Everyday Systems: shovelglove: message 40 of 649

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Warning: this post is really boring unless you're
actually doing shovelglove yourself (in which case
it's only kind of boring).

At first, I simply tacked them on the end of my
ordinary routine. I'd gotten fast enough that I had
time left over for a short set of each of the three,
but it was tight. 14 reps seemed like an appropriate
number, and that was about all I could manage, both
time wise and (coming at the end of my routine)
exhaustion wise. This is what I still do Monday,
Wednesday, Friday.

But Tuesdays and Thursdays, I go for breadth vs.
depth. Depending on the movement, I do sets of 21, 14,
or 7 (the shovelglove-sacred 14 plus two related lucky
numbers). Arbitrary? Sure, but you gotta choose
something, and they do just fine. I easily have time
to go through them all, and when I repeat, I go down
an increment, so if I did 21 fence posts in round one,
I'll do just 14 in round 2. If I did 14 level flips,
I'll do 7 in round 2. I've never made it to round 3,
but you get the idea. I start the 3 new movements at
21, to compensate for the short shrift they get M-W-F.
And it's probably good to take a break from 16 pounds
x 50 reps that I do on some of the other movements 3
days a week.

I think the 21-14-7 counts, doing the full range of
movements, might be a better place to start for
beginners than what I did at any of the stages of
"shovelglove evolution" listed on the home page. More
interesting, more muscles, and you're probably less
likely to overdo it (and quit).

Reinhard