Buying Exercise Equipment for Home (During Quarantine)

We’ve been getting tons of questions about this lately. People who work out every day at the gym are stuck at home without equipment and don’t want to lose their progress. With no end in sight for the quarantine, especially in order to combat poor eating habits at home, people are trying to put together home gyms in order to maintain their progress, or prevent gaining fat/losing muscle mass. There are a few challenges though…

They don’t know what equipment to buy.
They don’t know what brand/model to buy.
They don’t know where to buy it.
Many companies are backordered.
Local markets (Facebook Marketplace, Offer Up, Let Go, Craigslist) are all home to price gouging.

This video on YouTube will help you with some recommendations/tips for cardio equipment at home. To summarize part of it, look for less commercial pieces that don’t have a ton of moving parts or electronic components, such as a Schwinn Airdyne or Indoor Cycling Bike, such as the ones we have (below) in our home gym.

Feb212020

Predictions for Wilder vs Fury II (The Rematch)

This is a fight that I’ve been waiting for, but at the same time, I don’t want to happen. Why? You have two of the best boxers in the world who are the two best heavyweight boxers. Joshua lost his claim with his loss to Ruiz and his rematch actually removed him further from that conversation. How? His mystique of greatness had been entirely taken away from him. His confidence was shook to the core and the whole world saw it. While he outboxed Ruiz, Joshua lost confidence in his ability as a fighter, which is why he changed his style so dramatically.

That is not the case with these two.

They both still have that shroud of greatness over them and when someone falls tomorrow, they’ll lose that aura. Sure, it will leave us with one undisputed champion of the world, but one of the greatest boxing personalities of the past decade will surely begin to fade away. Now, obviously, that all depends on the finish. While anything can happen in a boxing match, especially a heavyweight boxing match, I’d say that this fight ends one of two ways, 9 out of 10 times.

Wilder by KO.

Fury by decision.

Deontay is my favorite boxer in the world. Currently, with GSP’s inactivity, he is my favorite fighter in the world. He is exactly that… a fighter. I’ll quickly admit that Fury is a better boxer, but Deontay’s knockout power is on an entirely different level. I’m shocked that Fury rose in the 12th in their last fight. It almost seemed like some form of divine intervention, but lightning doesn’t strike twice. If Deontay floors him again, he won’t get up, especially with an extra 20 lbs of pure muscle packed on his frame. If, however, Fury has an absolutely flawless fight and avoids any knockout punches, he will absolutely beat him by decision, probably somewhere around 9 rounds to 3, or so.

Again, anything can happen, but they’d probably need to fight 20 times before Fury knocks out Deontay. They’d probably need to fight 40 times before Deontay beats Fury by decision, especially with Fury looking in such great shape. Deontay could knock him out at any point, but I think somewhere around the 9th or 10th round is most likely. Fury’s conditioning looks good, but a certain level of fatigue is inevitable and just like in the Ortiz rematch, it only takes a second. Deontay will wait a whole fight for one second.

Either way, I’ll recognize the winner of this fight as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Joshua would be looking up to them, not the other way around. That does, to some degree, depend on the nature of the finish but as I mentioned, I don’t see many outcomes other than those two. Sure, you can argue that despite standing Fury shouldn’t have been allowed to continue in the last fight but Jack Reese probably made the right call there, especially with Fury outboxing him the whole match. I was alright with the draw decision, but it certainly shouldn’t happen again.

I hope Deontay wins, but it really is 50/50 going into the fight, in terms of who will win. That is heavyweight boxing. I think Fury would have an easier time continuing his career with a loss than Deontay would because his legacy is stronger. Deontay needs this win by KO and then a win by KO over Joshua to really push himself into that upper echelon of heavyweight boxing names. His knockout percentage might be the best of all time, but he really needs more wins over bigger names.

It’d be nice if the rest of the card was a bit more exciting, but I’d gladly pay for the PPV just for this main event.

BOMBZQUAD!

(Photo credit: AP)

Dec202019

International Day of the Girl is Every Day!

International Day of the Girl was October 11, 2019. But we’re here to say that every day should be day of the girl! Let’s make the next DECADE of the girl. We’re so inspired by the achievements of women and girls across the world.

Just recently, Time Magazine named the entire United States Women’s National Soccer Team as their “Athlete of the Year.” They couldn’t just pick one of them, so they named the entire team. This team just recently won the Women’s World Cup, but it was so much more than that. They used their win as a platform to demand more money for women’s sports. They could’ve rested with their medals and trophies, but they championed for women’s rights instead.

Sep022019

The Best Drink Ever?

For many of you, New Year’s Resolutions are constructed during the beginning of January. You’re wrapping up the calendar year, unwrapping the last of your holiday presents and thinking about ways to improve your life. New year, new you… right?

For some of us, however, the concept of a year is much different. When we leave high school, or college, our live change dramatically. Growing up, before we ever come near the strenuous weight of adulthood, the year is based on school. Most schools run from August/September until May/June. The summer is that vacation which we all yearn for throughout the nonstop hustle and bustle of the year. As a former physical education teacher at Los Angeles Unified School District, I know that feeling all too well.

Nov112018

Building Hamstrings

We don’t often repost content from other sources, but sometimes, we come across an article that is presented in a manner that we find very easy to digest. While we’d never heard of Stack as a media source before, every week, I receive newsletters from the American Swimming Coaches Association, with important articles relevant to swimming. Sometimes, I don’t even read through them, but this headline caught my eye: 4 Simple Ways to Build Stronger, More Resilient Hamstrings.

Sep082018

Getting Ready to Get in Shape This Autumn

For many people, the summer is the most active season, thanks to time off from work, days at the beach, and a diet that’s more full of fresh fruit and vegetables. However, for many people, especially those in warmer climates, the summer can be too hot to work out as often as they would like to, especially if their workout of choice is running in the great outdoors or playing sports outside. Luckily, now that the fall season is approaching, the weather is often just right for working out. Are you ready to get in shape this autumn?

Jul282018

Exercise Spotlight: Reverse Curls

All you need for this exercise is either dumbells or a barbell (our example pictures are with a barbell). Or really any object that you can lift. Maybe your cats are the perfect weight to be your dumbbells! Just kidding (kinda, only if you’re gentle can you do that!). We’re all about doing a workout ANYWHERE so we encourage you to get (safely) creative. So, what exercise are we talking about today? Reverse curls.

What are reverse curls? Reverse curls and curls (lifting something toward you by extending your elbow), but flipped! What does that mean? Basically, instead of the soft (under) part of your arm facing you, your arms will be faced downward in their neutral position. To put it most simply: your palms are facing down instead of up. And then you latch those strong hands onto a weight and bend your elbow, bringing it toward your face/chin. You won’t be able to do as much weight this way, because it’s a bit harder on your muscles.

Jun242018

Why It’s Important to Take a Recovery Day

Note that I didn’t say rest. There are some people out there (looking at you, Hungry) who believe in zero rest days and that’s okay as long as they balance properly. I (Fit here) go for one rest day a week and sometimes it’s a rest and recovery day.

What is a recovery day? A recovery day could mean a full rest day where you don’t workout, letting your muscles recover. Other forms of recovery days include yin yoga to really stretch, massage (self or professional), using heat (like a bath or heating pad), self myofascial release (think: rolling out muscles with a hard object), incredibly light lifting to just get your joints loose, or maybe a long walk or easy hike. As you can tell, a recovery day is really up to you. It’s about what you need that day after a week (or a few days) of workouts. It’s about getting in tune with your body and actually listening to it rather than forcing it. For example, my recovery day today consisted of a short yoga session focused on upper back stretches and using a massager on my back. If you can’t tell, my upper back is bugging me.

Jun042018

Is Body Fat Percentage Important?

Yesterday was a rest day, but it started with a relatively in-depth test called a DXA Scan. This seven minute x-ray gives you more detail about your body composition than calipers, scales and hand-held devices and while it costs $45, there are massive benefits to using it. While we generally don’t find it necessary to track every rep and count every calorie, measuring your progress and results are often crucial to success. When you consider someone who is extremely fit, you might think of an Olympic decathlete. Whether they’re throwing, jumping or running, the world’s best measure every inch and second, because that allows them to improve.

‘Measurables’ hold us accountable and therefore allow us to get better every single session. If you lifted 10 lbs for 10 reps one day with a certain technique, you wouldn’t necessarily be very happy if you used that same technique and only lifted 10 lbs for 9 reps the next time you performed. You’d want to either lift 11 lbs for 10 reps or 10 lbs for 11 reps, if you’re maintaining all of the other factors taken into consideration while exercising, such as rest intervals and technique based numbers such as eccentric/concentric timing, etc.

Mar162018

Tips on How to Squat

What is the Best Starting Position for Squats?

Do you enjoy learning new ways to exercise? If so, you’re going to love learning about the squat. This is an exciting way to lose weight while strengthening your lower body. Of course, it also helps you lose weight, which certainly lends strength to your upper body as well. But many people have been wondering about where the best starting position for squats may be. As it turns out, it’s exactly where common sense implies that it would be. All you need to do to get started is adopt a standard standing position.