Here in Northern New England winter weather can be pretty hard to predict.
Truly, regardless of any 10 day forecast, snowfall can come any given day… and be anywhere from one inch to twenty inches any given week between the months of December and March.
And it is with the snow storms that tend to come during this time of year that I am reminded of all the advice I have seen and continue to see about how to survive snow removal, in particular shoveling.
“Use your legs not your back”
“Avoid bending over”
“Don’t twist your spine”
“Brace your core”
“Avoid exerting yourself”
They have shovels that bend half way so you don’t have to bend so far, and they have ones that you just push so you don’t even have to bend over at all.
Good grief…that just takes the fun out it.
Here’s the thing…. although the above is very well-intentioned advice it is neither accurate or helpful.
Your best bet is just to get out there and shovel.
Just go for it.
Take whatever pace you need to in order to maintain some level of dignity, and know that you if you can get your groceries to and from your car without some body part or major organ all out collapsing, then you are probably going to be fine.
That said, there is some simple advice I would give that might make the whole endeavor a bit more enjoyable both during and afterwards for you.
The first would be to shovel both ways. What that means is to shovel half the time with your right hand further down the shovel, and the other half of the time your left hand further down the shovel.
Half the time be sure to throw it to your right, and the other half of the time to your left.
Additionally, half the time you will also want to have your right leg in front of your left, not just your left in front of your right.
You see, internally we asymmetrical as a species, and we tend to have a dominant hand. For 90% of us, this tends to be our right hand. More on this HERE.
However, this asymmetry is designed to be balanced by alternating our movements side to side, and that dominance is only necessary for precise, skilled activity.
Similar to brushing ones teeth, or putting away the dishes… shoveling is neither precise, nor skilled.
So, use your left hand…unless you like getting all knotted up.
The second bit of advice is to not let lifting something heavy or repeatedly be a novelty in your life. If you do strenuous things, and a variety of them both formally and regularly then there will be nothing shocking about shoveling a good dusting of snow.
It will just be a little bit of extra exercise, and that hot cocoa after will be well deserved.
Yes, this is me once again another plug for the value of regular and intentional strength training.
It just makes life easier in many ways.
Now you may recognize the handful of statements I lampooned at the start of the email as general advice that is given commonly by personal trainers, other physical therapists and even the local TV NEWS station.
However, just because it is common does not necessarily mean that it is effective.
You see we are not a very body aware culture, and a great deal of instruction that is given out there when it comes to formal exercise just results making you overly cautious, and even neurotic about moving… and nothing good tends to come of that.
What works much better is if instead of attempting to control the movement consciously, you focus on sensing yourself and what you are intending to do. This allows you to interact and most especially react much more fluidly and ultimately more effectively.
Additionally, this is also a lot more enjoyable than trying to pre-plan every movement you make.
Now, there are three big things that I tend to advise people to focus on in order allow then to effectively sense themselves when doing anything strenuous.
This includes what you do with your feet.
What you do with your gaze.
And what you do with your breath.
If you are in any way curious then feel free to watch the short video below about those exact three things…
If you have any questions about the above, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Regardless, I hope you find the above helpful, and I hope you are comfortable, able and well.