Shovelglove!

About a year ago while doing some research about kettlebells I stumbled across an ingenious invention. The shovelglove. If you want to talk about functional fitness this is functional fitness meets MacGyver.

It all started with a fella who was a bit out of shape, but lacking the motivation to leave the house and go somewhere to exercise. Nevertheless his desire to get his butt back in gear overcame the exercise inertia that had him sitting around and he devised shovelglove. Here's a little excerpt of his story...

"I wanted an exercise I could do right there, in my bedroom, without any fancy equipment.

But I didn't want to do sit-ups or pushups. I didn't want to grovel on my stomach on the floor, like some degraded beast. "There must be some kind of movement I can do standing up, with the dignity of a human being," I thought, "some kind of movement that is natural and interesting, that my body would like to do."

I started making all kinds of spastic movements, hoping to come across something that resonated. I remembered reading something in some French novel about coal shovelers having the best abdominal muscles of anyone the author had ever seen. I started making shoveling motions.

Now there are a few problems with shoveling, from an exercise perspective. For one, if I actually went outside and started shoveling, I'd get all wet (remember, it's raining). The neighbors would think I was crazy, and if I did it at the wrong time I'd actually annoy them. I'd also have to have something to shovel, a waste of space, at least (our backyard is more of back alley). So outdoors is out. But I couldn't really shovel indoors, either. Even if I just did a pantomime with a shovel, I'd need some kind of weight to move, and I'd need some way of keeping it from scratching the floors or killing the cats."

And out of such turmoil and chaos came the shovelglove. Of course if you want to learn more you'll have to visit the website. (By the way, his website is considerably more enjoyable reading than just about anything else you'll waste 5 minutes on today so it's worth a peek.)

A shovelglove then, is just a sledgehammer with the head wrapped in a sweater or towel so that you don't brain yourself or scratch up the floors. The idea behind it is to mimic movements you might otherwise do in "real life" like shoveling, chopping wood, lifting luggage etc. It's really not unlike the new clubbells that are out and being used by the kettlebell types. By doing swinging motions with a free weight that has a center of gravity away from your body it engages several muscles involved in range of motion and works more than just a single muscle group at a time; the same concept that has made kettlebells so popular and effective.

I have yet to try it. My beautiful wife is a little skeptical that I won't wind up putting a whole in the wall...or ceiling...or my face. However, the idea sounds great and I'm confident that my powers of persuasion will win out sooner or later.

While you may not be signing up for a shovelglove class at the local gym anytime soon this shovelglove fella may just be on to something. He even has his own YouTube Channel.

Dare I say, "try it?"