Home Gym update

Hello Dedicated Reader!

I've been researching like mad and even spent a little money.

What's out for cardio: machines of any sort. They cost too much and many are ridiculous or sub-par.

What in for cardio: Running shoes, bitch. $45 for a pair of New Balance cross-trainers is a good price for my wide-ass feet.

What I've bought already: an ab wheel and a "Iron Gym" upper-body workout bar

What I want to buy: kettlebells (whimper)

What I've found/What my musings are: Most stuff is crap. Ab-shockers come to mind. I'm very leery of anything that is a fad, mainly because I distrust the herd mentality. Why? Because most people are stupid to the bone. I can't really blame them - a few trillion cells operating perfectly, keeping every other cell functioning decently? It's amazing most of us don't spend all day gazing at bright lights and drooling while thinking about fondling ourselves and others (wait...oh shit).

ANYWAY (my catch-phrase), I approached the idea of working out with minimal equipment with a heavy degree of skepticism. It all felt a little infomercialesque, if you get my drift. But after doing a great deal of digging, I'm feeling reasonably confident about kettlebells. They've got rave reviews from everyday Joes that run the gamut from former fatfuck to perennial buff-fuck (sorry, three f's in a row looked stupid). Kettlebells help you build strength through a full range of motion in whole-body exercises, provide a good cardio workout in addition to strength, and they develop your smaller supporting muscles in a way that free weights strive to and machines can never hope to replicate. This was exactly what I wanted, and when I thought about it it began to make sense. Essentially, kettlebells are stylized and carefully weighed pieces of heavy stuff, and you're supposed to move them around in a way that requires you to maintain a good grip and use your whole body. This attempts to replicate conditions that a manual laborer deals with. It falls short in the duration category and does better in the reliability and comfort categories. I already do minor manual labor for a living, so any extra (like kettlebells) is gravy.

So I'm getting kettlebells. I'm going to start with two standard-size kettlebells. I think it's hilarious, but the traditional unit of measurement for kettlebells is the "pood." Those crazy Russians. Anyway, the 1-pood is a little intimidating, but I'm all for rising to a challenge. The ones that have gotten the best ratings as far as durability, construction, price, and comfort are these: http://www.amazon.com/Cap-Barbell-SDK2-035-35-Pound-Kettlebell/dp/B003J9E6B8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320032172&sr=8-1

These kettlebells are available on Amazon, and while I thought the shipping would be killer, I'm saved by Amazon Prime. Woot for dropping out of a certification program! Wait....

Whatever. I get free shipping. That's what makes it worth it. I found other kettlebells for about $20 at places like Sports Authority that were of very poor construction. $48 per 1-pood kettlebells is a GREAT price, trust me. The only way you could do better is at a garage sale, and I doubt they would have the comfortable construction that these do. I'm going to order them once we move to the new place.

Okay, so what I already bought: the ab wheel and the Iron Gym upper body system (http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Total-Upper-Body-Workout/dp/B001EJMS6K/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1320034107&sr=1-1)

I bought both of these things at Ross, which is a great place for stuff like this. They buy infomercial crap in bulk, and then sell it at reduced prices. The ab wheel (http://www.amazon.com/Champion-MSABWHLX-Ab-Wheel/dp/B0000BYSNN/ref=sr_1_4?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1320034199&sr=1-4) and Iron Gym bar were supposed to cost me a total of about $35-$40, but I got away with paying $22. I bought an ab wheel with two wheels for greater stability (can it support my royal fatness?). After using first one and then the other, I can tell that my muscles are in for a rude, painful surprise. I'd easily recommend these as your upper-body home equipment of choice. If you want to build up your chest, get something heavy for your back while you do pushups.

So I'm left with $78 to make my home gym. Two 1-pood kettlebells would cost me $96, but I'm willing to go over-budget by $16 to make a home gym that would satisfy pretty much all my needs for a long, long time if not indefinitely.

So that's my list and recommendations! An Iron Gym pullup/upper body apparatus, an ab wheel, and two 1-pood kettlebells. Get the first two at Ross or garage sales, and get the kb's from amazon. Total cost: ~$120, not counting gas to go get some of it or running shoes. To put this in perspective, this is two month's worth of gym membership in some places. If I use this stuff for three or four months, I start saving money to the tune of $600/year. Boo-ya!

Hope this helps...I dunno, SOMEBODY. Good luck, y'all!

I think I'm going to the wrong gym...

New Space, New Plan

So the wife (still getting used to saying that) and I are moving to a new place in mid-november, and it's a hell of a lot bigger than what we've currently got. So space has suddenly become a non-issue. However, time and expense have become bigger issues with my work schedule, and though work is very active, I can't say that I'm getting buff from it (aside from my calves; working 9 hours on your feet has some advantages).

Here's the rundown:

Space: Non-issue.

Use of space: Somewhat of an issue, since the house is a rental and I don't want to destroy anything or annoy my wife and neighbors (somehow, I don't think the little woman would like me to keep a big-ass tractor tire in the driveway).

Time: Issue. I'm an adult with a lot of stuff to do and less time to do it in, sadly. No going to a gym.

Money: Issue. When is it not? The "fun money" monthly allowance I've given myself is $100. A gym membership (even if I had the time) would really eat into that.

Energy: Issue after coming home from work.

Physical Limitations: Strained right tricep that doesn't like extremely high reps. Also, my flexibility sucks. Need to improve that.

Motivation to get buff: Non-issue. I'm posting in BUFF CLUB, for cryin' out loud.

Bottom line: I need to develop a workout that I can do at home in the mornings in a short amount of time on a shoestring budget that doesn't rely solely on calisthenics. It needs to work my muscles, my lungs, my heart, and give a chance to improve my flexibility. Also, I just turned 26 and realized that I need to start building a foundation of support for the parts that will become vulnerable later in life (i.e., my knees, shoulders, and back). This means working the small supporting muscles. My physical requirements lead me to believe that I need a set of exercises that will force me to use my whole body with almost every movement. No more isolating one small group of muscles (the trapezius or biceps or hamstrings, for instance). This will improve coordination, balance, support, and hopefully flexibility/strength through a full range of motion.

While no one workout is the end-all-be-all (hey, even muscles get bored, right?), there are some that are better than others, particularly when it comes to monetary efficiency. I'll be posting my findings as I go along.

IN SUMMARY: I'm hunting around for a workout system that will meet my needs and cost around $100. A tall order, I realize. But I'm going to put in the click-work to find out what fits me best, and then I'm going to put in the money, and then I'm going to put in the sweat. Wish me luck.

Stretching

So, I saw this posted to /r/gaming and I thought it might be nice to share here. I don't know if any of you spend as much time sitting on your ass as I do but take a look anyway. Good stretch.

We should strive to be like this guy as we age

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/10/17/mxp-100-year-old-marathoner.hln

Spiritual Buffness

I recently remembered that one of the tenets of the original Buff Club philosophy was Total Buffness, because Total Fitness is for suckers (probably influenced by the then-popular Sobe commercial phrase: "We want your spirit to be high, your body to be fit, and your mind to be ready."). And I realized that we haven't really discussed these aspects of Buff Club lately.

I've been feeling less spiritually healthy than I want to be lately. A number of years ago, I remember feeling something that approached Enlightenment one day as I was meditating. I had spent the morning in reflection, the afternoon in physical exuberance, and as the evening approached I had tried to let the day's thoughts and exertions flow away from me in meditation. I touched something for a brief moment, and perhaps it lasted for a few hours, but for those few hours everything was clear. I was at peace. I could have died in that brief time and felt neither sadness nor elation, because it didn't matter - not in the sense that I was insignificant, but in the sense that it would have been significant and insignificant at the same time, much in the same way that an impossibly large number is made of an impossibly large number of 1's. Obviously I'll never be able to explain it, because nobody has. Because nobody can.

Anyway, I haven't touched that truth-state in a long time. Perhaps it's because there are many things tying me to a non-cosmic notion of the universe. But I think it has more to do with the fact that I have allowed my inner waters to become needlessly turbulent. So, starting today, I've been meditating to see where it takes me. Hopefully to a state of Sublime Buffness.

So. What's everyone's take on Spiritual Buffness? Intellectual Buffness?

What I've been doing...

Whole lotta nada. Actually, I've been lifting heavy stuff and working on my feet eight to ten hours a day at my sushi chef job. While I can see some results from this, I have been trying to add a workout routine. So, in the mornings, I've been doing calisthenics as soon as I wake up. I find that it gets me awake a lot faster than things like caffeine, and with much better side-effects. Right now I'm focusing on free squats, pushups, dive-bomber pushups, the steam engine (stand with your fingers laced together and placed on top of your head. Raise one leg and crunch forward with the opposite arm until the knee and elbow touch. Reset and do the same on the other side. Repeat. Think "standing bicycle crunch."), supermans, and stretching.

Stretching is getting more and more critical for me, even though I still don't make enough time for it. I'm getting the suspicion that if I don't make time for stretching, stretching will make damn sure I've got time for it via an extremely painful, recurring method.

By the way, any thoughts on increasing pushup numbers with a problematic tricep?