There Are No Olympic Gold Medals In Snow Shoveling

Let's start this one with a simple question: Would you step out of your house, then try to run at a full sprint for a mile -- even if you're not in good enough shape to even walk a mile?

Well, that's precisely what many folks do physically when the snowflakes fly. They grab a shovel and start lifting and heaving as if someone has a stopwatch timing them. No warmup. No breaks. Lots of hurt.

Let's put some heart into this first.

Heart attacks account for about 8 percent of snow shoveling injuries, so it's not the most common shoveling injury, but certainly the scariest. That attack can take place from within the first five minutes of throwing snow to hours after you are done. You simply cannot go from couch potato to the world's strongest human show removal machine.

As you might imagine, back injuries rank first. Lift, twist, throw. Your spine was not made for that evil triad. Back injuries usually hit early in your snow clearing efforts.

Then come the spills. We see a lot of people who take a digger when out clearing a walk, and it's a crapshoot as to which part of the body will smack the ground first. Even though spills can happen at any time, the most common time to skid is when you are finished. The path is still a little slick, and your body is dead tired so it won't support you when you need it most. (Just like most ski injuries happen at the end of the day.)

So besides paying the neighbor kids to do the heavy lifting, what can you do if you're like me and keep on saying I sure will buy that snow blower next year?

First off, warm up. Not stretch. But warm up. The first 10 minutes of shoveling should be half loads.

Push the shovel as much as possible -- avoid the lifting. But if you've got to lift, use those quads -- don't bend at the waist.

And if you have to toss the snow to the side, turn your whole body. Don't twist (unless you like back spasms).

I'm not even going to go down the road of "walk like a duck" -- you know you don't have good footing in slick weather even with great boots. Take it slow and wide.

Then think of what you'd do in the summer. You'd take breaks in hot weather, so do it in cold. Plus, you'd be guzzling fluids. Do that now, too. Yes, you can get dehydrated with all that hard work in freezing temps.

Finally, be a kind person all year. Then you will be well liked ... and might be able to get those neighbor kids to give you a hand when the flakes are flying.

Hope I don't get to see you in the ER the next couple days. Happy shoveling.