• 1 minute of pain (planks)
• 100 kettlebell swings w/16 k. kettlebell
• 100 goblet squats w/kettlebell
Main Shovelglove routine (3 sets of 15/side ~ 14 min.)
• Fireman
• Shovel
• Chop Wood
• Spear Thrust
• Churn Butter
Finishing Moves (1 set of 15/side)
• Flip the Lever
• Back Scratchers
The name is because I get up two hours early to workout and spend the rest of the time doing housework or schoolwork.
At first I did old-fashioned sit-ups because I skimmed the archive and saw all the posts from people thinking they needed more ab work. I hated them, so I started doing planks. Now that I've done it for a while, I think my core gets enough work from shugging. I think I keep doing them because I grew up old-school Catholic and think suffering is good for you.
Kettlebell swings strengthen my lower back and hamstrings, which helps with my muscle imbalance due to years of bike racing. This keeps my back happy.
The squats hurt, I mean really hurt. I wouldn't do them if I didn't want to race again. I do the first ones as fast as possible, but I slow down, and by the end, as fast as possible is excruciatingly slow. I figure this way I've hit both fast and slow twitch fibers.
Originally I did squats as part of the main circuit, but it felt like I was giving my upper body a rest, then I did them as a mini-circuit with the swings. I finally made them separate to replicate the effort it takes to climb a hill - 2 or 3 minutes will get you up most hills in Minnesota.
I do the shugging with a 12# sledge, I go fast and hard. For motivation I listen to old metal (Ozzy, AC/DC, etc.), if that's not enough I imagine I'm fighting zombies. I wanted to maximize my metabolism, so I limited my main circuit to multi-muscle moves and try to work with zero rest for the whole 14 minutes. I keep a bend in my knees and tighten my abs as I swing, this also keeps my back happy.
Flip the lever used to be in the main circuit, but it seemed superfluous since everything else works the arms. Since they aren't full body, I took them out, but added them back in at the end since I want big biceps. I added backscratchers for balance.
I used to end with a set of push-ups and assisted pull-ups, but I didn't like it and my routine was too long.
My whole routine takes 21-23 minutes. I'd like to get down to 20 minutes, but I don't see anything I want to take out. Besides, this routine seems to be in the sweet spot of being strenuous enough for benefits, but not so hard that I'm not recovered by the next day.
Feel free to critique,
-ted
Ted's Anti-Sloth Workout & my over-thinking
That is a cool routine. I love the kb swings and goblet squats. Huge bang for the buck. For my actual shovelglove routine I do lots and lots of well, shoveling, stoking the fire, driving the fence, axe chops of various types. I also keep a bend in the legs and the abs tight. After the 14 mins of sledgehammer fun I do my push-ups and ab wheel roll-outs. I loath sit-ups.
two wrongs don't make a right.
But three lefts do.
But three lefts do.
Thanks Mattman. I really liked kettlebells when I did them at a studio, but all the twisty movements felt too awkward to do at home, so I just mix in the straight-forward movements.
I tore my rotator cuff about 20 yrs ago when unloaded trucks at UPS and then dislocated that shoulder in a mountain bike race, Flip the Lever is starting to aggravate it, so I'm going to do kettlebell cleans instead.
I tore my rotator cuff about 20 yrs ago when unloaded trucks at UPS and then dislocated that shoulder in a mountain bike race, Flip the Lever is starting to aggravate it, so I'm going to do kettlebell cleans instead.
October workout
This goes against the Shovelglove philosophy (which I think is a good one), but I'm trying to find my maximum daily sustainable workout. This is what I'm doing for October.
I do this circuit twice - it takes 27 or 28 minutes.
Kettlebell Goblet squats (50)
Kettlebell swings (50)
Fireman (all shugging X21)
Shovel
Spear
Chop Wood
Churn Butter
Kettlebell Cleans (12)
Kettlebell Floor Press (6) - I have a wimpy chest.
Spider Planks (20) - I can't quite do these with a full push-up yet.
I tried doing 3 sets with 35X squats/swings and 14X shugging, but it took 33 minutes and it left me wiped out the next day. That extra 5 minutes makes a big difference.
I do this circuit twice - it takes 27 or 28 minutes.
Kettlebell Goblet squats (50)
Kettlebell swings (50)
Fireman (all shugging X21)
Shovel
Spear
Chop Wood
Churn Butter
Kettlebell Cleans (12)
Kettlebell Floor Press (6) - I have a wimpy chest.
Spider Planks (20) - I can't quite do these with a full push-up yet.
I tried doing 3 sets with 35X squats/swings and 14X shugging, but it took 33 minutes and it left me wiped out the next day. That extra 5 minutes makes a big difference.