Snow Shoveling - Exercise or Health Risk
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The naysayers are going about this all wrong:
When I spent a few nights at Sahale Glacier Camp, people were doing exactly this. Well, they were burying it instead of building a shelf, but still using what nature provides to keep their drinks chilled. Little bit of outdoor luxury.3 -
NorthCascades wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »I enjoy shoveling snow...but it's kind of a novelty since we only get maybe one or two storms per year blow through town that drop enough snow to warrant shoveling...even then, it's usually no more than a couple of inches.
Love where I live though...we get seasons and plenty of snow in the mountains and northern part of the state...I can hit the slopes in the morning and the links in the afternoon.
Weather is so weird. I'm at 47* N and we get snow (in town) every 2 or 3 years.
Probably elevation...we're over a mile high. We're at a higher elevation than Denver. We'd likely get a lot more snow in town if we weren't protected by the Sandia Mountains...Albuquerque is on the dry side of the mountain...the other side gets a lot more snow and weather in general. We're kind of in this little pocket where weather can be happening all around us, but it's just fine in town. It can make travel interesting sometimes.1 -
I just moved from Ohio to Tucson this year. I didn't mind the snow, I actually liked it most of the time. Hated the rain. I kind of liked to shovel once I got in decent shape. The only thing I minded was the guys that, just as soon as you got everything cleared, snowplowed two feet of ice sheet right at the end of your driveway while clearing your street.
One guy was very nice (the exception) and rolled down his window as I started clearing it that he'd come back and move that ice sheet and he did. I think most of the guys in snow trucks, though, relish the chance to screw with you once you dare think that you're done.3 -
NorthCascades wrote: »nighthawk584 wrote: »Considering last year at this time I was around 80 lbs heavier, snow shoveling should be a breeze and my ticker shouldn't be in so much stress this year! Now watch, I slip and fall and break my neck! Living is a risk.
Not sure if you're aware of Microspikes and Yak Trax, these are like snow chains for your shoes. They go on and off quickly, and give you a lot of purchase on slippery ice. Not terribly expense, especially compared to medical bills.
They're also useful for hiking.
very cool! never knew they existed?
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I kind of enjoy shoveling and tend to break it up into segments by habit. I shovel the walk and the porch as I see my kiddo off to her bus in the morning, and hit up the driveway before I go fetch her after work. My husband works 2nd shift to my first, so he tends to shovel the ice sheet from the plows at the base of the driveway before he leaves for errands at 2pm and again at 4am when he gets home from work. Nothing ever gets too heavy that way, and nobody gets too overwhelmed.
The only thing I resent is the fact that local hardware stores don't seem to sell shovels in February and March when you snap your shovel blade in half before the season is over. They're all "we have lawn mowers and gardening gloves!" and I'm all, "WE HAVE 109 ACCUMULATED INCHES OF SNOW. IT'S GOING TO BE A WHILE BEFORE I CAN SEE MY LAWN. I NEED A SNOW SHOVEL. NO, I DON'T NEED A GARDENING TROWEL."5 -
Shoveling snow can result in fatal heart attacks, back injuries and aggravate respiratory conditions such as asthma and bronchitis.
I have a hard time considering this nefarious activity to be "healthy."
What say you?
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Walking: Exercise or health risk? You can break your ankle, destroy your knees, trip and break your nose, develop asthma, stroke out or drop dead of heart attack from increased blood pressure.
ALL exercise comes with inherent risk, and many forms such as basic home/property upkeep are inevitable. Attempting to rush these activities or not listening to your body’s cues are what create the elevated risk. Neglecting them for fear of risk simply reduces your body’s tolerances.7 -
Wow a quintuple facepalm!1
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unstableunicorn wrote: »Shoveling snow can result in fatal heart attacks, back injuries and aggravate respiratory conditions such as asthma and bronchitis.
I have a hard time considering this nefarious activity to be "healthy."
What say you?
🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
Walking: Exercise or health risk? You can break your ankle, destroy your knees, trip and break your nose, develop asthma, stroke out or drop dead of heart attack from increased blood pressure.
ALL exercise comes with inherent risk, and many forms such as basic home/property upkeep are inevitable. Attempting to rush these activities or not listening to your body’s cues are what create the elevated risk. Neglecting them for fear of risk simply reduces your body’s tolerances.
Yep, be fit for the task, If you can't or don't want to work up to it, hire out.
Pretty simple1 -
Last year my life and body felt so different. Shoveling, along with carrying children around all the time, ruined my shoulder. I was in pain for 5 months after. Now I'm retired(daycare provider), my shoulder has healed, I am eating better and exercising, in other words, taking care of ME now. I cannot wait to add shoveling to my list of daily activities!! Bring it on!! I'm 66 and feel strong, plus I know I can take my time shoveling this year and not watching 6 little children while trying to clear walks and the driveway for parents to arrive.
But as far as the health factor, yes, it can be deadly. I've seen perfectly healthy people drop dead while shoveling due to unknown risk factors. We've all heard stories of high school athletes dying on a field. A phys. ed. teacher from my high school days, big jogger, died while jogging.
Unfortunately, it does happen. The best we can do is stay diligent and in tune with our bodies. PLUS help out your neighbor if they're older and have no one else to do it. Venting here but most of my neighbors have plows or Rangers with plows and do their own driveways. I'd go help my 87 yo neighbor who'd be out there struggling with lifting a shovel of snow and nobody else offered to lift a finger. Argh, used to burn my biscuits!! But then, I remember when another elderly neighbor was out shoveling his driveway(they're gone now
) and I couldn't get out to help at the time. The fire truck had just left my house doing a home daycare inspection, they all got out and pitched in to help my neighbor. Made my heart sing, and so proud of the work these guys do. 
Anyways, just yacking this a.m. Time to get busy now. 1 -
Well if you don't shovel for fear of injury you're just passing that risk on to someone else who has to walk past your house
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psychod787 wrote: »
Look at all that melted snow!1 -
Shoveling snow can result in fatal heart attacks, back injuries and aggravate respiratory conditions such as asthma and bronchitis.
I have a hard time considering this nefarious activity to be "healthy."
What say you?
I have never heard anyone say this is a "healthy" task. Necessary if you want to leave your house, maybe, but never healthy. As with any new activity you should speak with your physician to make sure YOU are healthy enough to perform.4 -
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Shoveling snow can result in fatal heart attacks, back injuries and aggravate respiratory conditions such as asthma and bronchitis.
I have a hard time considering this nefarious activity to be "healthy."
What say you?
I have never heard anyone say this is a "healthy" task. Necessary if you want to leave your house, maybe, but never healthy. As with any new activity you should speak with your physician to make sure YOU are healthy enough to perform.
That's going to get very expensive really quick. Am I fit enough to tie my shoes?2 -
Shoveling snow can result in fatal heart attacks, back injuries and aggravate respiratory conditions such as asthma and bronchitis.
I have a hard time considering this nefarious activity to be "healthy."
What say you?
I have never heard anyone say this is a "healthy" task. Necessary if you want to leave your house, maybe, but never healthy. As with any new activity you should speak with your physician to make sure YOU are healthy enough to perform.
It's just a task. It involves physical activity, and depending on circumstances, that can be a very vigorous, lengthy activity. As with any other physical activity, if a person's health, conditioning, skills and strength are up to the task, it's a "healthy" task.
Now you've heard someone say that, or at least seen someone type that. I think it's a pretty decent workout, but it doesn't always arrive on a convenient schedule . . . and I say that as an over-60 female with probably 1500+ square feet of driveway to shovel (depending on how much guest parking space I want, could be lots more) who lives in a Great Lakes state. We get snow.
People who are not regularly active to the extent of their shoveling needs should probably hire somebody, or get a snowblower, or one of the other solutions above. I agree with checking with one's doctor, if not sure. But let's not over-dramatize. I don't think it's dramatically less healthy than picking rocks (if you know what that is), digging and wheel-barrowing large amounts of soil, and various other stuff that might come up around the home or farm on a periodic basis.
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I'm a healthy, fairly active 56 year old and have cleared my own snow every winter for the last 30+ years. I've pretty much destroyed both rotator cuffs in the process. Hyperextensive joints plus a need to throw snow higher than shoulder height as winter progresses will do that. I've had frostbite more times than I can count, they haven't yet invented mitts that will keep hands warm for an hour at -40. However, they did invent this wonderful machine called a snowblower that comes with heated handgrips, and I acquired one a couple years ago.7
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I remember one of the biggest recent arguments my wife and I got into was over a snow storm last winter and weight of the snow I removed from the driveway.
I remember it was about a 12" snowfall and did some back of the envelope calculations of the area in front of the three car garage. I knew our Mercury Grand Marquis was just under 18' long and I could probably park 2 of them nose to tail on drive from the house to the street. Three cars wide with one 8' and one 16' door put the width as there was space between the doors at 25' wide was a reasonable estimate. So on the order of 36'x25'.
So 1000 square feet was a reasonable estimate once you added the sidewalk to the front door and the sidewalk in front of the house. Since it was about a foot deep, 1000 cubic feet of snow to move. As snow is about 20# a cubic foot, therefore, about 10 tons of snow was moved by hand.
She was like there is no way you moved 10 tons of snow.
Showed her my back of the envelope calculations and that's when the fight broke out
Here is a photo, not of last year, but a few years ago, after the job.
Of course, I'm in shorts, and a t-shirt, standing outside admiring my effort.
It does help give some idea of the area needed to be cleared.
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It all depends on how big you are and your fitness level. I use to know someone in middle school their father died christmas eve. He took a heart attack while he was shoveling. He was a bigger dude. If you are big and need to shovel then best bet is to take breaks. I personally love shovelling. I live in Canada and will throw on my winter hunting gear throw my headset and and go out and shovel the patio. For older/ bigger people I can see it being a health hazard0
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Shoveling snow can result in fatal heart attacks, back injuries and aggravate respiratory conditions such as asthma and bronchitis.
I have a hard time considering this nefarious activity to be "healthy."
What say you?
I know absolutely nothing about snow shovelling and have never done it in my life - not surprising since it never snows where I live.
But your statement applies to any heavy duty excercise- weeding, playing football,hiking, running,weight lifting etc etc.
People can injure themselves, aggravate their respiratory conditions etc -especially if they suddenly take on levels they are not used to.
any sensible recomendations say to start at a low level and build it up - you dont go from couch potato to mountain climbing overnight
The benifits of excercise (whether that be household task excercise, gym excercise, sports excercise) are far better than staying sedentary though.
But of course do it within your capability.
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I just go really slow and don't fill up the shovel (or use a small one). Pick up a little snow, toss it to the side, rest and watch the cats watching me (they often wait for me to clear a path themselves....), shovel a little more etc. No hurry. Go inside if I get too cold and warm up for the next installment.
If the snow isn't packed down, I just leisurely stroll down the walk or on the driveway and kick the snow away in the right direction, using the snow shovel to steady myself (cruddy balance). I just need to make a path for myself and delivery people and sensible friends who all will be wearing boots since it's WINTER, not compete in a perfect complete snow removal marathon. Anybody who expects a path clear enough to walk down in heels can just wait until the Spring thaw to visit.
I use a charcoal/pollen mask rather than a scarf, much better for keeping your lungs and nose nice and warm than a scarf and doesn't interfere with movement. I also put Handeze fingerless gloves on under the regular gloves.2 -
Not to be too serious, but here are the risks involved with shoveling snow (i.e. factors that put more load on the heart):
Upright posture
Cold temperature
High intensity activity
Sudden onset of high intensity (change of activity from sedentary to high exertion w/little or no warmup)
Higher proportion of upper body/arm work
Frequent Valsalva maneuvers (exertion with breath holding)
For someone with no underlying heart disease, these factors, while adding to the overall strenuousness of the activity, are not threatening.
For those with heart disease (and many people have heart disease and don't know it), the effect can be lethal.
Best advice for older, sedentary people: have someone else do it.
Second best advice: buy a snowblower
Third best advice: Start slowly with small amounts and warm up a little; in general, try to move smaller amounts of snow with each shovel; push as much as possible w/out actually lifting and throwing the snow;
Thanks!
I love to shovel, but I am currently under a cardiologist's care for heart palpitations, so I worry a little.
Shoveling can hurt my back, so I do warm up with 10 minutes of foam rolling first - glad to see that has another benefit.
I also take the opportunity while shoveling to think of my dad, now 5 years deceased, who excelled at pacing himself during activities like shoveling.
We have a snowblower, which my OH uses, so I'm only doing the steps and such.
Whoops, meant to post this:
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I got some Sorrel boots like these when I was winter camping in upstate New York and have never fallen in them:
https://smile.amazon.com/Sorel-Bear-Extreme-Black-Quartz/dp/B00HQO8Q1I/
Those are rated to -60 degrees - I think mine are "only" rated to -40 degrees. When I was winter camping, I slept in the inserts.
When I was in the USAF and stationed even father upstate NY, we were issued mukluks and parkas, and that was what I was trying to recreate with the boots with great success.
These mukluks are a heck of a lot cheaper than the Sorrel's on Amazon:
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psychod787 wrote: »
I lived in south Florida for 7 years. I'll take a Massachusetts winter over a FL summer every time!
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Used to be a basic necessity if you wanted to get out of your house. Let's put a "tag" on now!0
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love the cat supervising the snow work photo
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kshama2001 wrote: »I got some Sorrel boots like these when I was winter camping in upstate New York and have never fallen in them:
https://smile.amazon.com/Sorel-Bear-Extreme-Black-Quartz/dp/B00HQO8Q1I/
Those are rated to -60 degrees - I think mine are "only" rated to -40 degrees. When I was winter camping, I slept in the inserts.
I have a pair in that style, also the -40 rating, but in a horrible colour called "mulberry" that is somewhere between burgundy and purple... which explains why I got them on clearance. They're ugly but they've lasted over 20 years so a good investment. 0 -
kshama2001 wrote: »psychod787 wrote: »
I lived in south Florida for 7 years. I'll take a Massachusetts winter over a FL summer every time!
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kshama2001 wrote: »I got some Sorrel boots like these when I was winter camping in upstate New York and have never fallen in them:
https://smile.amazon.com/Sorel-Bear-Extreme-Black-Quartz/dp/B00HQO8Q1I/
Those are rated to -60 degrees - I think mine are "only" rated to -40 degrees. When I was winter camping, I slept in the inserts.
I have a pair in that style, also the -40 rating, but in a horrible colour called "mulberry" that is somewhere between burgundy and purple... which explains why I got them on clearance. They're ugly but they've lasted over 20 years so a good investment.
Growing up in central Alberta, I wore boots like this to school in the winter through all of elementary and most of junior high. High school I rode a bus (VS walking) and got way too "cool" for that.
Mine were always white though. We'd take them off in the entryway and put them on boot racks and then out on our sneakers for inside wear. Everyone's had to be labeled because like 80% of us were in some brand/iteration of this kind of boot.1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_XSrfDDXbY
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