Winter arms & core workout - build an igloo!

in OCD4 years ago

I don't need no stinkin' gym membership. Making a snow mountain, sledding track and igloo is a full body workout :) And the bonus is my kids get to have fun on the fruits of my labor!

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@thingone & @thingtwo, kings of the mountain


I have been constructing and maintaining a little sledding hill in the pasture behind our place. I started after a good snowfall by rolling up a bunch of huge snow balls (about 4' in diameter or so) and pushing them together, then packing snow around and on top of them.

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After the initial giant balls phase (hmmm that may not have come out of my mouth right ;) most of the construction has been with bricks of compacted snow. I shovel snow into this blue tub and my big helpers jump up and down inside the tub to pack it down for me. A smaller snow brick like the above probably only weighs about 40 pounds or so, but when I pack the tub full it is heavy.

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@thingtwo particularly likes helping me pack the snow down, I think he enjoys being taller than @thingone :)

Just for fun, I always do a curl up with the tub of snow to chest level and then press it up over my head with arms extended while I walk it back to the snow mountain. I try to do reps of pushing it up and down above my head while I walk, although with the heaviest loads sometimes just holding it above my head is enough of a workout.

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Planking!

The tub is an awkward shape with large diameter and smooth rounded edges even at the bottom. Just picking it up with snow gloves on is a fun challenge! Then I have to put it back down under control to avoid breaking the snow brick up on impact with the ground. I am telling you, this is an amazing full body workout.

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It is pretty cool inside the igloo ;) The sound is muffled and strange, and it is very peaceful to lay back and look out at the snow covered mountainside. I am 5'8" and I can just stretch out head to toe fully inside the igloo.

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Halfway through igloo construction - yes I used the giant balls technique for the base layer of the igloo as well. Giant balls are surprisingly versatile!

One awesome benefit of getting my full body workout in the back pasture with my kids is the breathtaking sunsets we get to enjoy. This is a significant upgrade from the views inside any gym I have ever visited :)

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The sunsets paint the mountains glorious hues of peach and yellow.

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And there is a horse, of course.
dat horse

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And there is a horse, of course.

... and his name was?

actually I don't know the name of that horse, our neighbor has been letting someone keep some horses in the neighboring pasture for the last couple months. Our white dog is really keen on befriending that white horse though and it is pretty cute to see them play through the fence.

Ha, it is pretty cute to see two incredibly different animals playing together! It is a cool looking horse though...

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You will definitely not get the same view or feelings in any gym for sure, this is very enjoying, fun as well as work out.

Yeah we have a ton of fun playing in the snow. Thanks @sanjeevm!

Wow!!! Awesome job on the igloo; Did you know it was going to turn out that size or did it just happen?

Ha that is an awesome GIF. I didn't really plan anything out, just sort of made the igloo :) I realize now looking back at the pictures in this post that I only showed the south and east sides of the snow structure (the igloo is on the east end). Not all of that structure is the igloo. Here is the north side, where you can see two sets of stairs and one of the two sledding tracks (coming straight at the viewer). There is another sledding track going down to the right that you can't really see in this shot, but if you sit at the top of the stairs on the left you can choose to sled down toward the viewer or down to the right. The igloo is at the far left here (looking at its side).
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Haha Crazy size - pretty cool :)

I don't need no stinkin' gym membership.

That's for lazy people.

Good job with the igloo! There result looks really painful... I mean, I can feel how your muscles must be like the next day. :) An awesome scenery indeed for a workout.

Yeah it is funny I have some muscles sore in my wrists and forearms that I am not sure have ever been sore before LOL. This snow structure has been an ongoing project for weeks, I keep adding on new things and the Utah sun slowly melts away other parts, and then I go back and repair the parts that are melting.

Nice captures!

This post has been manually curated by The PhotoStream team: The Photography Tribe!

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Congratulations @carlgnash

Holy shit, that's a glorious Sunset on that mountain indeed! Massive Iglo as well, I envy your kids, they must have had a lot of fun playing and building in the snow! It has been such a long time there was enough snowfall over here to make an Iglo.

It really is fun playing in the snow, I feel pretty blessed that we are able to live comfortably on my wife's salary and I get to spend so much quality time with my kiddos. I am a kept man :)

That sunset, wow!

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 4 years ago  Reveal Comment