I’ve posted on my diet and I’ll give an overview here but what about this bag work? What [...]]]> 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).  

Sorry I’ve been not been posting much but life is really busy. The good news is my average weight now is 219 pounds!

I hope to have the pics this weekend.

Well I have been trying to vary my routine more this year out of the box. I have found that I [...]]]> 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!

Well if you are like many Americans and have a garage, you probably have everything you need to get [...]]]> 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.

Before we launch into this discussion, what does exercise have to do with weight-loss? Not as much as you think in the short term as it is way easier to eat less calories than you need - then to burn off? Given an either/or choice – I would diet to loose weight.

Staying on track here for a moment, there are plenty of reasons to include exercise into a weight loss plan. Exercise has lots of good effects that will help a diet plan increase one’s overall fitness levels. Here is what I think a well balanced fitness plan should include:

• diet (eat a little less calories than your body needs)
• aerobics (low intensity while obese)
• strength building (toning is a great start – light weights – high reps)

The benefits include fat loss, increased cardio-vascular fitness, and increases stamina. But understand that to loose weight – you have to eat less calories than you body needs. Lets get to the gym thing of this post.

I have like many other Americans, spent hundreds of dollars on gym memberships, fitness equipment, videos, and books to loose weight. None of these purchases came with a guarantee and many times the effort and results were short lived.

Here is the straight dope – if you want to loose weight you are going to have to eat less. If you have dieted before, you probably already have an idea of a healthy way to cut out the calories (or whatever your diet measures) so make a plan to do what works for you!

If you pick a way of eating (diet is almost passe nowadays) that works for you and you start losing weight – wouldn’t you want to do something to speed up the results? Yes!!!

Well joining a gym has been traditionally what we have done to use all of the neat equipment (not to mention ogle at all of the hard-bodies). Often times I have thought gyms were a social thing rather than a workout. People dreaming of impressing other people and having a body like that!

News flash: Joining a gym has nothing to do with getting into shape! The desire and persistence has to come from within! If you have it – it won’t make any difference where you go do it. If you agree with me, let me tell you how you can save some bucks this year.

Create a plan that is realistic. Do not commit to losing four pounds a week like some TV shows would have  you believe is possible. Start out slow and find your way of eating that will give you a net caloric deficit.

Walk out to your garage and clean out some room. I am going to show some views of my workout space where I do my low-impact, high-impact, and toning exercise (all of them this last week since it rained so hard).

My kick-boxing bag

As you can see I was able to make lots of room. If you have ever done any kind of boxing, karate, MMA or such you will find a bag a great edition to any home gym. I have got my money’s worth from this bag I bought in 1999. When I was single for a while, the bag resided in my living room. Well now the bag is relaged to my garage but it understands! I still give it plenty of foot time.

Multi function bench

Here is a bench I bought in 2002 on one of my fitness kicks. I used it for a while an then continued to get my money’s worth by collecting dust! How many people buy a weight set only to set it aside in a month or so. Now that I am almost just overweight (that will happen at 220), I have started to split up my cardio workout with some toning. The weight bench is ideal for pecks and tricep dumbbell exercises.

Bench, dumbbells, and my bike (that is collecting dust)

I bought a hard-tail mountain bike (no rear springs) last year and found after going on a bunch of rides – the bumps are too hard on me. I have to take the bike back to the shop to get the gears adjusted (I cannot quite get it perfect) and then I will not ride on the harder trails. I will still use the bike as a change of pace workout but on the streets or fairly flat dirt trails.

Do you see all of those dumbbells? I bought them as dust collectors in 2002 but have put them back into service again.

Here is a side view of my multi use bench

The shelf on the right has my bag gloves and jump rope. You see there is no reason I cannot get an aerobic workout on rainy days.

I like to work the tricepts.

One of the main reasons to use a bench is to do some specialty exercise that are easier to do on a machine like lat pull downs. I like to do flies for my pecks but I don’t use the leg stations too much… my bag workouts and jogging take care of that.

Well there you have it, what I like to do and save some money. For a fraction of what it costs to join a gym – you can get most of the exercises in that you could at a gym. All you need is to be self-motivated. What other real kind of motivation is there really?

So if you have fitness on your mind – you don’t need to join a health club, buy too much extra equipment (even body weight exercise are all you need instead of weights), buy a new book or even watch the latest fitness video. All you have to do is make a commitment, make a plan, don’t over-do it and work your plan to achieve results! And by the way – you can join a gym if you want to but my point is you are the factor that will lead to results – not the fancy gym membership!

Thank you in advance while I try to improve the look and feel of LeanAnMean.com for your browsing pleasure!