Equipment for solo training

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by Monkey_Magic, Mar 23, 2020.

  1. Monkey_Magic

    Monkey_Magic Well-Known Member

    What suggestions could you give me about equipment for training at home during this pandemic? I was thinking about a speedball or heavy bag. Is it possible to attach them to an outside brick wall?

    Stretching is easier, as it needs little or no equipment. But what else would be useful?

    If only I knew how to use a wooden dummy! Wooden dummy training looks like fun :D
     
  2. icefield

    icefield Valued Member

    Free standing punch bags, or bobs as are good
    You can hook a speed bag up to your ceiling punch bag brackets can go outside on a brick wall.

    Depends on what you want training wise as to what equipment to get
     
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  3. Anth

    Anth Daft. Supporter

    A suspension trainer is a must as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't need to be TRX, a cheap knock-off one will be almost identical anyway. Hook it over a door if you can't hang it from the ceiling.
     
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  4. aaradia

    aaradia Choy Li Fut and Yang Tai Chi Chuan Student Moderator Supporter

    Wooden Dummy IS LOADS of fun! But the CLF version can be dangerous. Unlike the WC one, we have a spring loaded extension. If you don't time it right, it can knock you in the jaw. I heard an instructor in the past got a tooth knocked out.

    This is a video showing parts of the form I am learning. The spring loaded bar at our school is much thicker than the one in our GM's school though.



    I thought about getting a bag for my yard in the past. But I didn't as I always figured I had access to the ones at the school. Never could have imagined a scenario like this. Wish I had done so now. Hindsight is 20/20.
     
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  5. AndyHayes

    AndyHayes New Member

    What ever you are looking to buy regarding fitness equipment you will find hard to get now, I ordered some kettle bells dumbbells and a 25kg sand bag from uk supplier, I struggled to get the order they were only taking orders for over £200, and delivery time is 28 working days I placed the order in March I still have not had it, all gyms have closed and everyone e has panic bought all the gym equipment as well as all the bog rolls, its madness I've resorted to useing some concrete blocks as weights and a sledge hammer, but I do have a free standing punch/kick bag I have a body power strike tube
    Body Power Striketube
    that one there has a part missing in that picture that grey bit you see is a spring and there's a padded cover that goes over it,it works well I leave the base out doors and bring the bag part in when the weather wet but its dry at the moment so happy days
     
  6. Monkey_Magic

    Monkey_Magic Well-Known Member

    Thanks, I had previously looked at those Striketube freestanding bags. However, the bags looked like they wouldn't withstand a lot of heavy hits. How stable is the Striketube against, for example, heavy Thai kicks?
     
  7. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Icy Mike has some fun DIY training equipment tips:

    (I can't remember, but I'm guessing he uses bad language in the video.)

     
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  8. AndyHayes

    AndyHayes New Member

    I looked at lots of different free standing bags this one looked to be the best just fill the base with water it doesn't move when you punch or kick the bag, all the others I looked at the base would nearly topple over when hitting it, I've had it a year now still going strong, I was thinking of a wall bracket and a fairtex bag but I was put off with the thought of having to leave the bracket outside to rust and also the brackets only as good as what its fixed to, a bracket fitted to a wall will probably work loose on most modern houses in time and that's never good, a solid timber beam is best to hang a bag from
     
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  9. Flying Crane

    Flying Crane Well-Known Member

    Of course there are lots of body-weight exercises that you can string together to make a very thorough fitness routine. I don’t imagine you will grow a body-building physique, but if you keep increasing reps you can become quite strong. Pushups, crunches, dips, pushups with your feet on a chair, planks, lunges, deep horse stance, ankle extensions on a stair, etc. you can get creative and start filling a backpack with heavy books and wear it for pushups or chin-ups or if you go out for a walk in the neighborhood.

    Look at your other interests and see if anything there can be repurposed. For example, I and my wife are scuba divers and we have dive weights and belts. We use those to augment our workouts, make the exercises more challenging, wear a weight belt during pushups, for example.

    I am an archer and I’ve got bows of various draw weights, up to 110#. We incorporate a series of bow-drawing into our routine, pulling both right- and left-handed to develop evenly. Archery will develop strength in the upper arms, shoulders, back, grip, forearms.

    For your martial arts practice, if you’ve got any space at all then practice your fundamentals, practice your kata/forms/poomsae if you have them. Keep connected to your training, get creative, make up your own exercises. There are a lot of things you can do without “equipment”, or with repurposed things that you may have around the house or in the garage.
     
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  10. Grond

    Grond Valued Member

    +1 for weighted backpacks, in fact I'm a little bummed today because I had ordered two weighted exercise vests (22 and 44lbs) back at the beginning of April, to use for hiking and around the house to burn some extra calories. Sure enough I got the email this morning that not only were they not being shipped (after waiting 30+ days), they would never be shipped because the company selling them completely ran out of them and can't make more. So, here I am with my reinforced laptop backpack, filled with 30lbs worth of weight plates, heading out the door. Whatever works, aye?

    Other than my usual staples of jumping rope, I've also been experimenting a bit. People have been posting all sorts of homemade contraptions online (some of which are either unsafe or actually result in injuries, see ridiculous video below). Keep it simple, carry water. Made myself a homemade medicine ball out of a big water jug inside a cushioned pillow. Filled up my wheelbarrow with hose water, did some circuits around the yard with that. Filled up some old gas cans with water, put them on a long stick, and carried those around Road Warrior style. It doesn't take a lot of water to make all sorts of neat little weight bearing things. I guess all this time at home, I've gotten a bit bored with my standard freeweights. They might open my workout gym back up next month, but honestly I'm not sure I want to go there until the health experts agree (which might be never considering the political chaos going on).

    Someone sent this to me the other day. Hilarious, scary, especially how people seem to love engineering their own mousetraps. Enjoy! :D

     
    Last edited: May 7, 2020
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  11. Flying Crane

    Flying Crane Well-Known Member

    Wow, that video is brutal. A low lot of it isn’t even home-built, it’s just things gone wrong. Bands breaking, bolts not tightened. But the guy pulling down the door, wow!
     
  12. Grond

    Grond Valued Member

    Actually that was the wrong video, but it had some of the same clips as the one I intended. I just updated the link. Watch both, the new one is even better. My favorite is the girl who hurls the medicine ball through the drywall, and is actually shocked to realize what happens when you throw a 20 lb ball through drywall...but yeah getting hit with a broken resistance band hurts like hell, but not as bad as when it brings a whole door with it, right between your eyes. :D
     
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  13. YouKnowWho

    YouKnowWho Valued Member

    Single head training:

     
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  14. AndyHayes

    AndyHayes New Member

    My order did actual turn up on the 29th April, so at least i have got some equipment to use not a great deal but its enough 2 X 12kg kettle bell 2 x 6 kg dumbbells and a 25kg power bag that came all ready filled with sand, I also filled a back pack with water bottles i was using for squats
    Been for a few runs lately and working on my kata in the football field where i run, getting lots of strange looks to !!
    There's also lots of on line Kyokushin Karate classes you can part in on YouTube and face book live or you can watch them back after
     
  15. Mitch

    Mitch Lord Mitch of MAP Admin

    Chi Shi, or any weight on a stick is a great training aid. One handed or two handed, have a look on youtube for ideas, but here's an example.

    You can make chi shi at home with an empty paint tin, a broom handle and some concrete. Substitute anything for any of those items, the point is t have a weight on the end of a lever :)

    You can buy a sandbag for training, or fill small bags with sand, soil, whatever, then wrap them in tape and chuck a load of them into a bigger bag. I have an army kit bag, for example. The lack of handles helps :)
     
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  16. Unreal Combat

    Unreal Combat Valued Member

    Tie a thick Kickshield or some decent Thai Pads around a small tree with some handwraps. Layer a towel between pad & tree to protect both from any damage.
     
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