Thought Bytes...
Janaury 2005

Shoveling Snow

The pictures on the news of people shovelling their driveways and sidewalks always interest me. (I have never actually seen how I shovel snow, so feel free to critique my postures if you are in the neighbourhood!) The newsreels show people using short handled shovels, long handled shovels, ice chippers, wide blade shovels, bent handled shovels and large scoops. The people using them are bending over grasping the handles down near the blade, then straightening up as they lift and fling the snow onto the top of the pile.

Much of the health focus on shovelling is on the exertion required. Every year we hear about people having heart attacks – the demand for blood to the muscles is more than their circulatory system can bear. Often these people start shovelling after a meal or after a few hours prone on the couch watching a football game. After all, we are supposed to be hibernating, aren’t we?

Though I haven’t heard about it on the news, many people experience muscle soreness after shovelling. Sometimes the soreness is right away, other times it is more noticeable after a day or two. Immediate soreness may indicate a strain. Delayed onset of muscle soreness usually indicates that the muscles have had to develop new fibres in response to the demands placed on it. Micro-tears occur in the muscle to provide a place for the new fibres to develop – this is how muscles grow.

The strains are the ones that concern me, as an Ergonomist. Strains occur when the load placed on the muscle exceeds the tissue tolerance. When I see people bending over to lift massive shovelfuls of snow, I am surprised that it doesn’t happen more often. So, here are my suggestions on how to avoid strains:

• Alternate hands – Try five scoops with the right hand forward and then five scoops with the left hand forward. This will protect your back, shoulders and arms. Continuously keeping the same hand position will over-use the muscles on one side of the body.
• Wear good boots (or get ice grippers) – A firm foundation is essential for any lifting activity. As we are rarely throwing the snow directly forward, there will always be some twisting to the torso. Injuries are sure to happen when there is an unplanned movement of your feet.
• Wear warm mitts or gloves – Mittens are preferred over gloves because your fingers will stay warmer. Try to find mitts or gloves that have leather on the palm. This will improve your grip on the shovel so that you don’t have to work the arm muscles as hard.
• Keep the knees slightly bent – The hip flexors and extensors are designed to move the body up and down, so use them for the action of lifting.
• Firm the abdomen when lifting – This is a bit like applying downward pressure, while still being able to speak and move. Firming the abdomen creates mild intra-abdominal pressure which stabilizes the spine.
• Do not reach lower than the middle of your thigh – Reaching down to the blade of the shovel is a sure indication that you have too much load. This will force you to bend forward and over load the muscles because you are not only lifting the weight of the snow, but also the weight of the torso.
• Grasp the shovel in the middle of the shaft and pivot the load around the grasp point – This is the whole point behind the so-called “ergonomic” shovels. If you use the lower hand as a pivot point for the load, minimal lifting should be required. To do this, you are lifting with the lower hand while actually pushing down slightly with the upper hand.
• Hire a teenager and go to Mexico – this should be self explanatory.

I want to add a quick personal note about the obsession of clearing the snow down to the concrete. As a dog walker, I find that those sidewalks that have not been completely cleared of snow are actually safer to walk on. In Edmonton, where we have had dramatic temperature fluctuations over the last few winters, the fully cleared sidewalks develop a thin layer of ice that you can’t see in the dark. I have never yet fallen on a semi-cleared sidewalk. It may be rougher to walk on, and subsequently that makes me take more care, but I prefer that to having my feet fly out from under me!

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