I bought a punching bag

Latest physical conditioning idea - punching bag. I bought a water filled bag and hung it up downstairs. Excellent purchase, I just need to get in the habit of actually using it.

It is a great upper body workout - not just arms, but trunk/abs as well. I've got an orange belt in Shotokan Karate, so the punching is fairly straightforward for me. What was most interesting though, was how tiring the workout was. After five minutes, I'm zapped.

Most of the workouts I have found on the internet suggest 1-2 minutes of punching followed by 30-60 seconds (or longer) of rest. This is primarily because it is an anaerobic kind of workout. Arm muscles fatigue too fast to keep going :).

With my stiff hips, I haven't been able to try out much in kicks. Side kicks, I just can't get that high. Front kicks work (barely:), so I may integrate them into the workout over time.

Getting ready to run

My last blog, I noted how I had been too focussed on calories and weight and too little on running, which is the fun part.
The irritating thing about that is that running is not as fun at 200 lbs as it was at 170 or even 180.

What I was doing, spending a lot of time tracking the calories, was not working at all though. In the last two weeks, I've given the control of my food over to my sweetie and the results have been great. I dropped 4.5 lbs in the first week and one inch off my waistline. I'm going to do a simple run on the weekend to see how it feels.

It was rather funny as I look back. I kept doing the same thing for four weeks in a row, always thinking "This week will be different". Kind of reminds me of a definition of insanity I remember reading about.

My moral: if you want different results, commit to doing something different.


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