I need to increase my cardio

[CKent]

I know there's a bunch of information on this in this great forum, but I figured my likes & dislikes warranted another thread. Sosumi.

I hate gyms. I enjoy jogging, but there's nowhere to do it around where I'm living. The weather (pea-soup fog half the time), lack of sidewalks and hilly terrain prohibit it. I have a nordictrak machine but I hate it. It's also falling apart as it's nearly 30 years old.

I was thinking of some sort of punching bag, but I'd like to hear some AT H&Fer's opinions on them before I pull out my credit card. Do I need a "kit" comprised of a speedbag, bodybad, and whatever else? Is it safe to hang bags on I-beams in my basement (I'd have to drill & file them) or is it better to get a freestanding model? Do I really need to see a trainer or can youtube teach me the way of the cardio?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Pea-soup fog and hilly areas are great for running. Find a nearby park and run in it. Also, if you want to actually be fit, you wanna try to introduce some sort of lifting regimen. You may hate gyms, but I doubt you would hate the results.

 

[brikis98]

I think a very important part of any successful exercise regimen is to set concrete goals and challenging yourself to meet them. For example, you could set the goal of getting to a certain body weight or body fat percentage by some date, or run some distance in a certain time, or setup a competition with a buddy to squat some weight, or whatever. The result will be that going to the gym & doing cardio will feel more like training and less like painful exercise that you hate. Another great option is to try a program like Crossfit which has a competitive aspect built in. The challenges there include outperforming others doing the same workout, but even more importantly, improving your performance on the same workout over time. Hell, even doing the WoD as "Rx'd" is going to push you to your limits. I personally find things of this nature VERY motivating.

As for getting a punching bag, it's a terrific form of cardio. As with most exercise, your results would be a lot better if you had proper instruction, but if you're careful, you can somewhat learn the basics on your own (as long as you use it just to train for cardio and not for actual fighting ). As for hanging it on the I-beam, it depends how you do it. Out of stupidity, I had originally hung my bag by just wrapping the chains around the I-beam. The result was that the energy of every punch transferred through the chains, into the I-beam and shook the entire house. Moreover, the chains started to grind into the beam. If you instead drill it and securely attach a hook into it to hang the bag from, you'd probably have better luck... I got a crappy punching bag stand at sports authority which, when weighed down with four 50lbs sandbags, gets the job done.

In terms of the equipment itself, you'll want to get at least a heavy bag, wraps and gloves. The size of the bag depends on your own bodyweight and strength. I'm ~200lbs and hit pretty hard, so I got a 100lbs Everlast bag on sale. I've used it with some friends who were 160lbs and hit a bit lighter, and they still get the bag moving around quite a bit, so I wouldn't get anything too much smaller. Getting wraps and learning to use them - there are tutorials online and often on the box the wraps come in - is essential to protecting your wrist. The gloves protect your fingers and knuckles. Neither should be considered optional.

The final piece is the workout itself. Go online and watch some boxing and kickboxing tutorials and start slow. Make sure you are punching fairly lightly until you get the technique down or you could easily hurt your wrist. Everyone will have the occasional "bad" punch that sends a twinge of pain (a nice reminder to watch your form!) but don't end up being that guy that shatters his wrist and spends the next 1.5 years healing. There are many workouts you can do on a heavy bag, depending on fitness. Most people break up their workout into rounds - go at the bag for 1-3 minutes and then rest for 30 seconds to a minute, repeat. You can focus certain rounds on various aspects - for example, do one round where speed is the emphasis, another where you work on multi punch combos, another where you develop punching power, and so on. When I workout with friends, we do a "Simon Says" style workout where one person yells out punch combos ("One two!" = jab, cross) and the other executes them as quickly as possible.

 

[CKent]

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to look into a hanging model and how to properly secure it.

I do lift, quite religiously. I have a good bench and some freeweights in my basement. Recently hit a long-term goal of 300lb bench press (up to 312 now) and I do 5x5 deads with 300 lb., on which I'm limited more by my hands than anything, they pretty much look like hamburger when I'm done. Squats are another story - weak knees. But cardio has never been my thing, even on the best of days.

 

[imported_Imp]

Exercise bike is a great cario machine, but it's too easy to slow down when you're tired. If you live in a house, running up and down the stairs works pretty well. I feel worse after going up and down 1 floor 20 times than after 3km of running.

 

[coreyb]

I wouldn't get a heavy bag until you actually know how to punch, kick, knee, etc. It's a great form of cardio but you would be wasting your time on it without any instruction. I recommend a sport or class that involves a lot of cardio as doing it on your own can be pretty damn hard. I find it very easy to push myself using weights but doing intense cardio is VERY painful and easy to give up on without motivation.

So, I recommend some kickboxing classes, or brazalian jiu-jitsu classes. If that isn't your thing, I would go for some tabata burpee workouts. These will get your cardio in tip top shape!