Tag: shoveling

a photo of a snowy driveway taken from above Christine does NOT recommend the snow shoveling workout.
fitness · functional fitness · nature · winter

Christine does NOT recommend the snow shoveling workout.

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

Sooooo, we’ve been having a bit of snow here in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Well, I can’t speak for the whole province, just for the Easterly island bit where I live but there is A LOT of here.

a photo of the railing from my front steps peeking out of deep snow.
This was the view from my front steps near the end of the storm that plagued us from Saturday afternoon until late Sunday evening. Image description: a nighttime photo of the rails of my front step with snow drifted so high that it covers most of the uprights. there is a piece of a tree sticking sideways of the the snowbank at the based of the steps and in the background the handle of my snow scoop is sticking out of the snow lump that hides my husband’s car. Even more snow, my snow covered truck, and my snowy street can be seen a bit further out.

According to official measurements at St. John’s International Airport, 166.1cm of snow has fallen since February 1, 2026 but different areas in the metro region have probably had more.

Over the course of the month I have had to incorporate snow shoveling into my workout routine pretty regularly – turns out that an hour of snow shoveling is the equivalent of 8kms in my 2026 walking challenge!

Then, last week, things went up a notch when the snowbanks on the side of my driveway got so high that I could no longer shovel snow up there.

NOTE: We only have one ‘side’ of our driveway because our driveway and our neighbour-on-the-left’s driveway is connected and I’m not going to just start dumping snow on their part of our joint driveway.

Then, on the weekend, the day after my husband left on a trip to visit his brother, we had a storm that lasted from Saturday afternoon to Sunday night and dropped a ridiculous amount of snow on us – over 60 cms.

Here’s what my driveway looked like (from my upstairs window) when the storm stopped:

a photo of a snowy driveway taken from above
This was a scary sight on Sunday night. Image description: a top-down photo of my driveway taken from my bedroom window. You can see that in our half of the driveway there are two vehicles. One is mostly covered with a lot of snow on it, next to it and between it and the road. The other is completely covered and the space next to the car and the snowbank is filled almost to the level of the car’s roof. The photo was taken at night and, in the light from the streetlight, you can see all the snow in the middle of my cul-de-sac and in other people’s driveways.

Normally, I am ok with shoveling and I sometimes even like it.

However, I do not enjoy shoveling when there is nowhere to put the snow.

I really tried to throw some up on the bank but half of it would tumble down.

I threw some of it closer to the house.

And I used my scoop to add to the pile of snow in the middle of my cul-de-sac.

After he finished his own driveway, a neighbour used his snowblower to clear along one side of my truck and to clear some of my neighbour-on-the-left’s driveway.

It took over three hours, even with my oldest son’s help (and my neighbour’s help), and every part of it was an exercise in frustration.

There was no satisfying rhythm of shoveling.

There was no sense of accomplishment – I mean, we obviously accomplished something…

A photo of two vehicles in a snowy driveway, one partially excavated and one cleared.
This is my driveway cleared enough for me to get out. You can see that a lot more work is needed though. Image description: a top down view of two vehicles in a driveway. One is cleared off and the other is mostly snow covered. There is a narrow path on the bottom right that goes between the snowbank and the car and there is a shovel and a snow scoop visible in the narrow path. The street beyond is snow covered and there are high snowbanks everywhere including a mound of snow in the middle of the cul-de-sac.

But it wasn’t possible to clear a wide path to the house (see the lower part of the photo, it’s like a roofless tunnel) and, in fact, the path has packed snow at the bottom from us walking on it while trying to shovel so it feels even more annoying.

It wasn’t possible to completely clear or widen the end of the driveway and it is really challenging to back my truck in.

But, clearing all that snow has been a good workout – if you define good as ‘Uses muscles I wasn’t even aware of and leaves me really, really, really tired’ but I do NOT recommend it.

In fact, if you can get away with just doing fun stuff in the snow (skiing, snowshoeing, building forts), I think that would be the best workout plan.

The cursing while you try to shovel snow higher than your head routine is like something an evil fitness influencer would devise to sell to unsuspecting followers.

The only difference between this workout and the one an evil influencer would be trying to sell me on is the fact that I didn’t have to dress up or smile while doing it.

a selfie of me looking grumpy out in the snow
This morning, I went to my Mom’s place (see below) to dig a path to the street for her. Another day, another annoying workout. Image description: a selfie of me in a beige sweater and green toque and glasses, looking disgruntled. In the background there’s a mountain of snow that plows dumped on Mom’s lawn -it’s almost as high as the streetlights.
a photo of a bungalow with a lot of snow in front of it
There was so much snow at Mom’s that it was hard to see her house. Image description: a photo of my Mom’s house taken from across the street. She lives in a blue bungalow and there is a huge mountain of snow on her lawn (put there by a plow) that is higher than her roof. And on the other side you can only see the tops of her windows and door and the peak of her porch roof.
Snow Choice In The Matter
cardio · fitness · winter

Snow Choice In The Matter

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

Sometimes you get to choose how you’ll exercise on a given day and other times your decision is made for you.

Today, after 38cm of snow arrived in blizzard conditions overnight, I had ‘snow’ other option – part of my exercise plan was definitely going to involve shoveling.

For the record, I didn’t have to shovel the whole driveway by myself – everyone chipped in to get it done.

deep snow on front steps and into a driveway where a car and a truck are parked
Yes, I *do* still have holiday lights on my front steps. These things happen. Oh, and yeah, that’s a fair bit of snow down. Image description: a photo looking down my front steps and into my driveway. The snow completely covers the actual risers of my steps and it has drifted halfway up the doors of my grey Mazda 3 and is part way up the tires of my husband’s white truck. The pile of snow plowed into the end of my driveway is level with the truck’s taillights.

From a physical, exercise perspective, I don’t mind shoveling all that much (it’s not a party or anything but it’s not a bad way to get moving) but I do sometimes find it boring.

Usually I will listen to a podcast or something to keep my mind busy while my body works but today I wasn’t really in a podcast-y mood so I relied on my other tricks to make shoveling a little less dull.

These don’t exactly make it exciting but they do break up the monotony a little.

Here’s what I do:

1. Lift with my legs

Yes, that’s standard snow-shoveling advice but in this case I am reeeeeaaaaaalllllly concentrating on it. I am VERY focused on using my leg muscles, pushing down with my feet, drawing strength through my quads…you get the idea.

2. Count shovelfuls

This involves me trying to guess how many shovelfuls of snow are between me and some specific point. ‘I think it will take me 20 shovelfuls to clear my way to the tree.’ There’s no reward except for the fun of being right but it divides the work into a series of tasks instead of the all-or-nothing of the whole driveway.

3. Switch sides

Don’t worry, I’m not siding with evil here! I noticed years ago that, unless I pay attention, I default to shoveling in one particular way and throwing the snow to one particular side. (Perhaps everyone does this? I don’t know, I’ve only ever been me.)

This results in my muscles getting tired in uneven ways and it sometimes makes my back cranky.

So for part of my shoveling process, I will do ten shovelfuls with my right hand on the handle and my left hand closer to the scoop of the shovel, throwing to my right. Then I will move to another position and switch to my left hand on the handle, right hand near the scoop, and start throwing to the left for ten shovelfuls.

This makes me pay attention to which muscles I am using, helps keep me from pushing myself too hard in one direction, and it also helps to make the project feel more manageable.

*****

Even though I had ‘snow’ choice in the matter, as exercise goes, there’s a lot to be said for shoveling.

There’s an external motivator (for safety’s sake, you need at least a path to the street), it really works a lot of muscles, it gets me out into the fresh air, and there is actual tangible evidence of the work that I did.

Sure, it can be monotonous but I can counter that by either listening to a podcast or by working my way through the techniques described above.

Those practices even make the shoveling process a bit more mindful, which is never a bad thing.

I’m still glad that I don’t have to do the whole rigamarole every day though.

PS – Since I didn’t want to get out of my snow clothes while taking a shoveling break, I invited Khalee out in the back yard to goof around for a while. Check out this photo of her in full frolic mode:

a dog frolicking in the snow
Khalee did not get involved in the shoveling process but she *did* zoom around the yard at a ridiculous speed sending snow flying everywhere so her contribution to the process was making me laugh while I took a break. Image description: Khalee, a light-haired dog, zipping along in the deep snow in our yard. She is in the upper left part of the image and the rest of the shot is snow that has been churned up with footprints and her antics. She is mid-gallop here so her front paws are curled and her body is curved and we can mostly see the right side of her face. She looks like she is having fun.