u/Additional-Sugar6789

For me, going to the gym is such a time sink that it often deters me from trying to get in shape. Outside of the time it takes you to workout at the gym, it takes a decent amount of time just to get ready and drive to/from the gym. On top of that, when you get there, there's no guarantee all the equipment you need to use will be available when you need to use it! I also live in Alaska, so it gets way too cold in the winter to want to go outside at all lol.

To get around these issues, use resistance bands! With a few pieces of equipment, you can do virtually any exercise you would normally need to go to the gym to do. With some bands, pull-up bar, a door anchor, and a little creativity, you can hit every major muscle group just as you would with weights. If your goal is to powerlift or something like that, then obviously the gym will be better for that; it's much easier to generate high resistance with weight + gravity than it is with industrial size rubber bands. But if your goal is to get healthy and look good, consider picking up some bands! Here's a list of some advantages I've noticed:

• Cheap when compared to buying weights / monthly gym fees.
• Easy to travel with so you can maintain your routine on trips/vacation.
• Easy to store. You don't need a whole room dedicated to your equipment.
• They are generally safer and easier on the joints. If you need to bail on a lift, it is much easier to do so.
• Extremely easy setup and teardown requiring minimal effort.
• You save SO MUCH time not needing to drive to another location to exercise.
• No judgement! I can make whatever horrible noises without turning heads. I find this has the added benefit of curbing my subconscious ego I can get when at the gym. I'm less inclined to try weights that are a little too heavy for me causing my form to suffer.

A few tips:

• Buy a pull-up bar. This is very necessary for pull exercises particularly. It will not only enable you to do pull-ups, but also serve as a good anchor for your bands so you can do rows or lat-pulldowns... stuff like that.
• Buy a door anchor. Mine is basically just a piece of nylon with a foam ring on one end and a loop on the other. You close it in the hinge-side of your door with the loop facing you to anchor your bands wherever you need... basically turns your door into a cable machine.
• Get some large loop bands. These are really good for things like squats. And you can fold them on themselves to easily increase the resistance... good for lighter deadlifts.
• Incorporate good-old-fashioned bodyweight exercises like push-ups/pull-ups and make them your primary exercises for your upper body. These are compound movements so they are excellent for your body. You can even use bands to make them harder for when you get stronger!

Now I'm not a huge college football guy, so when the draft comes around, I'm hearing about most of these guys for the first time. I also tend to trust the staff for the most part, at least more than fans giving their opinions. But there's just something about this draft that feels a little different. Like I think we got some great fucking players.

I really believe that our first two picks are gonna be pro bowl level dudes by the time their rookie contract ends. Caleb Banks seems like an absolute MONSTER and a genuinely bright dude with a competitive chip. All extremely important traits to become elite. Im not worried about his foot as some people are, mostly because it's a broken bone and not tendon/ligament problems. Bones are very notably less finicky than those, and in most cases broken bones are not very predictive of future injury like soft tissue injuries are.

The sleeper home run pick of the draft though will be Golday. He seems to be the PERFECT brian flores player. Hes athletic, has good size, and everyone talks about his character and work ethic. Most importantly, he has a good amount of reps playing the edge, so hes very versatile. It screams Gink to me, but with even better measurables. If he can study under Gink for the next year or two and learn some pass rushing tricks, I genuinely think this dude is gonna be a monster as long as we run a flores scheme. He may need to bulk up a tad to better fit that role if thats actually the plan.

The other picks I've felt good about too. Especially big citrus and Jakobe Thomas. The flyer on Demmings given his measurables and what coaches are saying about him i feel great about too. Hell, I was genuinely hype that we went out and got the top fullback prospect too! Ham was such a sneaky important part of our team that im glad we went out and got a guy to fill his shoes. Im usually pretty high on our drafts, I was even excited for the 2022 draft 😅 but this one just feels different to me. It just feels like flores was able to go out and get more athletic versions of the type of players he likes. Im fucking pumped for this year!!