Bag Work for Weight Loss & Fitness!

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.

Did you notice the guy was trying stuff in his kicking drills? That is what I do when I kick the bag. I might start out with side kick – back knuckle combos and work my way into back leg wheel kick-elbow combos. Whatever I can think of or need to work on is how I arrange the kicking drills.

I have been doing more kicking drills on the bag since I broke my right wrist last a couple of times in the last year. I used to punch too hard on the bag without adequately wrapping my hands so I’ve had to do more kicking drills.

My mountain bike broke an axle a few weeks ago so lately I’ve been doing some walk/jogs and kicking drills mostly. Most people I know have had some martial arts training as a kid or young adult so all one has to do is try to do combinations on the bag with 1/4 or 1/2 power. No need to try and kill the bag but you will get more out of it if you work on stuff while getting a good workout!

What if you were not so exposed to martial arts? I’d suggest you look at the sports or outdoor activities you did do as a youth and try to recapture some of that! Yes everyone liked to do something so if you want to transition to a low to moderate level of fitness into old age – you will have to recapture some of that (and achieve one prong of a healthy lifestyle).

The bag is a perfect workout because one can create the workout depending on the goal. For me I tend to kick and punch the bag for 30 minutes a shot and really focus on keeping my pace steady. If things start getting too easy, I increase the amount of kicks to hands. At the end of the workout I am drenched in sweat and then I start cooling down with stretches.

I use a water filled bag similar to the one in this video because it is cheap and moves around a bit. It is really easy to do drills down the garage floor. I can think of a workout and be doing it in five minutes – as long as it takes me to get into my shorts and sneakers and walk out into the garage. No time wasted driving to my workout area.

One can strike a balance with consistent workouts, moderate calorie diet (read a lifestyle commitment) and if one also focuses on stress reduction – he or she can lose weight and be fit!

I hope you have enjoyed a glimpse of how you can help your fitness goals along by making exercise something easy and fun – that you have done in the past! You will find it is easier to commit to a state of well being if you are able to work exercise into your meaning of life (you see – I was able to touch on this).