Great Handbooks: Heavy Bag, Speed Bag

You can’t always personally go home with your customers after they buy your products and show them the ropes, but you can send them off confidently with a good, concise instruction book.

The “Great Handbook” series by Productive Fitness Products succinctly focuses on how to use and train with various accessories and equipment found in the fitness industry. Two of the newer offerings — “The Great Heavy Bag Handbook” and “The Great Speed Bag Handbook” – focus on offering the growing numbers of fitness-oriented boxers and kickboxers the tools to achieve a productive workout. They are among 10 handbooks, as well as posters and a journal, offered by the company.

Initially, users will learn about the types of heavy bags and speed bags on the market and how to install them safely, as well as the needed accessories — handwraps (with a how-to-wrap section) and gloves.

Each book breaks down the basics of all maneuvers and exercises covered with concise step-by-step instructions and accompanying pictures for each move. Rather than rush amateurs to the bag to start duking it out, the books then cover stance and body movement, the optimal points of contact to hit and kick the bag, as well as 16 stretches to get them warmed up. Then the real fun starts.

“The Great Heavy Bag Handbook” takes users through the punches — jab, cross, hook, uppercut and spinning back fist — dedicating a page to each one with instructions and incremental photos to demonstrate each part of the process (love the pics!). For those who like to kick up their heels, it follows similar suit with the most common kickboxing kicks: front kick (rear and front), side kick, front leg round kick, roundhouse, spinning back kick and side knee strike. Once they have the maneuvers down pat, it’s time to take all that they’ve learned and practice the punch and kick combinations detailed in the handbook. They’ll get their lather up with three-minute rounds of combinations that steadily increase from five moves up to 10 to 11 moves.

Not nearly as exciting as punching and kicking a heavy bag but no less useful is “The Great Speed Bag Handbook.” Organized similarly to the heavy bag handbook, it offers instruction of basic and advanced punches unique to speed bags. It has drills for jabs, crosses and 20-20s, as well as 15-minute routines with a timing guide for punching and breaks similar to an actual match in the ring.

With these 66-page handbooks as a guide, any aspiring boxer or kickboxer would be ready to step into a cardio class and feel confident of their moves or start taking classes to train one-on-one with people. They can also be a good reference for between classes or to learn a few basics before taking a class.

SNEWS® Rating: 4.5 hands clapping (1 to 5 hands clapping possible, with 5 clapping hands representing functional and design perfection)

Suggested Retail: $8.95 each

For more information:www.productivefitness.com or 1-800-994-9097