Hitting and kicking the heavy bag are great exercises, and heavy bag work is a core component of some martial arts, such as boxing, muay Thai, and MMA.

Heavy bags come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from the small canvas boxing bags like this one:

to freestanding training bags like this one, …

We are hardwired to view sameness as safety, change as danger.

I realized this when considering whether or not I should sign up for a jiu-jitsu seminar with martial arts legend Royce Gracie.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with him, Royce is a professional mixed martial artist from Brazil who …

Cool news — my article on Bartitsu ranked in the top 10 (it ranked #4) most popular martial arts articles at Breaking Muscle! Here’s a list of the top 10 martial arts articles for 2012 at Breaking Muscle and here’s my Bartitsu article.