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Yes, running is a repetitive motion and people do get injuries like stress fractures, shin splints and IT band problems from running. The difference is running is a natural motion unlike shoveling snow. I was not referring to level of fitness when I said shoveling snow can cause injury. Shoveling snow over high drifts or piled up snow puts your body in an awkward twisting position. Millions of people have back problems and I'm simply suggesting that this is a good way to injure your back, especially once you get fatigued.
Cardiovascular exercise is not the same for everyone. An elite distance runner does not get any cardiovascular exercise from walking or jogging. This person might run 6 miles at a 6:00 pace on his easy or recovery days.
I've dug French drains with a pick and shovel, and filled them in with gravel. I still managed to get my running and weightlifting workouts in afterward.
If you pushed yourself to the max then you received a good workout.
BTW, my driveway is on a slight grade, which means melting snow tends to run across it and freeze. I've slipped and ended up on my back numerous times while shoveling it. Luckily, I haven't seriously injured anything except my pride.
Ahh, I too, used to be a running/work-out snob in my younger, not so wise days.
While running is indeed natural, running long distances is not. In fact, research shows it to be quite destructive over time. Elite runners are not like the average person. They typically weigh about five pounds. They also get paid very well, because it's their job.
The reasons people "work out" are usually to (a) look good, (2) have bragging rights about their fitness level and (c) to be able to eat what they want and not gain weight (that's a whole other topic)
If, however, someone is looking to achieve overall health and avoid age-related disease, then everyday "natural" movement is what should be done. The more the better. Someone will get injured if they go out and shovel snow once a year. But if you garden, shovel mulch, and continue to do household labor year round, you're no more likely to injure yourself then going for a five mile run or lifting weights.
The fact is, the average person doesn't consider shoveling snow as exercise, and would rather go to a gym and lift weights. Whatever makes a person happy. I love being out in the cold getting what I consider an organic workout. To each his own. Many people also stand still on an escalator. Where common sense tells me to keep moving whenever you can, as much as you can.
Unfortunately, the kids in my neighborhood no longer think of walking as a natural exercise due to the fact that their parents drive them three blocks to school. Sad.
Ahh, I too, used to be a running/work-out snob in my younger, not so wise days.
While running is indeed natural, running long distances is not. In fact, research shows it to be quite destructive over time. Elite runners are not like the average person. They typically weigh about five pounds. They also get paid very well, because it's their job.
The reasons people "work out" are usually to (a) look good, (2) have bragging rights about their fitness level and (c) to be able to eat what they want and not gain weight (that's a whole other topic)
If, however, someone is looking to achieve overall health and avoid age-related disease, then everyday "natural" movement is what should be done. The more the better. Someone will get injured if they go out and shovel snow once a year. But if you garden, shovel mulch, and continue to do household labor year round, you're no more likely to injure yourself then going for a five mile run or lifting weights.
The fact is, the average person doesn't consider shoveling snow as exercise, and would rather go to a gym and lift weights. Whatever makes a person happy. I love being out in the cold getting what I consider an organic workout. To each his own. Many people also stand still on an escalator. Where common sense tells me to keep moving whenever you can, as much as you can.
Unfortunately, the kids in my neighborhood no longer think of walking as a natural exercise due to the fact that their parents drive them three blocks to school. Sad.
So you used to be a running/work-out snob in your younger, not so wise days. So what made you wiser as you grew older? I'm actually about a year older than you and my reasons for working out are it allows me to compete with guys who are 40 years younger.
I agree that running long distances can be destructive over time. I've run three marathons and have no desire to run another one. Training for and racing 5Ks and 10Ks, and even half marathons is a great way to stay in shape. I'm not an elite runner and at 215 lbs., I don't have any aspirations of winning my age group in a race.
I would suggest to you that to achieve overall health and avoid age-related disease, you need to do more than yard work. I can't emphasize enough that they people who drop of a heart attack or stroke are the ones who think they are in good shape and go out and shovel mulch or snow when they haven't been exercising consistently. Nobody does enough yard work or household labor for that to be their sole source of exercise.
Yard work, walking, taking the steps, shoveling snow, etc. are all good forms of supplemental exercise provided you're in shape to do them. Pushing a lawnmower once a week, raking leaves, shoveling snow and other yardwork is just not enough exercise for overall health.
So you used to be a running/work-out snob in your younger, not so wise days. So what made you wiser as you grew older? I'm actually about a year older than you and my reasons for working out are it allows me to compete with guys who are 40 years younger.
I agree that "workout snob" is a strong term. And, since Idiot tells us he's of fairly mature years, no one needs to be giving him the speech about how he'll understand things when he's older and wiser.
However, while we're on the subject of lessons you learn after years of getting exercise, I'll say that something I've learned over the years is to take a relaxed approach about trying to get workouts exactly right. The answer to the OP's question is that of course shoveling counts as exercise, and if it leaves him too little time for his usual workout, he'll be fine. If you think of fitness as a lifelong goal, you could miss a workout altogether, with no physical activity of any sort as a substitute, and you'd be fine.
I wouldn't want anyone to interpret what I just wrote as advice to be lazy and then rationalize that this is okay because you have a relaxed approach. You still need to be diligent about getting regular exercise, but if you think in terms of your whole life, it really doesn't matter if circumstances necessitate an adjustment in schedule, and you don't do exactly the workout you had intended on a given day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by villageidiot1
I would suggest to you that to achieve overall health and avoid age-related disease, you need to do more than yard work. I can't emphasize enough that they people who drop of a heart attack or stroke are the ones who think they are in good shape and go out and shovel mulch or snow when they haven't been exercising consistently. Nobody does enough yard work or household labor for that to be their sole source of exercise.
Yard work, walking, taking the steps, shoveling snow, etc. are all good forms of supplemental exercise provided you're in shape to do them. Pushing a lawnmower once a week, raking leaves, shoveling snow and other yardwork is just not enough exercise for overall health.
Agreed that the routine maintenance people usually do with a typical suburban yard is not enough exercise for serious fitness. However, keep in mind that the OP didn't ask whether he could give up his usual workouts for the rest of the winter and substitute shoveling as his only physical activity. He asked about a single exception to his routine during this one big storm.
Quote:
Originally Posted by villageidiot1
For me, shoveling snow is just a pain that I have to do, like mowing my lawn.
Perfectly all right to have your own preferences, but the OP's question wasn't about whether you, or I, or anyone else on here, dislikes having to shovel snow. It was about whether he'd get enough physical activity this one time so he wouldn't need to feel guilty about skipping his workout. The answer is yes.
In fact, keeping in mind my point above about the scope of your whole life, it wouldn't make a bit of difference in the grand scheme if he got busy with something that wasn't a physical task and missed his workout without substituting any physical activity at all on that one day. You just don't want to make a habit of taking a bunch of days off.
Yes, running is a repetitive motion and people do get injuries like stress fractures, shin splints and IT band problems from running. The difference is running is a natural motion unlike shoveling snow. I was not referring to level of fitness when I said shoveling snow can cause injury. Shoveling snow over high drifts or piled up snow puts your body in an awkward twisting position. Millions of people have back problems and I'm simply suggesting that this is a good way to injure your back, especially once you get fatigued.
Since some posts have moved outside of the OP's question, I'd like to offer a response to the passage quoted here. I have to disagree about whether shoveling is a natural motion. The human body is designed to perform the variety of physical tasks people engaged in when they lived off the land. What we now call "exercise" is just our modern modern substitute, since few of us today make a living through intense physical labor.
Any motion performed during the great variety of physical tasks that humans in the past engaged in for their livelihood is natural, in the sense that it's a movement the body is built to perform. That includes digging and shoveling. If that feels unnatural, the reason most likely is that most of us today don't do enough shoveling for the motion to feel natural.
As for getting injured if you shovel while fatigued, well, that's when you're most likely get hurt performing any physical activity.
I also have to disagree with the notion that the difficulty of pitching snow over a large pile means that shoveling is an inherently unnatural motion. More like, it means you're doing it wrong. If the pile gets too high to comfortably heave the snow that high, that's when, like it or not, you need to do the extra work of shoveling down the pile and spreading some of that snow across the yard, so you won't have to toss the snow so high.
If you force yourself to throw the snow higher and higher and then get hurt, saying this demonstrates that shoveling is an unnatural motion is about like saying that lifting weights is inherently risky and unnatural because you can get hurt if you use incorrect form.
It ends up being a decent legs workout - I don't typically feel it too much in my back and arms the next morning, but I definitely feel it in my thighs and tush!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ogre
. . . I really put my legs into it. And it does leave my legs feeling as if they've had a workout.
Doing all that shoveling because of the storm the OP talked about reminded me that, done with good form, shoveling snow not only works the legs but is also a good ab workout. Also, really putting both your legs and abs into it helps a lot in protecting your back from injury.
So you used to be a running/work-out snob in your younger, not so wise days. So what made you wiser as you grew older? I'm actually about a year older than you and my reasons for working out are it allows me to compete with guys who are 40 years younger.
I agree that running long distances can be destructive over time. I've run three marathons and have no desire to run another one. Training for and racing 5Ks and 10Ks, and even half marathons is a great way to stay in shape. I'm not an elite runner and at 215 lbs., I don't have any aspirations of winning my age group in a race.
I would suggest to you that to achieve overall health and avoid age-related disease, you need to do more than yard work. I can't emphasize enough that they people who drop of a heart attack or stroke are the ones who think they are in good shape and go out and shovel mulch or snow when they haven't been exercising consistently. Nobody does enough yard work or household labor for that to be their sole source of exercise.
Yard work, walking, taking the steps, shoveling snow, etc. are all good forms of supplemental exercise provided you're in shape to do them. Pushing a lawnmower once a week, raking leaves, shoveling snow and other yardwork is just not enough exercise for overall health.
When I lived in the Midwest, I enjoyed shoveling snow for precisely this reason. Not only would I shovel our walk way, I'd do the neighbor's walk way as well.
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