Have you ever wondered what the panacea of fitness was? Well for me it is bag work! I have the three prongs of fitness in balance right now, you know – diet, exercise and my life in balance.
I’ve posted on my diet and I’ll give an overview here but what about this bag work? What if you don’t like bag work; what will be effective for you? How does one get her or her life in balance? What is the meaning of life?
I will answer three out of four questions in this post (the meaning of life might take a book or two) but will open one view of what a bag workout can entail.
This is a tough issue for me to write about because I’ve known girls and women that have to deal with this. I’m told it is a little like being an alcholic because one never quite recovers.
In this post I will recall my observation and intersperse some video on this topic. I don’t really expect any solutions to come from this post but I hope that some might be interested in what I’ve seen. Here is an overview video to start.
Do you sometimes have the walking blues? I mean do you put the walking shoes on and head out the door wondering why you are doing this? I mean the progress is slow and exercise is a lot of work!
Well I have some good news for you about persistence and my progress but first for those of you with the blues – here is a song by an artist called Roy Rogers (not the singing cowboy) entitled, “Walking Blues.”
I have always endorsed hill running as an easy way to lose weight. The thing I really like as a middle-aged man is I can run slower and get more of a workout!
I have started up my exercise schedule in the last couple of weeks from a few hours a week to about 10 hours a week. Part of this was the realization that I had lost some ground in my weight loss due to a lack or focus. I have since refocused again and I am now splitting up my exercise between mountain biking, bag work, hill running, jogging and some walking.
In this post I’ll talking out the run I love to do a few times a week (and I am about to do after I post this). I’ll intersperse a couple of music videos but first here is a hill running form video.
How many of you have bought a weight loss book or tried the new fad diet going around to lose a few pounds and then at the first sign of trouble in your life – gained it back? Honestly if I’ve had to list all of the bumps in the road (read I am having a speed bump now) in a graph – it would look like the stock market lately.
There is a correlation to depression and weight gain (or loss) in many people. Now depression can be mild and understandable, for instance if one loses a loved one, gets a divorce, or moves away from friends and family. With mild depression one might experience this for a few weeks or months and snap out of it. Now the reason I pointed out mild depressions is to point out that I consider this to be normal. So long as one can still function and come out of it in a reasonable time frame – things will start looking up soon.
Now I don’t have any recommendations (nor am I qualified to) as far as when to seek medical advice – I only can say when I would. If I was unable to function, had sucidal thoughts, or the depression dragged on too long – then yes I would seek medical advice.
I am going to focus on mild depressions that are seemingly linked to weight gain as this is what happens to me off and on. To set the stage check this motivational video out and then we will discuss how this might derail your weight loss plans and some mitigation steps.
This has been a tough month and a half; we are house hunting, the dog died, a little depressed but we are coming out of it. Today is a great day!
As I’m writing this post I’ve just gotten home from work (and Costco) and I’m blasting some Jimmi Hendrex on the PA. I was thinking about being bad tonight as my wife’s sister is having a b-day dinner in old town and my wife is away!
Well you know what they say – watch this video.
Funny huh? Well I ended up buying trout I’m going to BBQ tonight! I’ll cook them up after I got done with a bag workout and have them with a few beers!
I had the oppertunity but not the will to be too bad! Hang in there all – just keep it up even if you end up treading water for a while! TGIF!!!
This last year as been very successful for me as I have had the support of many bloggers out there who have help to crystallize my thoughts and processes for MY weight (read FAT) loss! While most of the blogs have inspired, there have been a few that have resonated with me to rattle my bones. These blogs have used plain English to tweak my current views on diet and/or exercise (the topic of this post). Here is a partial list of my favorites:
I encourage you to find your own favorite blogs so you can “figure out” what works for you! Try these blogs out if you have not seen them before.
In this post I will examine this idea of diet and/or exercise to lose the weight. I mean are they mutually exclusive or is one or the other more important? I will talk about my meandering approach to this over the last couple of years and the answer I have found to work for me. I will also update the first month (of my two month) experiment of journaling my calories and the affect this has had on my weight loss (I’ve reached a new low!). Here is a video about how to create a calorie deficit.
I’ve wrote about this before and even took shots at the idea one has to keep a food log to lose weight. While I think it is a good idea, I also think it is easy to eyeball the food one eats all the time and stay on the straight and narrow [path].
Well lets talk about that for a minute, is eyeballing food as good as keeping a food log? I used to think so but I’ve noticed over the last couple of years that my biggest weight loss has always come when I kept close track of every calorie.
In this post I’ll talk about the value of keeping a food log for a reduced calorie diet. I will point out when it is ok to “eyeball” food to stay on track and how I keep track of my calories. Here is a video that talks about why and how counting calories work.
Have you ever worked yourself into a rut? I mean do you find yourself doing the same aerobic and strength building exercises day in and day out? There is always the danger of an extended plateau!
Well I have been trying to vary my routine more this year out of the box. I have found that I like my jogging a little too much – mostly because I can think while I am doing repetitive exercises; and I love to think.
I’ve probably put in 10 to 14 hours a week over the past few weeks with bag work, jogging, walking and weights. This weekend I introduced a couple of different activities to change things up some. Bicycling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ)!
I pumped out the bicycle tires that had lost air pressure over the last six months and went out on a (albeit muddy) bike ride! Wow that was fun but my butt is sore! I guess I have to work up to time on the bike again.
I decided to take a more active role in martial arts as I have lost 30 pound and I am starting to push the weight loss and diet again. I had to choice of regular karate group class and sparring on the weekends or jumping into a BJJ class on Monday nights. I chose BJJ because I remember how much of a workout wrestling was from my grade school days and I want to gain that skill set.
Well let me tell you that BJJ was everything I expected. It is a lot of work and will take some significant time to get good. I will have to be in great shape (not just round) to hang with these guys so I’ll really enjoy this! I plan on continuing BJJ for the next year or two.
Well that all for this quick update. I hope all is well with your chosen workouts and remember if things get stagnant, figure out what other activities you like and go for it!
Have you had weight-loss and fitness on your mind? Made a New Years resolution to join a gym to take off the inches? Spent hundreds on your down payment to slip into your bikini by Spring break?
Well if you are like many Americans and have a garage, you probably have everything you need to get out of inclement weather and get a good workout! What am I talking about? Surely I am not saying you have to go out an buy all of the equipment that a health club has?
In this post I will discuss why we buy gym memberships in droves every new year and will it work? I’ll show some neat pictures of my newly discovered garage setup (after the Christmas decorations got stowed) and some reasonable methods and expectations for your home gym. Here is idea of what a home gym might contain.
Welcome to the new decade (2010)! I saw an encouraging report here, that stated that while Americans have not gotten skinnier, we have leveled off of the increasing obesity! That is good news!
Starting my third year of recent fitness aspirations, I have high hopes to continue what was successful last year – weight loss! If you click my “Progress” tab at the top you will see a story that showed some success the first year but a total relapse during the end of year holidays. Last year I started from 255 and got down to 228.
Well this is a new year and am starting out at 233 (some bounce ) pun intended
The goals for this year are to buckle back down and get into a groove again. I am adding the wife and pets into my overall plan because we have to support each other. We have started back up with the walking two miles in many evenings.
Further goals are for me to spend more time at the karate school this year, getting into better fighting shape and helping the youngins along and to continue everything last year that worked. This includes jogging, bag work, free weights, walking and perhaps some body surfing (this is kind of a risk as I might be mistaken for a whale in the surf)!
I will still try to update this blog every couple of weeks and visit you all out there in the blogasphere.
I hope the holidays has left you refreshed and ready to accomplish you goals this year!
One of the tools in the boxing/kick-boxing gym is the speed bag. Fighters have used the speed bag but other watching it on the Rocky movies, many people might not understand what it is and why one would want to use it (the speed bag).
My workouts and over all fitness plan is going well! I’ve achieved a new low weight I’ve not seen in a while (226) and I am keeping up with the dumbbell workouts as well as the katas, heavy bag and running. I feel when I start back to my next big push (January 1st), I will be in a good position to make some new gains!
In this post I’ll go over the basics and why the speed bag will help you achieve your fitness goals (assuming some form of pugilism is one of your favorite workouts). Here is a qick video of a gal trying some new speed bag moves.
I was thinking today on my run that I have been thinner longer than I have been fatter. How come my body image is of a fat man rather than a thin man? I mean if I start thinking that I am too thin – won’t that kick-off a eating binge?
It was the weirdest thing at the end of last year when I was falling off of the wagon (the diet and exercise wagon), I knew that I was putting on weight! I remember Muata over at MrLowBodyFat.com telling me that 5 pounds was not too bad – just start doing what I know works. More on that later but here is my reconstructed weight for my life.
I’ve had to be more creative as the garage is full and I cannot get to my weight bench (that has been collecting dust for years). Part of what I’ve been doing this week has been strength training.
I am doing about half body-weight and half dumbbells. In this post I’ll talk about the exercises that are working as well as the cardio and diet. Here is a cool video I found of how to incorporate body weight and dumbbells into a workout.
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