Arizona Personal Trainer Shares 5 No-Injury Snow Shoveling Tips

It’s January, and although we don’t see much snow in the Phoenix area, northern Arizona is a winter wonderland this time of year. This has everyone heading to the ski slopes, and while the winters can a fun time, it can be a dangerous time for your body, especially if you have to shovel out from under a blanket of the cool white stuff.

So if you are heading up to the high country or have family and friends in other snowy parts of the country, you might want to check out some my “safe-shoveling” secrets. Even for those who live in a climate that doesn’t usually see snow, you need to listen up. Why? Did you see Las Vegas snow storm in December? Snow in Vegas? Yup, it shut down the airport and took everyone by surprise. Just be prepared no matter where you live and you’ll be all the better for it!

So let’s get into it:

1.) Perform a Proper 5-Minute Warm-up Before Shoveling

Just as very few people properly warm-up before intense exercises, so do many people fail to get their bodies ready for the rigors of shoveling snow. Let’s face it, snow, especially when it’s wet, is a real workout to start moving around.  So goes with physical exercise, if your body is not properly warmed up and prepared for action, you could be setting yourself up for immediate or long time injury. Plain and simple.

I have created a great shoveling specific five-minute warm-up to get your body ready to rock. There is a special emphasis on opening up the hips and chest to save your back and shoulders, the two most commonly injured areas of broken down snow shovelers:

Perform each exercise in the following warm-up circuit at a slow, controlled tempo for 50 seconds with a 10 second rest and transition between exercises. Do this warm-up indoors to better increase core temperature and total body blood flow:

Exercise#1- Stationary High Knee Run

Exercise#2- Jumping Claps (modified jumping jacks with arms moving across chest level, palms facing)

Exercise#3- Alternating Forward Lunge, Overhead Reach, and Twist

Exercise#4- Alternating Lateral Lunge with Opposite Hand to Toe Touch

Exercise#5- Prisoner Squats (hands behind head with finger interlocked)

2.) Shift and Split Your Stance When Shoveling

Back pain is probably the biggest complaint for avid shovelers. In most cases, a sore or tight back stems from restriction at the hips (see the warm-up above to best remedy this). More specifically, using a parallel stance puts your lower back at a greater risk of injury due to the greater likelihood of excessive flexion of the lumbar spine that often leads to back spasms in the short run and herniated discs in the long run. However, the simple switch to shoveling with a split stance, where one leg is forward and the other leg is back, will not only help prevent this hyper flexion while bending over and moving snow, but will also actively stretch and open up those tight hips at the same time. Be sure to keep things in balance by doing an even number of shovel strokes with both legs forward by alternating every 10 reps or so.

3.) Point Your Toes In Same Direction of Shoveling

This is actually part 2 of the last tip. Even when you shift your feet your stance, you can be setting yourself up for injury whenever you perform a rotating back extension (e.g. a shovel toss to your rear). So, to further bolster your body, be sure to always shovel snow in the direction that your toes point to minimize too much torso rotation that can often wrench your back, cause immediate pain and/or pinched nerves.

4.) Shovel EQUALLY to BOTH Sides

Another big mistake people make is that they always shovel to their strong sides causing further unbalanced strength and flexibility issues that can put your body at greater risk for injury. I hear people in our boot camp say “this side seems stronger than the other”. That’s muscle imbalance. So, while splitting your stance, pointing your toes in the shoveling direction, you should make regular shifts to each side.  I’m talking equal snow tosses, here.  Do 10 shovel tosses to your left with your left leg forward and then do 10 shovel tosses to your right with your right leg forward.

5.) Move to Phoenix

This is my personal favorite, and no, I’m not joking. I grew up in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Trust me, I know snow. In fact, I delivered newspapers for 2 full winters as a young boy, so again, I know snow. It’s not all that fun dragging 20 pounds of periodicals through waist deep snow drifts in zero degree weather. In 1986, our family decided enough was enough and that we had our fill of the bone-chilling snow and moved to Phoenix, and I haven’t seen a snow drift since…except for on TV. 

But seriously folks, take a little time and do a proper warm up, use the proper techniques and keep yourself (and your back) safe when movin’ and grovin’ in the snow!

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