For
many years, this middle-aged man belonged to a gym and that’s where he went to exercise
and chase his fitness, health and wellness pursuits. In June 2015, however, I made a minimalist
“business decision” to end my gym membership and be a fitness vagabond, getting
my workouts in at various local parks, a spare room in my office and, occasionally,
at home. For some reason, working out at
home isn’t something I do well. I need
to go somewhere for best results. The
various local parks I frequent are my training landscapes of choice.
Along
with this minimalist fitness lifestyle, the tools in my fitness toolbox are few in
count but get my job done. I have two
categories of tools, fitness equipment tools and fitness technology tools. Today, I’d like to share with you the few
items in my minimalist fitness toolbox.
Fitness
equipment tools
First
up is my Tommy Kono-autographed “Louisville Slugger” wooden pole.
My
dear departed friend, American’s greatest Olympic weightlifter, Tommy Kono made
this and gave it to be about 10 years ago when I was training in the Olympic
lifts. I use it to warm up my shoulders
before a workout since a lot of what I do places great demands on my shoulders.
Here’s
a dated picture of me using my Tommy Kono-autographed “Louisville Slugger”
wooden pole:
Many years ago, I made a video demonstrating the shoulder dislocates and overhead squat warm-up
drill I use to loosen up my shoulders. Here
it is:
Here’s
the autograph:
RIP
Tommy Kono.
Next
up is my kettlebell (KB) tools that I use the most. I own three “bells” – a pair of 20kg KBs and
one 24kg KB. After researching various
brands, I settled on Ader. Here are pictures
like the “bells” I own:
 |
| I own two of these |
 |
| I own one 24kg KB |
Here are a couple of my favorite KB workouts:
Now
that I’m back on the saddle at Pierini Fitness, I hope to make and share
other KB complex training videos in the future.
Wish me well in my pursuits.
Next
up is a pair of 5-lb. dumbbells I own.
I don’t use them often but when I do it’s to generally do a Heavy Hands workout.
Here’s
an explanation of one workout I do when using these 5-lb. dumbbells:
Here’s
another workout I created to do at work when I’m very busy and don’t have time
for a longer workout:
Next
up is a 12-inch high-quality step box I purchased late last year. I keep it at my office and use it there. I use it for high-volume step exercise
activities generally done in superset fashion along with another exercise like,
for example, two-hand KB swings perform for multiple rounds.
One
tool I own but don’t use is my jump rope.
I prefer to run or walk briskly because doing so is easier on my knees
than the rope. But there’s no doubt that
the rope is an excellent tool that should be in most middle-aged men’s fitness
tool box. I reserve the right to take it
out of storage and use it from time to time.
Finally,
since I perform pull-ups and chin-ups in my training, I go to a local park that
has a good pull-up station. I owned one
for many years that I used at home but a move several years ago made it
necessary to get rid of it.
Fitness
technology tools
I’m
a heart rate monitor junky and have been for many years. Late last year I decided to “relapse” after
being in recovery and not using my heart rate monitor for a while. It was time to update this technology
tool. After much research, I learned
that the “new kid of the block” was Garmin so I jumped ship after having been a
faithful Polar user for many, many years.
I ended up buying a Garmin Forerunner 35 and am extremely pleased with
my purchase.
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| Garmin Forerunner 35 |
What’s
nice about Garmin is that you can create a Garmin Connect account at their
website allowing the workout information captured on the watch to transfer to your
account and get lots of good training performance analytics. Since I’m an analytic guy, I really like this
feature a lot. Additionally, this Garmin
Connect information automatically syncs to my MyFitnessPal account – see below.
Next
up, is my iPhone app at MyFitnessPal.
I previously talked about MyFitnessPal in an earlier Pierini Fitness
blogflection. You can get a free
membership by going to MyFitnessPal.com but I chose to upgrade a get a premium
membership so that my visits there would be advertising-free, and I could have
access to some other analytical tools. I
believe I pay about $50 a year for this premium membership and, thus far, it’s worth
every cent of it. I use this app daily.
Last
technology tool in my fitness toolbox is my most recent purchase. It’s a Withings Body+ Body Composition Wi-Fi
Scale and I use it for my daily morning weigh-ins. I understand that Nokia purchased Withings so
sometimes the unit I purchased will be described as Nokia and sometimes as
Withings.
Some
fitness people say you shouldn’t weigh yourself daily, but this middle-aged man
takes exception. I’m an analytical
fitness dude and what my data daily.
What’s neat about this scale is that the information automatically syncs
to my MyFitnessPal
account.
Finally,
not pictured is a blood pressure home unit that I use periodically to see how I’m
doing in the blood pressure department.
Thus far, my blood pressure is excellent, and I want to keep it that
way. Getting a reading from time to time
is the best way to make sure all is well.
A
closing comment is that everything I’ve shared with you is solely to explain
what I use in my middle-aged man fitness, health and wellness journey. Unlike some bloggers, I don’t
have any affinity agreements with any of these companies to earn spending
money. I make my money practicing my
profession. Everything I share here is solely for the joy
of sharing information that’s hopefully helpful to you.
My
dear fellow middle-aged men fitness brothers from different mothers, these are
the tools in my Pierini
Fitness toolbox.
Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum
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