How to Shovel Snow and Three Other Ways to Survive Winter (Part 1)

Having spent the last thirteen years seeing a couple of hundred patients a day, I’ve pretty much seen and heard it all.  Although the lay population finds new and interesting ways to hurt themselves every year, some crowd favorites clearly rise to the top.   I resist writing posts like this for fear that I am reinforcing the false popular notion that chiropractic care is for “people with bad backs.”  However, I do recognize that there is a growing population of better-informed people who sincerely want to learn more about curbing the likelihood of joining the masses sidelined by low-back injury.

Here is a quick survival guide for those of us who are fortunate enough to live at a latitude that seems to mock the global warming projections.

How to shovel snow:

• Practice the 2015 Technique.  Find a 15 year old, and give them $20 to do it for you.
• If this is not possible, follow these rules:

1. Warm-up for fifteen minutes before you begin (see Rule of Fifteens). Never exert yourself without sufficiently warming up – go for a walk, jump on the treadmill, do 50 burpees…whatever.  Never shovel “cold” (pun intended).
2. Walk quietly and carry a small shovel:  Using a smaller shovel will reduce load and strain, and prevent the terrible.  The shoveling position puts your spine at risk by nature of mechanics (your discs hate the coupled motions or combination of rotation, flexion and lateral flexion).  The last thing that you should do is put a heavy weight at the end of a long stick, twist and try to throw it.  Paraphrasing Bill Clinton’s infamous comment on the economy:  “It’s physics, stupid.”
3. Keep it below the belt.  Good shoveling form takes place below the belt.  Think of shoveling as a highly dynamic deadlift.  Start with your feet.  When you shovel, stay on your heels.  Keep your lower back flat (in extension) to keep your posterior chain engaged (read:  your hamstrings and buttocks).  Always point your feet where your hands are working.  Never twist; move your feet instead.  When you exert yourself, engage your core muscles.  Find these by imagining someone punching you in the belly.  Inhale and hold your air as you lift or toss, tightening those core muscles.  
4. Ice when you are finished.  There is no excuse – there is always plenty of ice around if you are shoveling snow.  Ice is God’s anti-inflammatory.  It’s free and readily available – and as long as you don’t put it directly on the skin or use it for more than 20 minutes, there are no side effects.  No one has ever gotten a bleeding ulcer from using ice.  90,000 Americans a year cannot say the same thing about ibuprofen.  Stop.  Think.  Ice. 
5. See your chiropractor regularly.  Adjustments are preparatory, not custodial.  Yes, it is wise to get your spine checked after any physical stress or trauma, but a more effective strategy is to get adjusted before strenuous activity.  Think about it.  Spinal Subluxations are weak links in your structure.  You are much less likely to experience an injury without a pre-existing weakness.  I’m just sayin’…

From the Department of Silver Linings:  this activity burns approximately 395 calories per hour for an average, 145-pound person! One easy way to estimate how much energy is required to perform certain tasks is by expressing the measurement as a MET or multiples of your resting metabolism.  Moderately difficult activities, such as shoveling snow, require 3 to 6 METS, or 3.5 to 7 calories per kilogram of body weight per minute (Livestrong.com).

Stay tuned for Doc’s Winter Survival Guide, Parts 2 and 3 in upcoming blog posts.

Now go book that vacation.

In Health,

Dr. Stephen Franson