Introduction

Origins: It was about this time last year I began to realize I was picking up quite a bit of unwanted weight. By late summer my weight had ballooned to upwards of 235lbs. Needless to say the sight wasn't pretty as my love handles started taking on a mind of their own. Now that I think of it, why on earth do they call them love handles? At any rate I really didn't have the time (nor desire) to go to the gym. I thought about purchasing one of the in home gym systems, like bow-flex, but decided against that due to lack of space, (my then wife's clothing and shoes where so voluminous there was no way I could fit the equipment anywhere)! Besides, I was almost always on the road searching for the next "big opportunity", and my life was very chaotic. Ironically, looking back I'm glad it was because those busy days and my ever increasing corpulence, (by the end of December, 2007 I had reached a standing weight of 243lbs), caused me to stop making excuses, and at the very least, develop a workout routine that would stop the onslaught! I hearkened back to my younger days when I used to body-build (See accompanying photo of me at 24 years old), and dabble in the Japanese martial arts. Realizing that resistance training provided the best fat burning benefits, I speculated about bringing either a set of dumb-bells or resistance cords with me on the road. Alas this was not very realistic nor practical! Fortunately, I was reminiscing about how we created resistance in our martial arts routines when I stumbled upon a very creative and to date effective way of creating resistance with one arm while curling with the other! Doing a few reps I felt my blood surge into my biceps and as it began to tighten, I knew I had something that could replace weights as the point of resistance. From that point I began doing various movements creating resistance each time, and to my astonishment my entire upper body temperature elevated! A few days later, my soreness confirmed that this new found system would build muscle.