By contrast, Walden's shovel has a ring-shaped structure in the middle of its reinforced fiberglass shaft, that contains an integrated composite handle that can be rotated 360 degrees.

Without a secondary handle, straight-shaft shovels are tough on the back. With the shorter models, the tallest testers had to bend over to at least 90 degrees at the waist just to load a scoop.

Buy a shovel with an adjustable handle, or try it out in the store first. The blade should touch the ground with just a slight bend in your knees and without you having to lean too far forward.

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A shovel with a huge blade may look like it will get the job done faster, but all that extra snow is a lot of extra weight to be pushing around. A shovel with a curved handle offers better ...