Back's fine; doing it wrong?

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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Lollingsgrad
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Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:00 am
Location: United Kingdom

Back's fine; doing it wrong?

Post by Lollingsgrad » Fri Jun 29, 2012 10:02 am

I just finished my first round of shovelgloving; I did 7 reps of the canonical movements one each side before I was exhausted. I saw a lot of threads with people who'd thrown out their back so I adopted a sitting stance and focussed on keeping my back straight. Effectively, I forced my back not to move whilst I performed the movements. Whilst doing this, I felt like my shoulders and arms did all the work, and by the time I was done my arms were aching and I was tired but my back was totally fine. Does this mean I was doing it wrong?

As I understand, the twisting full body motions are the point of the exercise but also where most of the injuries occur. Should I seek a middle ground, or carry on as is?

JayEll
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Joined: Tue May 22, 2012 10:54 am

Post by JayEll » Fri Jun 29, 2012 12:49 pm

Hi! First of all, I'm not a doctor, and I don't know your medical history. If you think it would be good to consult with your doctor, please do!

I'm someone who has to be careful with my back, but I find the shovelglove movements actually help my back feel better--as long as I do not overdo them. I don't use a sledge hammer--I use a regular garden shovel that weighs 4 pounds.

I don't try to do the movements fast, and I don't push the twisting. The back twists only a little when doing the movements--and that is enough. This isn't yoga where the idea is to increase flexibility.

Sitting is not ideal, especially if you are trying to hold your back stiff. If you think standing might hurt your back, I'd suggest you still try standing and do the movements with just a pole, or with something lightweight like a broom or mop. Pay attention to form. Don't try to count up a big number of reps or go fast. The important part of the routine is: 14 minutes.

So these are some suggestions you could try. Again, I'm not a doctor and this isn't medical advice.

Good luck!

Lollingsgrad
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:00 am
Location: United Kingdom

Post by Lollingsgrad » Fri Jun 29, 2012 1:41 pm

Thanks for the reply Jay, I should clarify though. I'm adopting a sitting stance, not sitting. A sitting stance is a common position in martial arts:

Image

I find that it forces me to keep my back straight. I think your suggestion of using a broom for a while might be smart; I don't particularly think I'm likely to throw my back out but sledge hammers get a lot of momentum and if I was going to do myself a mischief it'll be whilst swinging this.
Last edited by Lollingsgrad on Fri Jun 29, 2012 2:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

JayEll
Posts: 79
Joined: Tue May 22, 2012 10:54 am

Post by JayEll » Fri Jun 29, 2012 2:22 pm

I see what you mean--the horse stance. If you look at Reinhard's videos, you'll see that his knees are bent and one foot is forward compared to the other. This is not unlike the horse stance idea, just with feet aligned differently. I have done martial arts training in the past, and the stance is not unlike a "ready" stance in kung fu, t'ai chi, or aikido. The important thing, I think, is that the knees be bent slightly and not locked, to allow fluid movement.

The horse stance is good for practicing punching and building ch'i (ki), but it's not really a moving position. Your arms will indeed get very tired. Don't try to stay rigid in your torso.

Hope you can use the movements!

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