Exercises for Digging

FaunalFantasy
FaunalFantasy Posts: 47 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm a small, female archaeologist; and, in my work, it is important to be able to keep up with the guys. Often we are told that we need to be able to dig a certain amount shovel tests or move a certain amount of dirt in a day in order to be rehired for the next project. The company is not going to fire you if you can't keep up, but they won't rehire you. Modern archaeology is a lot more like contract construction than most people would guess. I would like to develop an exercise program to increase my upper body, arm, shoulder, core and back strength so that I can dig faster and better. To give you an idea of what the digging involves, I will give you some examples. We are typically either digging shovel tests or 1mx1m test units. The former involves digging a 50cmx50cm (about 20 inches square) down to a depth of about 3.5ft. You will put about 2 or 4 shovel loads of dirt into a screen, and then you shake this screen back and forth.

Here is an example on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1hkeypawOM

In the 1mx1m (3feet and a few inches) test unit, we do something called shovel scraping where you push the shovel through a thin layer of dirt--the point is only to take off a cm of dirt at a time while keeping the entire unit level. I was able to find an example on youtube for this as well. It's about at about 2:30:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbSHAJXi ... fW5HCiM-mQ

I guess it is like shoveling snow.

Lately I have been focusing on cardio and core, while doing some deltoid raises and lateral dumbbell raises.

Any ideas? I'm a small chick (5'2' and slim), so I really need some help!

Replies

  • fromnebraska
    fromnebraska Posts: 153 Member
    Check this out:

    http://www.shovelglove.com/

    I think it's exactly what you're looking for.
  • minizebu
    minizebu Posts: 2,716 Member
    Bumping, because, yeah…"Shovelgove". Why didn't I think of that?

    Cool.
  • hibou_89
    hibou_89 Posts: 14
    Hi!
    I am also a female archaeologist and rowing has been a great training : most of the work is achieve with the legs, abs and cardio, so is the work with the shovel, bukets and barrels, but it gives you a good training for shoulders too, which can be bad.

    Squats are good for the tighs when you are at a finer part of the work and you obviously can't sit down.

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