The Heavyhands Walking Book download epub

I would like to give this book and his bells one star between them. The dumb bells are pretty but are no improvement on ordinary dumb bells or on special dumb bells with grips. They are just more expensive, and prettier.

The book is very badly laid out. Instead of just bringing us thorugh the exercises and the benefits of pumping to music, the author litters every page with side bars, giving us an intrusive history of everything along the way.

To choose at random Indoor Heavy Hnads Training, which runs from pp 109 to 121, there are 12 big side bars in those pages. This makes the main script and they exerices outlined needlessly difficult to follow.

There is no doubt that the program works for the author and his acolytes. However, that is odwn to discipline, not to following this book. He could have easily, with some more work, have laid it out a lot better. This also goes for his key insights about using one's arms as trianing props: messages like that should fit into one neat paragraph, not in a galaxy of disjointed side bars.

This is my go-to book for exercise advice. I've been doing HeavyHands now for the past 8-9 months and it's been a revelation. I'm a 45 year old male in good health who has exercised all of my life; I started out strong. With HeavyHands I began the program with 3lb hand weights and a 20m routine. After 3 weeks I moved to 4lb weights and a 50m routine. Another 4 weeks after that I moved to 5lb. A month after I moved to 6lb. 3 months after I made it to 7lb weights. I would walk around the track at the local club transitioning between movements (punches, curls, ski, shrugs, etc) every 2 laps while walking about 3mph.

And I realized that this isn't about increasing the weights. Depending on the move you are trying to do, using the same hand weight for all of them is foolish. Obvious to me now, but not so obvious in the moment. I recently started varying my routine so that quick movements (e.g. punches) use 3-5lb weights. Slower movements (e.g. double ski pole) use 8-12lb weights. The other key element I learned is to continue doing the same movement for 5-15m. When I was transitioning between movements every 2 laps as noted above, I hadn't really exhausted the muscle yet. I was missing out on good training.

So my routine now is to switch weights depending on the speed of the move and continue that movement for between 5-15m. I do this for 45m to 60m 3x per week. Throw in some "duck walks" with the movements and you really add to the strain. I maintain between 77% and 83% max heart rate for the duration.

I am in awesome cardio shape. Blood pressure has improved, resting heart rate has improved, strength of my arms and trunk has improved. I can't recommend this enough. Search youtube (and other video sources) for the old heavyhands "walk plus" videos. Fun!

For those who love fitness walking but want to go for a more strenuous workout, this is well worth a try. He explains in precise detail the mechanics of his system of panaerobics, which is designed to exercise all muscle groups at the same time, while providing thorough cardiovascular benefits. For those who (like myself) have a tough time with the mechanics of racewalking, and can't walk much beyond 4 miles per hour, this additional regimen can take you to a higher plateau of fitness. When I was doing this a few years ago (before my daughter was born), it helped reduce my pulse to the high 40s. I'm back at it again, and have thus far reduced my pulse from 87 to 60. It has also helped to reduce my systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 10 points each, to lose 24 pounds in 3 months, and to take 5 inches off the waist. It takes a bit of getting used to, and like any other form of strength/muscle resistance training should be used gradually. Just imagine walking briskly and pushing 2 1/2 lb. hand weights up and down from shoulder height to above your head with your arms fully extended (like engine pistons at work) for 5 minutes, then continuing to walk using 6 or 7 successive and varying movements. You achieve high-intensity exercise with low weights in a very efficient amount of time. (...)
Apart from all that the author's writing style is very readable. The book has several diagrams to show exactly how the system works. The author was 65 at the time of publication and had a pulse of 35 and superior conditioning by any standard. There is a full chapter devoted to working out indoors with these exercises, which offers an advantage over conventional walking which is dependent upon weather to some extent. The author claims to be able to keep in excellent shape while watching TV in his hotel room when on vacation. I tried a session of indoor medley exercises due to a mild foot sprain which made normal walking too uncomfortable. Including some weighted punch and kicks, lateral flings, high pump and walk on the spot, cross punching, swooping, knee dipping, double ski poling, some modified ab crunches, and some forehand to backhand figure eight arm swings, 55 minutes was absolutely exhausting. The author does not recommend workouts of that length at first - more like 15 minutes - but this continuous varied movement gives every muscle group some work and an intense aerobic workout. I've been burning close to 1,000 calories per hour. It was at least as strenuous as the Level 2 weighted walking, without causing further foot injury. Once you get comfortable with this system, you can modify it to suit your preferences and needs.
This book is highly recommended, although as the author points out at the start, anyone wanting to try it should check with their physician first as a precaution. I checked with two of them and both gave the fitness program their professional approval; and furthermore, they are very satisfied with the results obtained thus far.