What do you recommend for beginners?

[Schnebit]

Hi Reinhard, I came across the below on the Shovelglove site:

5b (T-Th) 25+ Driving Fence Posts: 21
Churning Butter: 21
Shoveling: 21
No Name: 14
Chopping Wood: 21
Hoist the Sack: 14
Stoke the oven: 21
Tuck the bales: 21

Repeat but with fewer reps. The rule is: if you did 21 last time, do 14 this time, if 14, 7, if 7, just skip it. I call this the 21-14-7 routine. It's what I recommended for beginners. Freestyle at any point.

Do you recommend that we apply this rule just on T-Th, or every day?

Thanks!

Jim

[reinhard]

I think for beginners that routine makes sense to do every day (as a default, you could always do something else if the spirit moves you). You might also want to throw in some of the other standard moves that have been added since then, like the fireman and chop the tree. Possible also degraded beast and fertilize the fields.

Another good beginner routine (maybe even better) would be just 7 of each move, cycling around again when you get through them all. That lets you get a real feel for each of the moves before going nuts and possibly overdoing it.

I go into this in a little more detail on the movements page:

http://www.shovelglove.com/movements/

Doing *something* for the 14 minutes (and doing it carefully) is far more important than which precise moves or how many reps and sets. But low rep counts are probably safer, so be prudent and start with a relatively low factor of 7.

Reinhard

[Mr_B]

Hi Schnebit,

My 2c would be to start on just doings 7 reps of each exercise to get into the rythm of the movement. Then you can up the reps to 14, 21 or as your body dictates.

Think of this as playing the long game - one week here or there of low reps is nothing when you think that the idea is that you do these exercises, in one form or another, for the rest of your life...

I recently took a couple of weeks off to rest up my elbow. When I started up again I did a week of just 7 reps of each exercise in my normal routine. The next week I stuck to just 14 reps. Then the following week 7 -14 and then 7, 14, 21 or until the 14 minute timer goes PING!

I do my shovelgloving at 06:15-06:29 in the morning, so I never vary the routine. The originality and creativity nodes of my brain don't come online until much later and I find this is easier to do, rather than thinking about what to do next. Before you know it, you are in a lather and the timer is calling time.

I hope this helps - but the best thing of all is to do what you enjoy. There are no rules!

Good luck, and happy shovelgloving!

Rich

PS For the record I do the following:

Shovel: 7-21-14
Churn butter:7-21-14
Stoke the oven:7-21-14
Flip the lever:7-7-7
Side lifts:7-21-14
Hoist the Sack:0-21-0

I also do some post exercise stretches to loosen my hamstrings and lower back.