Workout at Home Using These Four Unconventional Training Tools - Primitive Fitness Equipment

So far in 2020 I have turned my attention toward diet and exercise with great results. In addition to walking/hiking I have started to incorporate some unconventional fitness methods into my practice. Here's a rundown on four different unconventional training tools that will give you a workout without having to leave home or break the bank.

Kettlebell

Kettlebell
The kettlebell or girya resembles a cannonball with a handle on top. Its center of gravity is offset from the cast iron handle and constantly shifting, which makes it hard to control. The kettlebell lends itself to flowing motions and building strength and power: swings, presses, squats, rows and carries. It is used for cardio, flexibility and strength. It has been said that if you own a kettlebell then you own a gym.

Steel Mace

Mace
The steel mace or gada is a weighted ball on a long straight handle. Let's not kid ourselves...it's a weapon! The heavy head and light handle give the mace an uneven distribution of weight, making it very unbalanced. The most common mace exercises are called the 360 and the 10 to 2, but you can get super creative with the mace. It can help with balance, coordination, posture, stability and body awareness.

Indian Clubs

Steel Clubs

Clubs
Clubs aren't lifted, they are swung. Club swinging is a very natural motion where the club acts as an extension of your arm. These ancient rhythmic movements can be set to music. The shape of a club resembles a baseball bat, bowling pin, or juggling club. It can be made of wood or steel. Lighter clubs are best for flexibility and mobility. Heavy clubs are for strength and grip. Strability, flexibility, endurance, fat-burning, lean muscle and concentration are among the benefits of club swinging. It's like a blend of cardio and weight training.

the Shena

Shena
Persian style push-ups are done on a traditional wooden board with two triangular supports which raise your hands off the floor. This board is called a Shena.  The push-up poses resemble yoga - downward dog, upward dog, low plank, deep knee bends. Persian push-ups are done slowly, methodically and strategically with an emphasis on rhythm and fluidity. Continuity of motion. The Shena adds a different dimension to any fitness practice; developing strength, flexibility, muscle endurance, stamina and agility.


There are more tools you can utilize - ropes, sandbags, pull-up bars, escrima sticks. I'm sticking to just the above four for now.

Mary Halvorson on Writing Your Own Exercises and Etudes

Mary Halvorson

Mary Halvorson is a guitarist that I find to be very interesting.  She likes to create her own exercises on guitar, targeting specific things that she wants to get better at.  By zoning in on one simple scale or pattern and creating her own exercises based on that scale, she absorbs that information in a personal way.

In a 2012 article for Premier Guitar Magazine, she describes the process of creating your own exercises and demonstrates how they can help with ear training, technique, getting your fingers to move in new ways, and developing a personal style of playing.  For example, you could play a scale in all 12 keys in the same position on the guitar, starting in the key of C and going through the cycle of fourths.

By staying in one place on the neck you can't just repeat the same pattern over and over again - with each new key you have to move up a fourth or down a fifth to stay in position.  (FYI:  this works for mandolin or guitar).

To add another level of complexity to this exercise, she plays each scale descending, starting on the 2nd note of the scale, which makes it a 7-note scale.  Playing the seven notes scales as a steady stream of 16th notes creates rhythmic displacement that threw me for a loop when I tried it!  (B - A - G - F- E - D - C - E / D - C - Bb - A - G - F - A - G / F - Eb - D - C - Bb - D - C - B and so on...I think!).  This is shown in Fig. 4 of her magazine article.

For a further level of variation, she makes it a nine note ascending scale by incorporating open strings before the first and second notes of each scale.  This creates a nine note pattern which you still play in a steady stream of 16th notes.  See Fig. 5 in the Premier Guitar lesson for the tab to this and good luck trying it!

Mary says that once you get the hang of this the variations are endless.  You could arpeggiate the scale, you could start on a note other than the root, you could alternate ascending and descending, you could slide into the third note of each scale, you could double up or triple up on each note.

In this video for Jazz at Lincoln Center she further discusses the topic of writing your own exercises.

You can basically take anything you're learning or working on and create your own exercises to better absorb it - ideas that come from you.