THE QATSPY® Quapaw Aviation Tiger Sportswear Performance Yukan Sports Page for Your Health & Fitness
By: Charles W. Boatright
Health & Fitness: Fighting Back Against Parkinson’s- Boxing Bag might not be your First Choice to fight against Parkinson’s/Alzheimer’s
ROCK STEADY® Is an organization to help patience in their battle against Parkinson’s using Boxing Bag Routine
One of the best decisions that I made in regard to my workout program 12-years ago was including a boxing bag workout in my gym. Some people might not have considered a boxing bag as a vital part of their workout program in their fitness routine. But there are several reasons why you should add a boxing bag workout to your regular routine.
One reason is that a boxing bag routine is a great routine to reduce body fat and is a full body workout. Reducing my fat has been a major benefit that I have received from my bag workout as evident in a photograph below and toward the end of this article at age 66.
You can actually burn up to 45 calories in just one 3-minute round. The boxing bag workout can burn more calories than running, including any other gym-type workout performed in the same frame of time. A boxing bag workout is a low impact workout on the knees, back, and shoulders. Matter of fact, boxing bag workout can burn more calories than any other sport for the same duration of time, just asked any boxer, MMA, or UFC Fighter®.
Below is a summary of my entire M-CAST Fitness Program that I do five times per week.
I typically have three- 4-minute boxing bag bouts during my typical workout session, with a water break between rounds. Believe me you will need the break! Using a bag for a workout is a great method to increase your mental and physical stamina, even for ladies! It is also a great way to tone up your body.
But the real reason that I enjoy working out on my bag is that it provides an exercise for improving focus, balance, stability, and coordination. These are four often overlooked benefits with using a bag workout routine. To maintain a high level cognitive function as we age, we’ve got to maintain our focus, balance, stability, and coordination. I will explain a little later a personal story why balance is important to all of us.
What we Lose as we Age, and what we can do to Reverse this Aging Process
As we age, we naturally experience a decrease in focus, balance, stability, coordination, and stamina, even if we maintain our strength and energy levels. To reverse this natural tendency of aging, a boxing bag workout is important to include in your workout for its balance.
One other advantage, a working out with a boxing bag is a full body workout, more importantly we are maintaining our focus, balance, coordination, and building stamina. I credit my boxing bag workout for my conditioning to be able to work on my farm for hours or play golf while walking the course and working in my welding shop without getting tired even in the middle July in the south.
Another way to maintain focus, balance, stability, and coordination is by riding a bicycle and either performing Pilates or yoga, because of the focus factor. You can do basic yoga poses that will greatly help you maintain and improve your focus, balance, coordination, and have a healthier lifestyle. There are three yoga poses that I perform regularly during my normal workout sessions- include the Warrior Poses One, Two, and Warrior Three. You might need to use a door knob to steady yourself for Warrior Pose 3.
Now I do it after my Prostate Cancer to help with my recovery.
Another benefit of incorporating the Warrior Pose 3 in with your regular workout session is if you have weak ankles, sciatic nerve issues, or lower back problems, believe it or not, the Warrior Pose 3 will either help relieve or greatly reduce these issues. It has to do with the brain ability to directly connect with these areas that have gone unattended and not being nurtured. Balancing and focusing provides natural healing processes. The body has the ability to heal itself if we take care of it and watch what we eat.
I started about 9- months ago incorporating the Warrior Pose 3 in with my regular workout sessions and within days I started reducing the sciatic nerve issue that plagued me for years. Try the Warrior Pose 3 in your regular workout and performed during the course of the day; you will be pleasantly surprise at your improvement.
The objective of using a door knob, countertop, or even a better idea the boxing bag, with Warrior Pose 3 is to grip it with less, and less, pressure as you progress and finally end up just barely touch the knob, countertop, or bag for stability as needed.
For safety reasons, I would advise stabilizing yourself even when you get proficient at the Warrior Pose 3. At first, start with a limited leg elevated off the floor until the Warrior Pose 3 becomes more routine before raising either leg higher off the floor. The objective is to switch leg during the Yoga Warrior Pose 3. I usually have a 30- count on each leg performing the Warrior Pose 3 element.
Also by standing on alternate legs during the Warrior Pose 3 element, will help you to eliminate ankle injuries by establishing continuity between the brain and the ankles.
In December 2023, I was diagnosed with Stage 2 Prostate Cancer after an elevated PSA Test (6.2 normal is 4.0) that we elected to have a Prostatectomy in February 2024. I returned for a follow-up on March 21st, 2024 where my PSA was 0. That indicates that the surgery got all the cancer that was contained within the Prostate. I will return in June 2024 for another follow-up.
I noted my Prostate Cancer and recovery to say that these Yoga Poses above are great to eliminate the incontinence. within six week period, I have reduce my by 95% and hope to eliminate it totally by mid April of 2024!
GUYS GET YOUR ANNUAL PHYSICALS & YOUR PSA TEST!
Why boxing is Your Best Bet to help Fight Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s
Maintaining focus, balance, and coordination is a great weapon in your arsenal to fight against both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Focus, balance and coordination are critical because focus, balance, and coordination improve the neurotransmitters’ connection between your brain and body and help us establish new connections by learning new skills. I’m the poster kid for why balance is important for you to be able to mentally function.
My Personal Experience with Balancing and Coordination Issues
Let me share a personal story with you on balance and my ability to overcome my learning disability. My learning disability was contributed to me being legally blind up to age 11, in 1969. I was illiterate until I reached the summer of my 12th birthday. It was a Boy Scout Leader that discovered the issue that I had after a meeting one day in March of 1969.
What was fortunate for me was that the Boy Scout Leader’s wife was an evaluator with the school district. After I received correction of my vision, on one particular Saturday in April, the Scout Leader’s wife tested me. I tested out at 148. I remember the Boy Scout Leader’s wife telling my scout leader, her husband, we needed to get Chuck the help that he desperately needs. It was definitely wasn’t the lack of capability, but the lack of opportunity in overcoming my learning disability. Until April of 1969, I didn’t know that people had eyes, it was all a blur to me up to that time.
After I received the correction for my vision, I was assigned to a special summer school program with the Arkansas medical center, where the therapist on the team working with me had me walk a simple balance beam right off the bat, before I did anything else. The balance beam was simple, it was a 2 x 4, 10 feet long, turned on its edge with three supports holding the beam in place about 5- inches off the floor.
At the time, I couldn’t understand the importance of balance until mid part of that summer. I went from not being able to read up to the fourth grade level to reading at the sixth grade level in a matter three short months. The medical staff couldn’t keep books out of my hands during my full developmental program that summer.
It is important that you get kids into sports to check for deficiencies that can be possibly easily corrected. Balance is critical to your kids learns abilities.
Balance is Critical to Everyone, regardless of Age
Physical balancing is critical to establish continuity in the brain’s ability to command and control the body during the critical part of childhood development and later into adult life. Maintaining balance, or even improving one’s balance, as we age, is critical to maintain continuity between our brain’s and body. Both boxing and yoga are great methods and therapies to maintain this crucial balance, coordination, and continuity.
Even our proud U.S. Military personnel that are dealing with PTSD uses Yoga to help them to manage this issue.
Focus, balance, coordination, and continuity are huge factors for mental and physical health at any age, but maintaining these are especially important for our cognitive function as we age. Lack of balance is the main reason for weak ankles, falls, especially with Parkinson’s patients. The last thing you want to do is fall, especially over the age of 55, possibly injuring the hip.
Believe me, I had a condition called Perthes that causes the hip joint to deteriorate and erode over time. The pain associated with the later stages of Perthes can reach pain levels in the order of 8 and 9 by a person’s mid-forties. You can’t even get a good night’s sleep due to the pain level is so great. I had a hip replacement in my late 40’s to correct this issue.
I feel like a new man after the hip surgery! DON’T let a doctor tell you that you’re too young for hip replacement. What’s the rationale of wasting 20- years of your prime going through pain to wait until your mid 60’s?
Stay Active in Sports in all Phases of our lives
Sports, like the boxing bag workout and exercise routine, are not only great for your heart, strength, flexibility, and bone density, but for your cognitive function and social well-being. I can actually meditate while I’m working out on the bag, which is a huge benefit for anyone.
It is recommended that everyone needs at least 2.5-hours of physical exercise and fitness each week; that’s only 30- minutes per day guys, five days a week. You need to rest the body during the week for the day(s) that you select to take off. NOTE: DO NOT workout if you are sick, hurt, or injured. Rehab before resuming your workout program and start slow and light,
In my personal fitness routine, I include Cardio-Aerobic Strength Training Techniques in my 45- minute workout, 6- days per week. I can Optimization my workout with a boxing bag routine and my yoga for balance, coordination, and continuity. I typically include THREE-FOUR bag workout rounds that are a little over 2- minutes in length for each round.
Believe me, 2- minutes will seem like an eternity without a distraction. If you are going to work out with a bag, I strongly recommend listening to music. Typically, a song is between 3- to- 4 minutes in length, which makes it great way to gauge your bag rounds.
Watching a clock makes for a long round; music helps to suspend time. Matter of fact, I listen to Spotify® during my complete workout period. My dog, isn’t a Boxer but a Golden Cocker Retriever, that joins me in my gym that doesn’t appreciate the same music that I do. Of course, we have already been on our 2- mile morning jog, weights aren’t his thing.
The Power of Music in Our Workout Sessions
Referring to music being an important part of your workout program session, there is a movie entitled Warrior about an amateur MMA Fighter, Brendan Conlon, that returned to fighting. As Brendan enters the gym you hear Frank Gillio, the trainer of the gym, give one of his fighters instructions about listening to the music.
Focusing on one or more of your five senses, especially in sports, engages the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind doesn’t perceive time as the conscious mind does and the subconscious mind contains our natural responses that we depend on to take over our performance. Keying into one or more of our senses is where we have the sensation of performing in a ZONE.
Working out with a bag helps us sync in with our subconscious mind that is a source of unbelievable potential to heal and to provide a high level performance. I refer to working out on my punching bag as Active Meditation Technique (ATM). The more avenues you have to connect with the your subconscious mind, the more accessible the subconscious mind is to us and all of its limitless potential.
Music is also a great workout motivator to keep a rhythm and reduce mental fatigue. I usually listen to groups like Rolling Stones, U-2, Simple Minds, Cars, and Bob Dylan. Listening to these groups, I’m good to go for the entire workout session.
The young lady that is in the featured photograph is one of my friends that I sometime work out with from time to time. Working out with others help provides a great social benefit and support, especially for older people to avoid mental social isolation issues, like those dealing with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
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Our A-2 Leather Flight Jacket is the same authentic flight jacket developed in 1931 for the U.S. Army Air Corps that pilots and elite paratroopers units like the 82nd and the 101st wore as a badge of honor.
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