Shoveling SNOW

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Replies

  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
    edited January 2016
    Sweating and DOMS my not be an indicator of calorie expenditure, but that doesn't mean that shoveling isn't/can't be an extremely strenuous activity. I have replaced my daily run to the gym in place of shoveling as the workout and subsequent burn can be quite similar, if not more in some cases.

    Does this mean I shouldn't log shoveling, but should log the gym for similar burns?

    Logging every life event....man, how much do you shovel? I though we got a lot of snow in MN, guess not.....thank goodness it only takes about 30 seconds to add....kind of like going logging a gym workout.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    edited January 2016
    i mean seriously, people die shoveling because their hearts give out.
    shoveling is exercise and to do it you should have proper form to minimize injury
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
    Warchortle wrote: »
    I'm pretty sure the DC/VA/MD area gets snow. I don't find it healthy to try to micro-manage your daily activity. Sweating just like DOMS is not an indication of expenditure of calories.

    I'm not saying that shoveling ISN'T exercise, but are you going to log everything for the rest of your life? Are you going to log sex, walking to the metro, cleaning the leaves out of the roof gutter? I've been on MFP long enough to see multiple threads of users asking if vacuuming is considered exercise.

    I've had my share of waking up at during the night to shovel snow otherwise it would get too high to get out of the door. I think people are so "gung-ho" about logging when they're still motivated, but it's been proven that motivation/willpower is a resource that actually depletes throughout the day. I just don't think logging every little life event is worth the mental resources that someone could be spending elsewhere. I mean if it's effortless like you're wearing a watch or band that syncs it for you, but trying to constantly guess calories burned seems like a waste of time.

    Not by any standards from further north. If I lived down there I would never shovel. We get 9x as much on average, and DC's twice a decade storms are at least once a year around here. 12" isn't enough to shovel for if its going to melt a few days later, but it is if its not going to melt and we're going to get another couple inches of lake effect the next day.

    Also, stop making this an all or nothing argument. It is a fallacy. I can log shoveling snow without having to log everything else I do. Just like I can log running without logging everything else I do.

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