Casey! Watch your back :)

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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gratefuldeb67
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Casey! Watch your back :)

Post by gratefuldeb67 » Sun May 22, 2005 6:59 pm

Hi Casey :) Glad you are having so much fun doing your SG workout.
Thanks for the instructions the other day.
I wanted to actually discourage you from doing the stacking thing with the sledgehammer... The motion sounds good, so keep it up if you like the feeling it adds for your chopping scenario... but any type of lifting you do, when combined with torquing your spine (ie: twisting to the side, or swivelling, as you put it) will put your back muscles at a serious disadvantage and at risk for muscle strain... As a general rule of thumb, try to always face your body towards the thing you are lifting... If you want to stack the wood with the SG as the pretend wood... Turn your body and lift and lower with your legs to minimize the change of a back strain...
I am probably one of the only people in the group who actually has eliminated the Shovelling motion from my routine because of the twistyness of the motion... It's been a while since I watched Rein's home video of the Shovelling one, but I think he doesn't really twist his spine much... As I remember, I think that he just tosses the snow over his shoulder, but his back doesn't really figure into the sideways motion...
Anyway, forgive the unsolicited advice... I'm a licensed massage therapist and just thought you might benefit from this info... Not trying to censor you or limit you.. Just beware of the combo of twisting and lifting...
Twisting = good, lifting =good, twisting+lifting = OUCH! :evil:
Good luck!
8) Love,
Deb

Casey
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Post by Casey » Mon May 23, 2005 2:53 am

Deb
You know I thought about that after I was doing it. So, next time I will make sure Im not doing it wrong. ;) Dont feel as you giving unsolicting adive. I posted it..so anyone can post something about it. :D

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Post by reinhard » Tue May 24, 2005 1:19 pm

It's so convenient to have all these physiological experts in this group! Thanks again Deb for jumping in here. I myself am shockingly ignorant on such matters. The way I navigate the risks of new moves is just to do them very, very slowly, with few reps, paying careful attention to how I feel and stopping immediately if anything hurts, until I'm confident both that the move is safe and that I'm experienced enough with it to do it safely. Since people get little back pains now and then and it's difficult to track down the cause, I like to play it safe, and if anything hurts, whether I think it's shovelglove related (which I haven't in a long while) or not, I stop immediately and take the next day off. It's a rare occurrance, and getting rarer. As a result of this careful shovelgloving, I think I have the best back of anyone I know. Very handy with all the baby lifting I have to do nowadays!

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gratefuldeb67
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Shovelglove enhanced baby lifting!

Post by gratefuldeb67 » Tue May 24, 2005 2:09 pm

Hi Daddy Reinhard!
Yep, my back was one sad puppy, when I had to pick up and change and nurse and bathe my "little" guy... Richard was 11 lbs at birth!!! By the time he was 2 months he weighed about 16 lbs!

Stooping over, twisting the spine and all that good stuff tends to cause the poor back to cry "Uncle"...
I remember it very well.

Your cutie was a shrimp, but I assume she has caught up considerably...
10 months now, right? Just a few more months to walking time!!!

Also, Hey Casey! Glad you weren't put off by my advice!
Have a great day!
I have been, for logistical reasons, doing borrriiiiiiinnnnnnnggggg dumbell stuff here and thered, but in all honesty, it sucks!
Still, something is better than nothing, and I've been slacking on doing my SG at the apartment... No good excuse for it.
Note to self:
Kick your ass!!!!!!
PS... Samurai, I am sorry I didn't write sooner, my comp is screwed these days... I included that Toshiro Mifune photo specifically because he is holding TWO swords... You mentioned your double handed wiffel ball bat experiment.. Sounds like a great idea,,,,, unless the sand starts to fly out all over the place! (that would be funny!!!!)
Please try and take a picture of you in your combat costume, with the SG and your "ammo" belt! Didja go out to the park again? Any cops try to stop you? LOL.....
Love,
8) Deb

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