Cleveland · Guide

Lake effect snow is heavier than it looks and it comes all at once

Snow that comes off Lake Erie has picked up moisture on the way, which means it lands heavier than the dry stuff and it lands quickly. A morning that starts clear can need a driveway cleared before work, and that clearing is the heaviest and most awkward lifting a lot of people do all winter.

It is also lifting done cold, in a hurry, before anything has warmed up.

Wet snow weighs far more than you expect

A shovel of dry powder and a shovel of lake effect snow are not the same object. People load the blade by volume out of habit rather than by weight, so the first heavy scoop is often the one that does it.

• Load less per shovelful. Half a blade twice beats a full blade once.
• Push it rather than lifting it wherever the ground allows.
• If you must lift, turn your feet to face where it is going. Lifting and throwing over your shoulder is the exact mechanism that hurts people.

Cold, early, and unwarmed

Most driveway clearing happens within minutes of getting out of bed, at the coldest part of the day, on a body that has not moved yet. That combination is worse than the weight.

Walk the driveway once before you start. It is thirty seconds and it changes what your back is being asked to do.

Do it in passes

Clearing four inches twice is dramatically easier than clearing eight inches once. During a long lake effect event, going out twice is less total work on your back even though it feels like more.

When it is worth talking to somebody

Aching shoulders and lower back for a day or two after a heavy clear is ordinary. Worth a conversation with a qualified provider: pain that came on suddenly mid shovel, anything travelling down a leg, numbness or tingling, or weakness in a leg or foot.

Chest pain, breathlessness or lightheadedness while shovelling is different and needs emergency care, not a chiropractor.

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