the-sack, 20 left handed hoist-the-sack

The addition of the 5 reps, along with a conscious intent to move my hands down further on the handle, has made my shovelglove time hard again. It was starting to get easy.

I think I will feel the difference in a week or two.
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Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

[david]

In any given set, I always do the left side first. That way when time runs out I have done equal or more total volume on the left side. One benefit of shovelglove that I have noticed is that I am much more symmetrical now strength, agility, and size-wise.

--david

[kayvan]

[reinhard]

I've always kept my workout exactly the same for both sides. I do notice that my left side is still slightly weaker, but it's not a huge difference and so I don't care. I figure if I do the same thing long enough on both sides, they'll wind up more or less the same.

Reinhard

[kayvan]

This morning was the 28th day of my shovelglove routine.

I was doing the routine with my son (who chose to get up with me at 5:45 AM to do it). I think he was not as awake as he should have been.

Halfway through our exercise, he smacked the kitchen table pretty good. Made a pretty big noise, but thankfully, no huge dent. He's lucky that Mom was not awake and that it was just me who saw it. I didn't even have to say anything.

When I get done with my sets, I do an extra mini-set just with my left arm now. I can already feel my left side getting stronger.

Best regards,

---Kayvan
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[kayvan]

I started this on 12/12/06

Yesterday, I did anther session. I have been consistent and the bulging biceps I am developing are my tangible side-benefits.

So, for yesterday's workout, I took the shovelglove to work along with a kitchen timer, then slipped away in the middle of the day to retrieve the hammer from my car, do the routine in the workout room for 14 minutes, and put it back in my car.

This is not my usual practice. I like to do it before work, but I was running late, so I just packed up my shovelglove and did it when it was convenient. Yet another point for the shovelglove. It's portable (both in terms of space and time).

Best regards,

---Kayvan
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Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

[reinhard]

Wow. Sorry about the table...

I think between my smacking myself in the head "churning butter," Kevin's hammer head flying off, and your kitchen table, we have sufficient material for a "shovelglove mishaps" page

Hoping we'll never have anything more serious to put there,

Reinhard

p.s congrats on the "side benefits!"

[kayvan]

[kayvan]

Yesterday was my two month anniversary with the shovelglove. Unfortunately, I had to do a mild form of my usual routine since I had tweaked something in my right shoulder.

However, laying off it for a day, drinking lots of water, and getting some needed sleep seem to have been enough for my body to heal.

Today, I was able to do my normal routine with gusto! Boy, it felt good!
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[kayvan]

I've started playing with the following pattern (all exercises are done on the left side first, followed by the right):

21 shovel, 21 churn butter (one handed), 21 chop wood, 21 flip the lever, 21 hoist the sack

After this, I repeat the set, doing only 14 of each. If I ever get to finish the 21 and 14 sets, I'll continue with a set of 7 of each exercise.

I'm getting a more balanced SG workout by doing lower reps of each exercise and repeating the cycles (as opposed to doing 60 shovel, 50 churn butter, 50 chop wood, 25 flip the lever, 25 hoist the sack).

Another note: I did my usual 14 minutes this morning, but later on in the day, I felt like doing another 14 minutes, so I did. It felt good. I won't use it as an excuse to skip a normal set, though.

Best regards,

---Kayvan
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[david]

You are doing great! I like the 21/14/7 protocol as well.

--david

[gratefuldeb67]

Hey Kayvan, I just wanted to congratulate you on getting so into Shovelglove and having such a great time with it, and involving your Son!
That's great!!! Six pound hammers are a good choice
Beware Dragons all around the world!
Hope you have a great weekend!

I might just *downgrade* my hammer at some point this year, when I can afford a new one, because the agility and ease factor might be better than with my 12 lb one, at least for these very active scenarios..

And, I read what you said about being amazed at how quick you develop those solid muscles.. I totally agree with you and it's a great feeling!

Have a nice weekend.
Peace,
Debs
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[kayvan]

[kayvan]

[gratefuldeb67]

Yeah, with the handle it's actually close to 15 I think..
But the handle isn't really part of the force of pull... That's the crucial part of the whole thing.. The leveraging of the heads weight is what it's all about.

I have been totally not doing SG for a long while.. I can't figure out why.
It kinda stopped when I moved to our new cottage.. It's fairly cramped for space... And especially, I think it has something to do with the fact that my room, where there is enough room to safely or enjoyably, swing a sledge, has one tiny little window in it, in the front door.
I actually find it so depressing to be in that room, and spend most of my waking time in my Son's room which has the computer and two very large windows.. My room just feels like a box, and much of it is taken up by my bed. I don't feel inspired to do exercise in it at all, including my beloved Yoga and meditation.

Still, I'm gonna try again starting this month, since my energy is beginning to return today, after a two month stint of me and my Son being sick with flus...

Shovelglove, when I do it, has always had an amazing effect on my mind and mood.
It's a real upper!
Maybe if I stick at it long enough, I'll be able to develop strength to do a handstand in Yoga..

Have a great day!
Peace,
Debs
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There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

[kayvan]

Hi everyone!

I am so happy.

I had my yearly physical exam this morning. The doctor was clearly amazed with the changes I have made since the last time he saw me.

My weight on their scale was 144 (about 25 pounds less than their last measurement). My BP was 84/50. My resting heartrate was in the low 60's.

I told him about calorie-count.com and about shovelglove.com and he said "You know. It sounds hokey at first, but it makes a lot of sense. I think I'm going to get myself a sledgehammer too and start doing it."

The best part was this: When I was last there (more than a year ago), he offered to measure my body fat percentage using one of those electrical impedance devices. At that time I was up around 27% BF.

I asked him to measure me today. My new reading: 17%!!! When the device registered that reading, he shook my hand vigorously and said "Congratulations! I am impressed!"

All of the numbers match my Tanita scale (with its body fat percentage reading) which also gives me confidence in my at home measurements.

They took some blood and I won't get the results of their tests for another week.

In any case, I wanted to share my mini success here.

Best regards,

---Kayvan
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Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

[david]

That's great news! Congratulations!

--david

[Kevin]

Great changes... congratulations!
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Kevin
1/13/2011-189# :: 4/21/2011-177# :: Goal-165#
"Respecting the 4th S: sometimes."

[reinhard]

Kayvan,

That is awesome! Testimonials page worthy!

Congratulations!

I wish my current doctor had known me pre-shovelglove....

Reinhard

[kayvan]

[sledgehammer]

[quote="kayvan"]

[reinhard]

Kayvan,

One thing I do to balance the two competing goods of habit and novelty is to stick with a pretty fixed routine (or two) four days a week, and experiment on Fridays. If an experiment is particularly fruitful (after having given it a few Fridays to really try it out) I consider inserting it into the routine.

For starters, there are a bunch of movements in the "standard" repertoire that you're not currently doing that you might want to experiment with: drive fence posts, stoke over, the fireman, chop tree. Then there are a bunch of not-yet standard movements that have been proposed in the forum here (and will eventually be standardized!).

Besides movements, other things you can experiment with are "scenarios" to tie them together, and rep counts.

Reinhard

[kayvan]

I have been faithfully sticking to the routine for about four months now.

The other day, at the local playground, I jumped up on the pull-up bar and to my utter amazement and delight was able to do 5 pull-ups. A couple of days later, I went back and was able to do 7 pull-ups.

I have never been able to do more than one (and that one only with the "assistance" of my high school gym teacher cajoling and yelling at me to do it).

The only thing I do for strength training these days is shovelglove and sporadic sets of push-up variants, and shovelglove is the only consistent piece of my routine. I can therefore state unequivocally that my newfound ability to do pull-ups is due to the shovelglove workout!

Best regards,

---Kayvan
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[Kevin]

Yup. Others can tell you how they can bench weights never achievable before.
_________________
Kevin
1/13/2011-189# :: 4/21/2011-177# :: Goal-165#
"Respecting the 4th S: sometimes."

[reinhard]

Nice! I've tried a few times at the playground... but the "what the hell are you doing looks?" I get from the other mommies and daddies (or imagine I'm getting) stop me way before I physically max out.

7 is very respectable -- especially if you haven't been specifically training by doing them.

I'm very happy to read about all these cross-exercise strength and conditioning benefits shovelglove seems to be delivering to people on this board -- bench press, pullups, even running. It makes sense, I guess, but it's still somehow surprising.

Reinhard

[nascif]

Hi Kavyan,

I have been looking into wushu as a source of inspiration as well. I got a VCD with a Shuang Chui (double hammer) form which is great since you can use it "as is: for exercises using two one-handed hammers: http://www.chinesemall.com/mizushuangchui.html

I wonder if you know or would recommend two-handed weapon forms that would translate well to shovelgloving. I will definitely check the Kwan-Dao.

Thanks,
Nascif

[kayvan]

As of a couple of days ago, I have been shovelgloving for 6 months.

Sometimes I do the shovelglove in my cubicle, while babysitting a build. All my officemates think it's normal now.

I love it!

Best regards,

---Kayvan
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Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

[reinhard]

You are awesome!

With all the time I spend waiting for builds, I'd be Hercules.

Alas, I'm not quite hard core enough (yet?) to shug in the office...

Reinhard

[gratefuldeb67]

Hey just read your post about the docs visit!
Fantastic news about your body fat percentage changing so much!!!!
Yeah!!!!!
And so cool that the doctor was open to this!
Nice one!

Have a great weekend
Peace and Love,
Debs
_________________
There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

[kayvan]

So, I've been doing a lot of the following pattern: Left hand, then right hand of

21 x Shoveling
21 x one-handed butter churn
21 x chop wood
21 x flip lever
21 x hoist the sack.

Followed by 14 reps of same, and finishing with 7, for a total of 42 of each.

Yesterday, I decided to change things a bit and did a straight set of:

50 x Shoveling
50 x one-handed butter churn
50 x chop wood
50 x flip lever
50 x hoist the sack.

Again, leading with left hand first, then the right. I did it all in the 14 minutes and boy was it a nice workout!

Best regards,
---Kayvan
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Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

[kayvan]

In another month or so, it will be one year of shovelgloving for me.

Here is my recent picture, as of yesterday (10/6/07):


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[david]

Good work! Has your weight or BF% changed since your physical?

--david

[kayvan]

[reinhard]

Awesome! I'm so happy to hear (and see!) you're still with it.

Great picture, you look very lean and strong.

Reinhard

[kayvan]

[urbansix]

[kayvan]

[reinhard]

Twice one's weight might be brutally hard, but what incentive to trim down

Age sounds good too (for now -- I'd be curious whether there are any 80 year olds who can bang out 160 pushups a day).

Does the tai chi (aka "torture") pushup count as just one? Watch out or you're going to wind up with post traumatic stress disorder!

Reinhard

[kayvan]

[kayvan]

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I'm coming up on the one year mark, still doing shovelglove every weekday.

I hope everyone is having a great time with their families and friends this week.

Best regards,

---Kayvan
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Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

[reinhard]

Congratulations!

A year on habit -- that's the kind of metric I like to see.

Happy belated thanksgiving to you, too,

Reinhard

[kayvan]

Yesterday was my one year shovelglove anniversary!

I did a 14 minute routine yesterday that consisted of the following exercises (done on the left side and then on the right side, for each set):

21 shovel
21 churn butter
14 chop wood
14 flip lever
14 drive fencepost
14 hoist sack
14 tuck bale
14 stoke oven
14 fireman
14 chop tree

and repeat (I got halfway through the routine the second time before the timer went off).

It feels great!

Best regards,

---Kayvan
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Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

[reinhard]

Official congratulations! (my last was a few days premature)

And thanks for sharing the details of your routine.

Once I get the movements discussion threads all linked to the movements pages (you wouldn't think it would take this long, but I somehow always seem to have some slightly higher priority), I'll link to it from the new "routines" section.

Reinhard

[gratefuldeb67]

Congrats Kayvan!!!
That's really inspiring!!!
Peace and Love,
Debs
_________________
There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

[kayvan]

Wow. It's been several years. I hope there are people still doing this!

I just re-started again today. I was moving some stuff around and found my two shovelgloves (a ten pounder and twelve pounder) in my office and just on a lark started up again.

I walk a lot (using my FitBit and my Inspire gadgets) and I've been thinking of getting a power-rack and an olympic weight set, but meanwhile, I figured "Why wait? I have my old friend here." so I put a timer on for fourteen minutes and started swinging it around.

I'd forgotten how good it feels to move my body like that!

Merry Christmas everyone and may you live long and prosper!

Best regards,

---Kayvan
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Father, Husband, Writer, Software Geek.

[slothlike]

Welcome back Kayvan. It's a bit quiet around here, but I've found a few other small groups of shuggers in different parts of the internet.