Shoveling snow; why so hard?

[Idaho45guy]

Every winter, you hear the warnings about shoveling snow and how it causes heart attacks in old out of shape guys and to be careful. I always thought those were silly since old out of shape guys should be careful with all physical activity, and not just shoveling snow.

Woke up this morning to about 10" of the stuff and promptly cleared my short walk with no issues...

Attachment 277771

Then drove out to my dad's place and cleared his walk and around his vehicle with no issues.

Returned home and decided to clear out my girlfriend's parking spot, which is about 8' x 20'. I could do maybe 5-6 shovels worth, then have to stop and found myself seriously out of breath with my heart rate off the chart. I'd shovel for about 30 seconds, then have to rest for a couple of minutes. It was weird. Snow was cold and light, so no idea why it was so taxing. I did just get over Covid last week, so might be still suffering the effects of that, but the snow shoveling definitely sneaks up on you. One minute you're fine, and the one too many scoops and you're on the verge of a heart attack. It's weird.

[BigAlofPa.]

Im a heart patient. And i just pace myself. I plow most of our snow. But there is some areas i shovel. My last deer i got. I had my heart rate up high from dragging it out. Chest pain for a week after. Got checked out. I was ok. They said i gave the old ticker a workout.

[VariableRecall]

I live not so far from where you do, and currently the snow over on the Wash/Id border is quite the double whammy of fluffy and wet. It;s a lot heavier than you'd expect and every last scrap of it is going to turn to ice when you're not looking.

What people at my apartment block like to use is leafblowers to blast off walkways but that's not going to help much at the rate that it's coming down.

[CastingFool]

wet snow can be very heavy, and it's difficult to shovel it, due to the weight. It even put a strain on snowblowers. The wet snow plugs up the chute and packs it tight. I have a 9hp double stage blower and when the snow is wet, I have learned to just leave the snow along. You spend a long time unplugging the chute. OTH, if the snow is light and fluffy, I can clear my 100ft driveway and 20ft turn around in about an hour, and the depth of the snow seems to affect how long it takes to blow out the driveway

[rbuck351]

I have a 150 yard driveway so the shovel thing is out. I use a snow blower for the tight spots around the cars and a 1 ton dually with a plow for the rest. I have never met a shovel that I like.

[wch]

When faced with a large meal, take small bites.
Exert yourself, then rest, then back at it, then rest.
There shouldn't be a time limit to accomplish your task, you have the rest of your life to get it done!

[MrWolf]

Snow blower! I have an old MTD that still runs fine. Trick is to do an upgrade to the thrower blades and attach pieces of tire to them. Kinda like a squeegee effect. Throws the snow nice and far. My blower is currently sitting next to my back door with a plug there for the electric start.

[RU shooter]

It's called we're all getting old ! Lol I just turned 52 , I know I can't shove it like I used to I'm strong but outa shape and a smoker to boot . I do a little patch and take a few minute break so some more take a break . My body tells me when to slow down but ya gotta listen to it .

[tdoor4570]

For as much snow we have got this year, I'm going to put my snow shovel on craglist or ebay

[GhostHawk]

Snow blower is indeed the secret. In my case I pay my neighbor who is younger, viking like to blow me out when he blows his.

Costs me less than 300$ a year and I no longer have to dress up, go outside, and slay the dragon. Worth every penny!
Sit inside warm and snug and wait for that sweet roar of a snowblower being run by someone else. Best deal I ever did.

[pastera]

Most of us aren't used to hard physical labor so its easy to overdo things

I do a decent amount of cycling - Once I start bundling up in cold weather my heart rate skyrockets for similar efforts. The effect is much more pronounced than in high heat levels. I ride with a heart rate chest strap on the same routes and see my heart rate max out on efforts that wouln't even have me breathing hard in 70 degree weather.

Once you bundle up you can't get rid of heat but your face, hands and feet are still chilled compared to the rest of your body so you don't feel like you are overheating - this doesn't take long at all when exerting yourself shoveling snow.

Be careful - if you are breathing hard then your heart is most likely beating hard too.

[375supermag]

Hi...
I am very careful about shoveling snow.
66 years old and have survived cancer three times. Missing part of my left lung.
I mostly use the snow blower although this year my son has been doing that.
I mostly just clear off the deck and vehicles.
The last little 3" snowfall was light and fluffy, so I just used the shovel to push it off the driveway before my wife and son got home from work. Did have to actually lift the packed in snow that the plow blocked the end of the driveway with. That didn't do the arthritis in my neck any good at all.

Weather liars are predicting plowable snow here in southcentral Pennsylvania for Wednesday night and Thursday, so we will once more be fighting the elements. Not really looking forward to it.

[DougGuy]

I got allay'all beat! I live where we get very little snow and I don't own or have to look at a shovel!

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

In MN, you can expect 5+ months of snow removal. We get wet heavy stuff and can get lightweight cold stuff. It sticks around and piles up for these 5 months, so what really becomes important is space management for those of us in town with town sized lots and multiple off street parking areas and multiple sidewalks. It's not uncommon for me to have a snow pile near my Garage that is 15 feet high come late winter/early spring

I have shovels, small and large snow blowers, and a ATV with a plow...all get used depending on the type and amount of snow to move. Also, many times over the years when there is large snow totals, in the spring it's common for me to use the snow blower on the garden, to help the Sun get the garden warmed up. When I do that, I always blow the snow toward the base of my fruit trees, in attempt to keep them from blooming too early

[Scrounge]

I live not so far from where you do, and currently the snow over on the Wash/Id border is quite the double whammy of fluffy and wet. It;s a lot heavier than you'd expect and every last scrap of it is going to turn to ice when you're not looking.

What people at my apartment block like to use is leafblowers to blast off walkways but that's not going to help much at the rate that it's coming down.

Let's not forget that a snow shovel is 3 or 4 times as large as a regular shovel, too. Not to mention the heavy and restrictive clothing most folks wear to shovel snow. Makes it easy to over heat the core of your body, while you're still freezing the extremities.

[upr45]

I had covid back in early Nov, although it was a mild case and felt like a cold except for the lack of snot, my tail dragged for about a month or so. Minor physical activities that rarely taxed my system left me occasionally in a dripping sweat, wore out mode, which took a couple of months to quit having those moments. Snow shoveling is kind of almost different each time. I live in an area of the UP of MI that gets way more mild snowfall than those close to Superior. Heavy, wet snow definately leaves me very sweaty and tired, although I use a snowblower for most of the area, however the deck, steps, and close to garage require shoveling. Normally 3-4" or less of powder I prefer to shovel than run the snowblower. Powder snow shoveling to me can be surprisingly exhausting in my opinion due a number of factors: to the heaver clothes (carhart jacket-- I think they make you warm by fighting body movement), wind -- makes the snow have a crust which requires more effort to break thru, poorer traction, muscles are "tighter " in cold weather, etc... It takes me a few minutes to cool down and quit sweating when I do snow removal that takes more than 15-20 min. Also seems like I dehydrate a bit when snow removing, which also contributes to fatigue.

[CastingFool]

Last year, our area experienced much colder than normal weather. I was out clearing the driveway, and it was relatively nice out. I found myself thinking that I was having a really good time. I went and got my multimeter, that can read temp. It was -15° F.

[BJK]

I have heart disease and a triple bypass. For some reason in phase 2 cardiac rehab they warn us to go easy on the arm exercises because it puts lots of strain on the heart. This is long after the surgery has healed so they're not concerned about the pipes leaking but the heart muscle not handling it.

If you breathe hard from normal exertion I'd get checked out. That was one of my signs and I ignored it. After my surgery my blood O2 was much better and that shows itself in not losing my breath as I did before the surgery. What was I like before my extremely mild hear attack? I would lose breath and even breathing deeply and fast wouldn't allow me to get O2 to satisfy my body. My lungs were getting what they needed, but my heart wasn't passing it on to where the oxigenated blood was needed. But the result was that I would breathe like a steam locomotive but it didn't help me catch my breath.

Others have mentioned a snowblower. That was one of the things I bought to clean off our deck. Believe it or not it's a Toro electric. It can't go on the gravel driveway or anywhere that isn't paved or concreted, you get the idea. It's perfect for the deck, is very lightweight and isn't the toy that I thought it would be. Its light weight enough that if I ever need to get it up on the roof I can carry it up a ladder.

Gents, take care of yourselves and don't accept a lack of wind for old age. That's a sign that something is wrong.

Oh yeah, I live in Maine and removing layers as you warm up is mandatory. Many decades ago I would chop wood for a gent who yarded the logs with horses. A real old time operation, except with a chainsaw. There for a time was -30 some odd degrees and the work went on despite the cold. Now understand that when I work hard I heat up and sweat. That even happens at those temps. What must be done is when the heat starts to build one removes layers. After a few minutes I'd be done to my longjohn top and steaming just as much as the horses. When I stopped for a few minutes the layers were put back on so that I wouldn't freeze. But by removing and adding layers as needed my insulation stayed dry and usable and my body heat was handled.

[ktw]

The trick is not to lift it. Been living in big snow country most of my life and we have always used these for moving snow by hand.


-ktw

[memtb]

Many folks are discovering that the snow can’t be removed with a stroke or two on a keyboard! memtb