Make Snow Shoveling A Sport, If You Get The Drift

Snow sports. Let’s see, there’s skiing, snowboarding, sledding, snow s hoveling …

Snow shoveling? You gotta be kidding.

It may not be something you look forward to, but it definitely should be something for which you prepare says Pierre S. Nedelcovych, a doctor in family practice in Reston, Va.

People are shoveling snow wrong, Nedelcovych said. Shoveling ought to be considered a winter sport instead of an occasional annoyance, he said.

“Everybody shovels, (but) there’s no warmup, no stretching,” he said. “A warmup period (similar to preparing for an athletic event) is required, but you will never see that happen.”

Warm, moist heat on the lower back before a shoveling spree will act as a warmup to help loosen the muscle and head off strain, he said.

One good stretching exercise would be to get down in a catlike stance on all fours, arching the back upward, he said. Another has the shoveler on his back with his knees tucked toward his chin, rolling back and forth. A third is the bent-knee partial situp, because the back also is supported by abdominal muscles, the doctor said.

Utilize stronger muscles. Muscles of the legs and hips are stronger than the muscles along the spine, so it makes sense to lift snow by bending and straightening the legs rather than the spine.

What’s more, bending the spine to lift the shovel essentially makes the lower back a fulcrum. And the spinal column, with its web of bones, ligaments and muscles, is a small, complicated structure unsuited for repeated heavy lifting, he said. Ergonomic shovels that encourage the shoveler to stay erect may reduce the chance of injury, he said.

And a smaller shovelful is less wearing.

After shoveling, put an ice pack on the lower back to reduce swelling in tissue.