Hi. Quick post this week, although you and I have some catching up to do. Between our 7th anniversary art show and a recent visit with fitness legend Bonnie Prudden (haven’t heard of her? Don’t worry, we’ll change that.), I apologize for not keeping you, the gentle reader, updated.
Although the Prudden lesson must wait, I won’t leave you hanging as to what else we did while in Tucson. Thanks for having us, Tucson, even if you have recently proven that your state politics win the award for setting back everything we’ve achieved in civil rights over the last 60 years. The folks who make and approve your laws might be a bunch of racist dicks whose decisions reek a bit of Germany in the early 1930′s, but at least you have nice cacti…
This sandbag is from a new company called Alpha Strong. The high quality of these bags is hard to believe, and we’re currently putting a few through some tests (with happy results so far). I used one of their bags as my luggage for the trip and we filled the bag in the video with desert rocks. I’ll continue to update everyone on our bag trails as we go on. One of the big bummers of sandbag training is the constant ripping of the bags, so it was a bit of a thrill that someone came along and designed one seriously meant for punishment.
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7 Years of Doing
Progressive accomplishment, doing something to move us forward through life, is achieved when we approach a task that is not in our comfort zone and bust right through it. This sounds like something that happens in gyms all the time, but actually it is quite rare. So 7 years ago I created a sanctuary for progressive accomplishment, and the inspiration you’ve given me paves the road to my own goals. Thank you.
Our anniversary ArtWalk show was a couple of weeks ago, and not only did Instagon play, but we were blessed by a visit from Obsidian Butterfly, who like to play with fire…
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Yes the Midtown Shape Up Program will begin on June 1st (7am, T/Th)!! There are several other parks that we’ll be besieging as the summer goes on, so check our workshops and events page for details.
Can’t wait to get a personal gander at those sand bags, they look beautifully designed (form following function, all that). Thanks for the desert travelogue!
So, Arizona have segregated toilets, buses, restaraunt seating, and schools?
Arizona requires people to wear special patches, rounds people into ghettos, and catalogs them for easier extermination? D
I haven’t been there in 4 years. A lot has changed! At least the cacti haven’t changed! Just don’t tell me that you ate at Little Abners! I so miss that awesome Barbeque joint!
$150 for a sandbag? I thought that part of the point of a sandbag was that it’s cheap to train with.
Arizona won’t be far from any of that if they have their way.
Sandbags cheap? Not if you’ve broken as many sandbags as we have (dozens… and I mean dozens! I’ve got a closet full of the broken ones with the dream of finding someone with mad sewing skills someday). You’d understand paying $150 once, and hopefully never again.
Let me restate this…
Before we started buying them, we started making them almost 7 years ago. Duffel bags, multiple layered trash bags wrapped in duct tape inside the duffel bags, and sometimes even extra pillow cases to add more support. Nope. Sand everywhere.
Then we started buying them. I’ve been buying them for almost 6 years now. I’ve been through probably a couple thousand dollars of fillers and cover bags, and that was on top of a certain company replacing about a dozen or so bags for free (because they knew they broke).
The old bags might stand up to a single person for a short while, but we use them for groups and multiple members throughout the day. They need to last, and the old ones don’t.
I’m hoping these Alpha Strong bags do. So far, I’m impressed.
If the sandbags withstood the airline baggage handlers, they must be tough. (Remember the Samsonite commercials with the gorilla?)
Very cool firedance. Ever do poi or staff just for exercise? Not setting yourself on fire would be at least as motivational as not dropping a barbell on your head.
I’ve dabbled in staff work (a very minimal background in weapons gives me just enough fodder to pretend I’m some kind of ancient warrior), but seem to gravitate to clubs.
The firedancers are led by my neighbor, and she teachers very organized, structured courses in the driveway of our apartment complex. So any given night there might be half a dozen or so folks doing poi or hoop work in various stages of flame. It makes our little community stand out a bit.
Yours must be the coolest apartment complex ever.
You bring up something I hadn’t thought of: application. A guy throwing the sandbag around for 30 minutes at a time, twice a week is quite different than a gym having a dozen people using it consecutively 5 days a week.
You’d definetly wear it out faster than I ever could.
Oh, and we are very, very far away. Nobody, not even Arizonans, like to be called racists.
But if you ever decide to go back to the American Austwitz, AZ, you do have to try Little Abners. Generous servings of hooch, good looking waitresses, and huge, heavily-smoked steak. AWESOME!
Actually, we’ll be back out to Tucson in July.