Didn't Dolph Lundgren use one of these in Rocky 4? During his training for his fight with Rocky while Rocky was using the speed bag? The concept seems the same except that with the Krank you could dial up resistance and thus make it more work as you build up speed and your cardio. Seems that's the concept that would work for Martial Artists wanting to build up speed in their arms and shoulder muscles.Fitness Dept.
Kranking It
by William Finnegan August 4, 2008
First, there was krumping, the spasmic, freestyle hip-hop dance out of South Central L.A. You probably weren’t much good at it. It went global anyway. You might have it confused with crunk. That’s hip-hop, too. Southern, thumping, also fast. Usher had a hit with it a few years back.
O.K. Now it’s time to krank. This is not hip-hop. But it’s going to be huge. To experience Kranking®, you’ll need a Krankcycle®, and, for the moment, one of the few places you can find one in New York is at the Reebok Sports Club/NY, on Columbus Avenue. Avery Washington offers introductory classes. Picture ten Krankcycles in a mirrored room—they’re stationary arm bikes, basically, with just a seat, a suspended front wheel, and hand-pedals where handlebars normally go. On a recent morning, half a dozen women were Kranking, hands whirling in front of them, while a mixtape of Danzel, Janet Jackson, and Miguel Migs pounded from Washington’s pink-shelled iPod. Washington, an extensively muscled man wearing a red bandanna, and a certified Kranking instructor, was chanting, “Left, synch it, a little faster, come on, this is where you get the cardio, nice and smooth, right on, nice transition, left and right, both arms working together.”
Full article here: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2008/08/04/080804ta_talk_finnegan
Dunno, new fitness crazes tend to come and go. Some are good some are well, just that a craze, then it'll fade down to where a few people will be using it while all the rest will pass the machine and say "oh yeah, I used to use one of those for a while, not a bad work out..." then head on over to the juice bar.
From a MA stand point that's one of the benefits I can see from this new (?) machine. To go as fast as you can to build up speed, which is the concept of the "speed bag" for boxing. Only now you can add resistance to it and thus increase strength while building speed.
How does this look to you all? Gonna give it a bash?
