Shovelglove

Shovelgloving is a form of physical exercise based around use of a sledgehammer that has been wrapped in a sweater or otherwise padded. The shovelglove is used to perform shoveling, butter churning and wood chopping motions, amongst others. These natural movements are intended to be part of a functional training program.

Reinhard Engels, the inventor of Shovelgloving, advocates Shovelgloving for 14 minutes per day.

He explains the rationale for 14 minutes as follows: "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."

He recommends beginners start with less than 14 minutes, however.

Creation

"I didn't want to do sit-ups or pushups. I didn't want to grovel on my stomach on the floor, like some degraded beast. "There must be some kind of movement I can do standing up, with the dignity of a human being," I thought, "some kind of movement that is natural and interesting, that my body would like to do." -Reinhard Engels

Media coverage

Reinhard Engels has been interviewed about Shovelgloving by the Healthy Planet Show broadcast on WAIF 88.3 FM in Cincinnati.

External links

• The Shovelglove Home Page
• "Do it yourself" guide on LifeHacker.com
• New York Times' Freakonomics: "Is This the Future of Home Excercise [sic]?"