Workout Program of the Month: Body By Jake Tower 200 Gym (Randy Couture Gym)

Anyone who is a Randy Couture fan has seen the commercial at least once and wondered if this thing was legitimate.  I will admit when I first saw it I thought "oh yea, just another one of those dumb 'As Seen On TV' things."  Honestly how many times have we seen the latest and greatest workout equipment on TV?  Total Gym, Bow Flex, 6 Minute Abs, Shake Weight (kidding me right?), the list goes on.  So its no wonder that everyone would see this gym and think nothing of it.

      But one day back in February my wife and I were walking through the sports store and saw it.  One thing leads to another and for some odd random reason I end up buying it on a total whim.  Now before telling you how I rate it as a workout I must tell you how DANGEROUS it is.  I being a highly capable and INTELLIGENT (yea right) manly man did not feel it was necessary to read the instructions.  I pulled it out of the box threw the book and warning sign to my wife and began installing it to my door.  A few minutes later I was staring at at my door quite pleased with myself and my new Tower 200......but the frame was a little crooked.......so I tried fixing it.......bad idea.  Like any intelligent manly man I decided to force things and not follow the instructions on how to loosen it.  But as I pushed up on the bottom of the frame the 200+lbs of resistance cables pulled it down.....into my head.

That is just a very small amount of the blood.haha  The irony of it is that the edge of the frame that hit me was also where the warning sticker was located.  That paper I tossed Airin, said that several people got hurt doing that. Yes.....I am now a statistic.(smacks self in head)  

       On the brighter side of things this gym is actually pretty good.  It comes with a workout video that had this kinda goofy and over motivated guy on it doing the workout to some intense guitar music.  The guy looked like he ACTUALLY used this gym and not like all of the other work out guys you see like this guy to the right.  "Cut your hair like mine and I will pump you up!" (said with the Arnold accent) But the cardio workout that he tried didn't look bad.  I am not much for following along with a video so I did my own workout and it turned out surprisingly good.  Here as the pro's and con's that I saw:

Pros:

• Fits on any door just about.
• Good for a quick workout if you are in a rush.
• You can do almost anything imaginable on it,  make up some workout.
• Good for muscular endurance and strength building.
• Easy to store, move around, and keep out of the way.
• Easy upkeep.
• Will go up to a decently heavy weight for any workout you want.
• Mixes into a cardio workout very well.
• Can be used for a range of fight exercises like punching and kneeing the mits.

Cons:

• It WILL hurt you if you dont set it up the right way.lol
• You need a pretty sturdy door for it to latch onto.
• It might mark up the door way around the top where the cables stick out.
• It will only get you so far depending on what you are looking for, don't expect to get huge with it.
• It will not make you as good of a fighter as Randy Couture.... I tried. :(

      Overall I would say this is a good piece to add to your workout routines but not something that's good for doing all by its self.  You will not look like the guy on the front of the box or good old Randy, but you can get into some good shape with it.  I am using it for the end of my workout and throwing punches with it and things like that.  So is it worth the investment?  Depends on what you are looking for I guess.  I think it adds well into what I do and my wife thinks it is especially good for women as it tones instead of bulking you up.  She had a lot of fun with it.  So give it a try if you are interested.

Workout of the Month: Stair Sprints vs. Distance Runnning

We see them all the time in commercials, football shows, and most importantly ROCKY.haha I have always seen people sprinting up stairs and never gave it much thought other than "MAN!  I would hate to fall down those!"       
          But when I got back to Okinawa and took over the PT program for my shop I was curious.  I remembered this set of stairs that my friend Robert showed me just off base.  They were about 3-4 stories straight up and running up them was TORTURE!  I want to keep my pt program interesting so I brought them out there and sure enough things got interesting.  After only a mile run there, 6 races up the stairs (losers had to do 7), a mile back, and 3 people puking they all decided that it was harder than it looked.  But in an odd and masochistic way.....fun.  So we kept doing it.  After about a month I have noticed great improvements, we have already extended the run and found an even longer set of stairs.  Soon I will have to start running them with a pack on!  Not only did the stair sprints get surprisingly easier each time we went but my leg power and endurance have increased immensely.     

     

        In comparison to distance running stair sprints are much more ideal for what I do (MMA).  Here are a few of the pros&cons of stair sprints:

Pro's:

• Much stronger and larger legs than distance running.
• Improves your speed.
• Offers a much quicker and intense workout vise a long run.
• Gives you much more explosive strength in your legs, which greatly benefits your (sprinting, jumping, striking, etc) power.
• They will improve your vertical jump.
• Mixes well into a Crossfit type workout.
• They do not destroy your knee's, hip's, and lower back like long road runs do.  Trust me I did a marathon, I know. 
• It makes it a lot easier to keep an eye on and work out a large group of people no matter what their running pace may be.  Where as you always have stragglers falling way back on a long run.

Con's:

• They can be slightly dangerous in terms of tripping.
• It might be hard to find a good set of stairs to use.
• If you already have bad knees you may not want to start these.

 It has only been a little over a month and I am a hardcore fan of this workout.  It really does beat distance running for the sake of time and intensity, not to mention results.  Don't take my word for it though, find some stairs and give it a try.  Trust me you will love me and hate me for this.haha