What's the deal with different shovels and how can that change my back pain?

With Canadian seasons changing from winter to spring like an alternating current motor, we have been bringing snow shovels to and fro to clean up mother nature’s bounty of slush. On my walk to work, I witnessed many houses that had typical shovels, some that had pushers, and others with ergonomic shovels. Some houses bought plastic, others bought metal and others still bought wood. With such a big business market for the sale of shovels, I wanted to break down the style’s purposes and give “how to lift” knowledge.

The most purchased shovel type is the “all-purpose shovel” with a plastic scoop with a long wooden shaft. It has a straight handle and large plastic scooper. Generally, it is edged with a piece of metal at the blade to help cut through snow and chop ice. Other shovel types include pushers that have a long handle but a much wider blade. This makes them less ideal for scooping and lifting but perfect for plowing lighter snow. The all-metal blades are much shorter and sturdier, thus, great for chopping through ice and grit. A short handled tool also means that your weight is lifted closer to your body which makes it easier to lift heavier snow piles. Alas, the heaviness of a wood and metal shovel make it a nuisance to use for light snow as half of your energy spent is on moving of the tool. Lastly, there are ergonomic shovels which have a typical sized blade but a medium length, curved-shaped handle. Some ergo shovels actually have straight shafts and a second handle. This shape and second handle design is the only real difference between a “typical” shovel and an ergonomic shovel but it has a drastic change in how we lift.

Due to the straight handle, the “typical” shovel is meant to scoop and lift. The unfortunate part of this long shovel is that the physics changes when adding the weight of snow. The amount of force that is required to lift the blade increases if you remain far away from the snow-hauled blade. This is called increasing the ‘moment arm’ and is what causes many people to end up seeing me from a shovelling injury.

The #1 best way to counter the extra strain required to throw the load of snow away is to take a step closer to the blade and reposition your lower hand closer to the blade. You then lift with your larger glutes and thigh muscles instead of your low back (lumbar erectors) and QL (quadratus lumborum) muscles. Keeping your back straight during a lift causes all of these changes at the same time.

Injury prevention #2 is to limit the rotation by throwing the snow in front of you instead of over your shoulder. When we lift and rotate a weight to throw snow, we end up using our trunk rotation muscles. In this case, the most common muscle used and injured is that funny named QL muscle. Your body is incredible at reducing injury, so it will prevent further fatigue or damage by causing tightness and spasm through the rest of the low back. This spasm protects the rotators but drastically reduces your ability to move and flex forward.

An ergonomic shafted shovel reduces the amount of bending from our back. This actually limits the amount of weight that we can lift but in turn reduces low back injuries. In summary, shovels have been designed to function best in particular weather problems of light snow, heavy snow, or ice. You can use any shovel in any weather, but the best way to use a shovel is to reduce your moment arm to the weight that you are lifting and throw in front of you.

Happy lifts, happy backs.

Dr. Cole Maranger, DC