Tue, Apr-22-08, 18:20
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Senior Member
Posts: 863
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Plan: Atkins-ish/IF-ish
Stats: 385/278/180
BF:something, maybe
Progress: 52%
Location: MN
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I've been exercising...some. I just haven't been so good about posting.
Today I got on the rebounder this morning for 10 minutes...intervals of jumping and jog/bouncing.
I also did 3 sets of 10 wall pushups.
At work today I worked off some stress by doing ledge pushups, 3 sets of 10. I wish I had something more stable to use as a ledge at home...maybe I'll try the staircase tomorrow.
I was looking at Mistress Krista's site this morning and came across the Shovelglove. Something about the simplicity and functional nature, as well as the sense of offbeat humor, of it appealed to me. I went out and picked up an 8 lb sledgehammer. I did 6 minutes (I'll be working my way up to 14 minutes, following the SG philosphy) this afternoon...shoveling, stoke the fire, churn the butter, tucking hay bales, flip the lever, ab killer & the fireman. The sequence worked out to basically 1 set of 10 reps each (side) for each exercise. I feel it, but I don't feel strained or overworked...I think I can add another set on Thursday.
My plan is to alternate shovelglove and kettlebell for three days each per week. One day totally off. The SG works a lot of core and upper body, while KB works a lot of core and lower body, so I think they complement each other. No more than 14 minutes for either workout, though.
Reinhardt Engles (the Shovelglove inventor) explains the philosophy thusly:
Quote:
You guessed it, 14 is a significant number. Why? Because it's one minute less than the smallest unit of schedulistically significant time. No calendar has a finer granularity than 15 minutes. No one ever has a meeting that starts at 5 or 10 or 14 minutes before or after the hour. You have no excuse not to do this. Time-wise, it doesn't even register.
Yet it is just long enough to give some aerobic benefit. Yes, half an hour would be better. An hour would be even better. But guess what? You won't do it. You might do it for 3 weeks, or maybe even 3 months, but you'll start to resent it and you'll quit. Do it for 14 minutes and you'll do it for a lifetime.
Respect the timer. When it goes off, you stop. It doesn't matter if you have a few reps left in your set. The sets and reps are just guidelines, the timer is the only hard parameter. Don't feel like you are doing something good, something extra, by continuing. You're just establishing a dangerous precedent which will make you that much less likely to start shovelgloving again the next time. By dragging the routine into schedulistic significance, you are just setting yourself up with a good excuse to skip it.
You are doing this for the long run. The goal is to form a lifelong habit, not to burn a few extra calories today. 14 minutes is habit friendly, and excuse proof. And 14 minutes will burn enough calories, build enough muscle, for long term health.
Don't look at the timer, that will drive you crazy. Just wait for the beep to go off. Extending the labor metaphor, think of it as the overseer's whistle.
Not exercising on weekends and holidays has several benefits. Your body needs rest. You get to enjoy your time off. And you're much less likely to take trips that interfere with your exercise schedule. It'll still happen, but (unless you travel a lot for business) less frequently. And who is really going to exercise on Christmas or Thanksgivings (or your religio-cultural equivalents)? You might as well make it official and spare yourself needless guilt.
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Practical, sensible and with a dose of down to earth humor. Works for me. We'll see how it goes.
Last edited by oakdryad : Wed, Apr-23-08 at 01:42.
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