My first thoughts on shovelglove

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.
Post Reply
captain_trismegistus
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am
Location: Marlow, UK

My first thoughts on shovelglove

Post by captain_trismegistus » Fri Oct 21, 2011 12:42 pm

Well, my sledgehammer arrived a few days ago & I've done my first two days of shovelglove...
Wow, I am so glad I opted for a 10lb-er rather than a 12lb-er! I totally underestimated just how hard the exercises would be.
I'm absolutely not a sportsman, but I work in a grocery shop & I spend a fair amount of time humping stuff around (sacks of potatoes, crates of beer etc) & considered myself reasonably strong.
However, having done my first two days (7 reps to each side of each of the 10 canonical movements, rinse & repeat until the timer goes), I'm afraid I'm gonna have to take a break today & have a three day weekend to recover! The way I feel at the moment, I'd be seriously worried that when, say, tucking bails, I'd falter & end up smacking myself in the face with the business-end of my sledge...
What I find interesting is the "slow-burn" effect on my muscles - during & immediately after each session, the ache was confined to my forearms, my central, lower back & my outer, lower abdominal region. By yesterday evening my biceps were feeling it &, upon waking up this morning, there's scarcely a part of my upper body which isn't aching! Not the kind of pain caused by injury, I should point out, just what you'd expect from a damned hard workout.
So I'm sorry to, so soon, be failing in the habit of doing it every weekday, but I hope that taking three days to recover will allow me make a better stab at it next week.
I'm actually encouraged by the fact that so much of me hurts - presumably it's the very bits of me which hurt now which will, in time, be made stronger. Which is pretty much everything from the waist up! Ha ha!

Thanks, Reinhard, for having such a brilliant idea & sharing it with us all - I look forward to getting stuck back in come Monday :)

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

Post by slothlike » Sat Oct 22, 2011 12:43 pm

Welcome Captain. It's a hard workout, but I think you'll be surprised how quickly your body adapts to it.

captain_trismegistus
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am
Location: Marlow, UK

Post by captain_trismegistus » Wed Oct 26, 2011 11:04 am

Hi slothlike,

thanks for your kind words of encouragement - you weren't wrong!
As I said before, after my first two sessions last week, I woke up on the third morning feeling as if I'd been hit by a truck.
However I woke up this morning, after Monday's & Tuesday's sessions, feeling absolutely fine &, although I'm still finding it hard work, completed this morning's session without any problems.
Possibly I'll awake to the full-body ache tomorrow morning but, even so, that would be a 50% increase in the number of sessions I can do before having to take a break!

Thanks again, best wishes,
Tim.

captain_trismegistus
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am
Location: Marlow, UK

Post by captain_trismegistus » Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:29 am

Just successfully completed my first full week of shovelglove :)

User avatar
reinhard
Site Admin
Posts: 5919
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:38 pm
Location: Cambridge, MA
Contact:

Post by reinhard » Fri Oct 28, 2011 7:49 pm

Welcome, Captain!
I totally underestimated just how hard the exercises would be.
You and pretty much everyone else who starts shovelglove. :-)

I think there's something about these relatively low-sounding weights that make us think, "10 pounds? C'mon that's nothing! What are all these people moaning about?"

But as you've discovered, at the end of a stick, 10 pounds certainly is something.

Congratulations on making it through your first week despite this surprising revelation!

Reinhard

captain_trismegistus
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am
Location: Marlow, UK

Post by captain_trismegistus » Fri Nov 04, 2011 10:16 pm

Hi Reinhard,
thanks, it means a lot :)

I realised that having the weight on the end of a stick makes it much harder work... However, for most of the techniques, you're using both arms!

Unfortunately my lower back's been playing up this week, which is very unusual. I'm HOPING that it's not down to SG.
The owner of the shop I manage is away, leaving me to pick up the slack. As a result, I've been on my feet 7 hours a day, every day, for the best part of a fortnight. That being said, my back's never bothered me before when he's gone away... I really, really hope that it's the combination of SG & 7 day weeks that's done it, rather than just SG.

I had a day off on Monday (a day off SG, not work. I wish it had been the other way around!), & have tried to pay special attention to my form for the rest of the week, but my back's still troubling me. So I think I'm gonna have to take a break next week, for at least part of the week, then start again when my shift pattern returns to normal & I'm fully rested up.

Can anyone offer me any advice?


Thanks,
Tim.

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

Post by slothlike » Sat Nov 05, 2011 12:28 pm

Hi Tim, I'm sorry to hear about your back. My guess is that it's just your body needing some time off.

It takes a while for your back to get used to swinging a heavy sledge around. Even if you start out reasonably strong, the movements are much more dynamic that it's used to. I'm new at this too, so I can't speak with much authority, but I think that the longer you Shovelglove the more bombproof your back will get.

Doing each of the movements might be too ambitious. When I started playing around with it I nixed Chop Tree and Stoke Oven because I thought they put too much strain on my lower back. Scratch Back puts a surprising amount of strain on my lower back unless I focus on keeping my back flat and my abs locked tight.

A couple of things that help me are to keep a bend in my knees and my hips loose, I end up bobbing up and down a little on some of the movements. Also I focus on tightening my abs as I swing the hammer - it's finally starting to become automatic - this really helps, after all the main job of your core and abs is to stabilize your spine.

Good luck,
-ted

captain_trismegistus
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am
Location: Marlow, UK

Post by captain_trismegistus » Sat Nov 05, 2011 10:33 pm

Hi Ted,
thanks for the advice. I hope you're right. The more I think on it, the more I feel that whilst SG might have exacerbated my back, it's probably work that's caused it - I worked out my hours tonight &, all told, I've worked 53 hours this week. I don't get lunch breaks & I literally don't sit down at work, so that's 53 hours on my feet doing stuff.

Moreover, the first day it hurt was Monday, when I hadn't shugged since Friday. So I had a red day on Monday, then shugged on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday &, although my back was painful, it wasn't obviously worse. However, because it wasn't any better I had a red day AGAIN on Friday, yet today it's been a nightmare. This all leads my to think that it's more work-based than SG-based.

I think it's sensible advice of yours to initially cut the more back-straining moves when I start up again. I know what you mean about Hoist Sack/Scratch Back - I realised I was tending to arch my back when doing it & really had to focus on keeping it straight.

I'll also follow your advice re: bent knees, loose hips & tightening abs on the swing.

Thanks so much,
Tim.

captain_trismegistus
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am
Location: Marlow, UK

Post by captain_trismegistus » Mon Nov 14, 2011 10:59 pm

Ok so, come this morning, I'd had more than a week off from shugging. My back had got better, & been better for several days. I was champing at the bit to get back into it, but forced myself to wait until today in order to make sure that my back was fully recovered before starting shugging again.

Taking your good advice, Ted, I dropped "Stoke Oven" & "Chop Tree". I made sure my knees were bent & hips stayed loose, & I focused on tightening my abs on the swing. I do my shugging out in my back garden & I realised that by facing the opposite direction to usual I could actually see my reflection in my kitchen window, allowing me to keep an eye on my posture & form.

I didn't have any trouble whilst shugging BUT, unfortunately, late this afternoon, my lower back was worse again. Not bad, but it was definitely not quite right. So I think it's now clear that it is shugging that's buggering my back. I have no idea why this should be - I have no history of back problems & I don't think I'm that unfit or weak.

Anyway, as disappointing as this is, I'll be damned if I'm gonna give up when I'm just starting to obviously get more muscular.

So I'm gonna have a day off again tomorrow (Tues.) then, come Wednesday, I'm gonna start again, but seriously cutting back the amount I do. I'm thinking of cutting down to, say, just 2 sets of 5 reps of each movement on each side (except "Stoke Oven" & "Chop Tree" which I'm still gonna miss out altogether for the time being), & only doing it on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays.

That will both lessen the strain on my back, & give me a full day off after each session to fully recover. I HOPE that that will gently strengthen my back without further injuring it, & that I will be able to slowly build up from there.

But I don't know. I'll just have to give it a go & see...

Sorry for the mammoth post, & thanks again for your advice. Will let you know how I get on.


Tim.

koopa
Posts: 127
Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2011 9:01 pm

Post by koopa » Tue Nov 15, 2011 3:12 am

I had lower back pain when I first started sugging. I was also very weak when I started.

I eased into the routine by doing 1 move a few days and waited for the soreness to go down in the back and arms. For example, I did shoveling the first week with my 8 lb sledge.

Next week, I did shoveling and the fireman. So on and so forth. If no pain is your game, the slower you ease into it, the better off you will be.

One year later, and three sledgehammers, I am using a 12 lb'er and very pleased with my results.

captain_trismegistus
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am
Location: Marlow, UK

Post by captain_trismegistus » Tue Nov 15, 2011 11:23 pm

Hi koopa, thanks. It's not muscular ache I'm worried about - that left me after the first couple of days & I accept that as part & parcel of progress... My lower back, though, was "twinging", if you know what I mean, & clicking occasionally, which worried me somewhat.

Having had a day off today, I have to say that my back hasn't troubled me at all. However, I suspect that daily shugging might still have a cumulative effect, so will stick to my plan as per my last post. I hope that the reduced routine & frequent periods of recovery will cut out the back twinging & clicking altogether, allowing me to build up from there...

Anyway, it's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one who has been left with a sore back initially!


Thanks again, best wishes,
Tim.

captain_trismegistus
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am
Location: Marlow, UK

Post by captain_trismegistus » Mon Nov 21, 2011 11:09 pm

I'm not sure anyone really cares, but I'm gonna keep posting on my progress on the off chance that someone might find my experiences useful. If you aren't interested, you don't need to bother reading :)

Anyway, so far, so good. No major or lasting back pain last week. The small amount of discomfort I had from time to time felt as if it was muscular rather than "internal" &, touch wood, even that seems to have cleared up now.

This week I'm sticking to doing just 2 sets, & only on Monday, Wednesday & Friday. However, I've decided to reduce my number of reps from 5 to 4, but to re-introduce Shovel & Chop Tree. That allows me to get back into those movements at a very gentle level & means that my overall number of reps across a session remains the same (8 movements x 5 reps x 2 sets = 80, 10 movements x 4 reps x 2 sets = 80). Today's gone without a hitch.

My overall plan (assuming no setbacks) is to start increasing reps next week & the week after, until I'm doing 7 reps per set, then to increase to 4 days a week (Mon, Tues, break, Thurs, Fri), then up to the full 5 days a week & finally to 14 mins, rather than 2 sets. With a little luck I'll be fully up to speed just before Christmas.

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

Post by slothlike » Tue Nov 22, 2011 9:49 pm

This looks like a sensible way of easing back into it. I'm not sure what would be clicking, but that would make me pretty nervous.

captain_trismegistus
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am
Location: Marlow, UK

Post by captain_trismegistus » Wed Dec 14, 2011 12:42 am

Sorry to have been away for a while. As the saying goes, no news is good news - so far I'm 2 days into my 4 day week of 7 reps & all seems well...

My back was a little sore yesterday, but nothing serious & has been fine today. 7 reps really seems to be considerably harder than 6.

In the past I've always worked through the canonical movements in the order they appear on the movements page, but I realised that this order grouped together 3 of the most back-punishing movements (stoke oven, fireman & chop tree). Not only that, but this order puts them at the end of the session, so I was consistently hitting them having already tired myself somewhat on the other movements. So today I worked through the movements in reverse order & it was remarkable how different they felt as a result.

I'm thinking of regularly shuffling the ordering of the movements so that I no longer consistently hit a given movement late in the session.

Best wishes to all,
Tim.

captain_trismegistus
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am
Location: Marlow, UK

Advice on upgrade

Post by captain_trismegistus » Wed Mar 21, 2012 2:31 am

I've been comfortably shugging my 10lb-er since my last post - I've gradually been working my forward hand further down the hammer in order to increase the difficulty of the exercise, to the point that my hands are now pretty much as close together at the end of the hammer as I can practically put them. (As a side note: I can't believe how much stronger I've become in the last couple of months - recently I experimentally tried shugging with my hands in the position I used when I first started & I powered through the routine with so little effort!)

Consequently I'm starting to think about upgrading to a heavier hammer. However, the available hammer weights here in the UK seem to differ from those in the US... The only commonly available weight above 10lb over here is 14lb. 12lb is available, though, if you search around for it, as is 16lb (although the 16lb-er is significantly more expensive than the others). 20lb doesn't seem to be available at all, but I'm not sure I'd ever have wanted to go to such a heavy weight anyway.

Given the cost of the 16lb-er, I think I'll stop upgrading at 14lb but I don't particularly want to spend 30 quid on a 12lb-er only to have to spend another 30 quid in the not-too-distant future on a 14lb-er...

On the other hand, moving straight up from a 10lb-er to a 14lb-er seems like a fairly massive increase to take on - almost half as much again as I'm currently shugging!

This could be eased somewhat by starting off shugging the 14lb-er with my forward hand considerably closer to the head of the hammer than I have it when I now shug my 10lb-er, but I don't know whether it would be enough to make the transition practical - can anyone with experience of upgrading to a heavier hammer offer me any advice?

Thanks,
Tim.

koopa
Posts: 127
Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2011 9:01 pm

Post by koopa » Fri Mar 23, 2012 1:21 pm

Tim,

Great work at keeping with it! In America, the next natural jump is from 12 lber to 16 lber. This is also a 4 lb jump so going from 10 lb to 14 lb would be similar.

Do not get frustrated when you make the jump. I started with 8 lbs, then went to 10 and that transition was smooth. I then jumped to 12 too quickly, and became frustrated with the process. I had taken a break from shugging for a few months because of this and also due to me taking on P90x.

Now, I've completed P90X and have gone back to my old friend, the 12lber. At the end of the day, there is no wrong decision, as long as you keep up with it!

If it was me, I would go with the 14 lber for your next jump. Good luck!

Bill

captain_trismegistus
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am
Location: Marlow, UK

Post by captain_trismegistus » Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:52 pm

Thanks for the advice & the kind words of encouragement, Bill.

The only thing that concerns me is that, whilst both jumps are the same in absolute terms, in relative terms going from 12lb to 16lb is a 33.3% increase on what you're already shugging, whereas 10 to 14 is a 40% increase...

Tim.

User avatar
reinhard
Site Admin
Posts: 5919
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:38 pm
Location: Cambridge, MA
Contact:

Post by reinhard » Fri Mar 23, 2012 4:26 pm

Glad it's working so well for you!

That is a rather big jump in weight... I guess I'd lean towards making the smaller jump (10->12). Yes, that probably means an extra hammer probably in the not-too-distant future, but think of it as an insurance policy against getting injured or dissuaded by moving up too quickly. As far as insurance policies go, 30 quid is not that bad. Plus I'm sure you can find a new home for your hammer. Unlike purpose-specific exercise gear, sledgehammers are generally useful tools.

But it's easy for me to tell someone else to spend money. If you hate the idea of wasting money on mere insurance, there are other ways of mitigating
the risk of an upgrade. You seem to be quite adept at hand positioning already, and if you hang on to your lighter hammer for a bit you can alternate during your routine and/or switch off days with each hammer until you feel ready to go with the heavier weight exclusively.

Reinhard

captain_trismegistus
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am
Location: Marlow, UK

Olympion Gym Hammers

Post by captain_trismegistus » Fri Mar 23, 2012 4:34 pm

I've just come across "Gym Hammers" by a company called Olympion (or Olympian, depending on which seller you're buying from on Amazon):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_nos ... mmer&ajr=0

They appear to be essentially similar to sledge hammers, but designed for use as fitness tools, & come in a wide range of weights.

The weights are all in kilos, so I've crunched the numbers & worked out that 6kg is equivalent to just over 13lb, & 8kg is just over 17.5lb (10lb is just over 4.5kg). This would give a pretty smooth progression with both jumps (10lb sledge hammer to 6kg gym hammer & 6kg gym hammer to 8kg gym hammer) being an increase of a third on what you were already shugging.

The prices are reasonable too - the 6kg is about 30 quid, almost exactly the same price as I could get a 12lb or a 14lb sledge hammer for, & the 8kg gym hammer is 35 quid - more than a tenner cheaper than the only 16lb sledge hammer I could find...

(The heaviest gym hammer I can find is 15kg - equivalent to 33lb! I can't imagine what sort of a beast you'd have to be to wield THAT thing!!)

Does anyone have any experience of these gym hammers? Are they any good?

guille
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 8:54 pm
Location: mexico

Post by guille » Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:04 am

well, talking from experience, i have not bought a new hammer, i just tied up a 1 kilo ankle weight very firmly to the hammer, and the wrap it on the sweater, it holds very well, never have had problems with it, and just in case the weight falls, well they are very soft and can not hurt you (yeah, i actualy droped it on my feet, and its harmless)

in case i want to advance more, i just add another kilo, i guess there must be 1 puond bags(weights) ot there if you want that

i think its much cheaper than buyng a new hammer, let alone a gym hammer
,the only time i may buy a new one is when advance to a 20 pounder, so i still have plenty of time

User avatar
reinhard
Site Admin
Posts: 5919
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:38 pm
Location: Cambridge, MA
Contact:

Post by reinhard » Mon Mar 26, 2012 6:11 pm

I don't know -- I've never heard of them before.

They look like regular sledgehammers spraypainted black -- which is great if they don't cost extra and/or give you otherwise unavailable sizes. I don't see them in U.S. amazon, but they've got a good regular sledge selection.

Be sure to post a report here if you wind up going for one! I'm curious.

Reinhard

guille
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 8:54 pm
Location: mexico

Post by guille » Tue Mar 27, 2012 1:24 am

hi captain_trismegistus


one question,you said

"I've gradually been working my forward hand further down the hammer in order to increase the difficulty of the exercise, to the point that my hands are now pretty much as close together at the end of the hammer as I can practically put them."

in your case what is as clase at the end of the hammer as possivle? in my case, i have seen that if one hand is moreless at the end and the other in the middle, thats more less as far as i can go, i mean, i may try more, but then i feel the exersise becomes too different from the original

koopa
Posts: 127
Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2011 9:01 pm

Post by koopa » Tue Mar 27, 2012 5:14 pm

guille wrote:hi captain_trismegistus

in your case what is as clase at the end of the hammer as possivle? in my case, i have seen that if one hand is moreless at the end and the other in the middle, thats more less as far as i can go, i mean, i may try more, but then i feel the exersise becomes too different from the original
Agreed. I do not have my hand go further from the middle of the sledge when performing the routines.

captain_trismegistus
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am
Location: Marlow, UK

Post by captain_trismegistus » Wed Mar 28, 2012 12:27 am

Well, I've got to the stage with my 10lb-er where my rear hand is literally at the end of the handle & there's a gap of, maybe, four to six inches between the top of my rear hand & the bottom of my forward hand.

It seems to work ok - it hasn't led to any injury or discomfort &, as I said, when I experimentally moved my hands back to their original position the movements were a breeze (so presumably it's developing the same groups of muscles I was using before).

I do feel, though, that trying to put my hands any closer together would make the hammer unwieldy, regardless of how strong I am. Hence the desire for an upgrade.

On that note, thanks for the input everyone - I've ordered a 6kg gym hammer which should arrive tomorrow (Weds.) so I'll keep you all posted on what it's like (& whether I manage to make the upgrade smoothly, or kill myself in the process!)...

Tim.

captain_trismegistus
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am
Location: Marlow, UK

A Note of thanks to Reinhard

Post by captain_trismegistus » Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:10 am

Reinhard, you say you're glad it's working so well for me &, for that, I just want to reply - yes, it really is & thank you, both for your input here &, more importantly, for your inspired invention of shovelglove & your generosity in sharing it freely with us all.

Although I've come across a few other instances of using of a sledge hammer for strength & fitness, I think it's invariably been a question of using it to actually strike something (such as a tractor tyre), & only using it as a hammer, rather than using it to mimic other useful actions.

The origin of the word "sledgehammer" seems to date to the end of the 1400's, although I'd be surprised if sledge hammers themselves (or something very like them) don't date to more-or-less as far back as the birth of farming, so are probably closer in age to 10,000 years than 500 years.

The beauty of shovelglove is its simplicity - once the idea's been pointed out to you, it seems so obvious. Not that its simplicity takes away from your accomplishment in inventing it - in fact, I think it greatly adds to it.

Even if we very conservatively say that sledge hammers have existed for about 500 years, that's 500 years of human civilisation in which shovelglove COULD have been invented, but wasn't - it took YOU to actually do it. Which is really fairly remarkable when you think about it... Seriously, I think you can afford to feel pretty damned proud of that!

Anyway, I'll stop with the arse-kissing now, but I thought I should just mention that.

Thanks,
Tim.

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

Post by slothlike » Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:54 pm

captain_trismegistus wrote:Well, I've got to the stage with my 10lb-er where my rear hand is literally at the end of the handle & there's a gap of, maybe, four to six inches between the top of my rear hand & the bottom of my forward hand.
Wow. I can't imagine doing that with even my lightest sledge. I would lose control and smash something for sure.

The 10# to 12# jump wasn't a big deal, but 12# to 16# was, I wish we had an intermediate option here. I suppose I could have used ankle weights.

Post Reply