If you live in the mid to the upper United States during the winter, you can almost guarantee that you'll experience a couple of things;
1-That it will be cold.
2-We will spend more time indoors.
3-That you'll experience that pretty white stuff we call snow.
4-You'll have to move the snow by shoveling it.
Okay, I can hear all of your groans from my house about having to get out in the cold and need to clean off your sidewalks. But instead of seeing shoveling snow as a choir, view it as an opportunity to get outside and achieve a total body workout. Studies have shown that heavy snow can be compared to an aerobic exercise or a weight-lifting session when moving wet. The aerobic exercise is similar to running on a treadmill, and you may burn around 200 calories for 30 minutes of work. The action of bracing your muscles and lifting the big white stuff is where the weight lifting comparison comes into play. Shoveling snow will leave you feeling fatigued because of most major muscle groups' engagement in the body. The quadriceps, abdominals, muscles of the back and shoulders are all activated, making this a great workout.
Knowing this, we have to take the approach to properly warm up the body like we would before any physical activity. The warm-up will take a couple of minutes, and you'll feel more alert before stepping outside.
This stimulating of the body before shoveling will significantly reduce the risk of injury.
Here are five dynamic yoga poses to help warm up the body before you shovel.
Standing backslaps for twenty to thirty seconds.
Standing lateral dip five times per side.
Fist of fire lunge five times per side.
Modified twisted warrior five times per side.
5 Standing backbends.
Once you've finished shoveling, it's essential to recover the muscles by doing a cool down. This recovery yoga sequence will decrease the delayed onset of muscle soreness response and realign the body from shoveling snow.
Here are the eight yoga poses to do to assist in your recovery. Do steps one through seven and then repeat the sequence on the other side.
After completing both sides, move on to step eight to the end.
Cat and cow.
Low lunge.
Mini open-hearted warrior.
Half split.
Mini reverse triangle.
Pigeon.
Downward facing dog.
Wrist Stretch.
Modified supine twist.
Corpse.