Most years, winter in the Northeastern United States comes with at least one significant snowfall.
When enough snow falls, you’ll likely need to shovel it. And someone will inevitably throw out their back in the process.
That person doesn’t have to be you.
In fact, if done with intention and care, shoveling snow can be a form of exercise that feels invigorating.
You’re outside in fresh air, moving your body, and you get the satisfaction of completing a project — which provides its own dopamine boost.
You might already know to “lift with your legs.”
Here are some other tips to help you use shoveling as a workout without throwing your back out.
(1) Start With a Warm-Up
Most people who get hurt shoveling skip this step.
Shoveling snow is a full-body workout that involves most of the major movement categories: hinges, lunges, squats, pulls, pushes, carries, and rotations.
Give it the same respect that you’d give any full body workout.
Before you go outside, spend 10 to 15 minutes doing a dynamic warm-up. If you have a standard warm-up ritual, do that.
Throw in some workout-specific movements such as lunges, air squats, and shoulder mobility.
Once you get outside, ease in.
Start with something simple like the front steps or a small walkway before you tackle bigger areas like the driveway.
(2) Know What You’re Dealing With
You’d never walk up to a barbell and just lift it or squat it without knowing the load on the bar.
The same principle applies to shoveling.
A light powder is going to feel a lot different from a wet and dense snow.
The challenge with shoveling is that the weight you load on the “bar” — the shovel — can be different for every “rep” depending on how much you try to scoop at once.
That requires your nervous system to constantly adapt. This can actually improve your strength and resilience, but it can also increase the chance of injury. If you’re not paying attention to the load, your system might get shocked by a heavy lift, which will cause it to seize up to protect itself.
It’s vital to know the material you’re working with.
Before you load up your shovel or start pushing a plow shovel down a long path, test a few scoops with less volume to gauge how dense and heavy the snow is.
Get a feel for the weight of the snow and manage the loads accordingly.
(3) Have a Strategy
Shoveling a big driveway is like doing a “chipper” workout. It’s a high volume workout that requires a strategic approach.
How will you break up the reps? How will you attack this to get it done most effectively? What movements will work best?
I like to start by shoveling a perimeter around the outer edge. Then, if the snow is light enough I can use a “sled push” technique to push the snow across the driveway and scoop it onto the grass.
Where I can’t push, I need to scoop and carry. Sometimes I scoop in a lunge position, switching legs. Other times I’ll scoop in a squat position, using the shovel as a goblet squat.
Varying the movements helps keep me from overdoing one type of movement. I avoid overtaxing any one muscle group.
(4) Take Breaks
Depending on how large an area you need to shovel, or the weather conditions, you might need to take an actual rest break where you come inside to refuel and warm up.
But even within your shoveling, you can take mini breaks to ease your load. Think of it like a superset in a workout — a different stimulus to give your body a rest from the main lift.
After doing several “big lifts,” I like to go back over an area I just cleared to get the little remnants. It keeps me moving with a minimal load so I can refresh for the next section.
(5) Know When to Ask For Help
Big things are meant to be accomplished with support. Before I attempt a heavy lift in the gym, I seek out a coach to ask for a spot.
When the shoveling gets to be too much, ask for help. Recruit a friend to come over and split the load with you. Or hire a local kid to help you finish the job.
You don’t need to be the hero who does it all alone.
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