INKTOBER 2025 Day #9: HEAVY.

INKTOBER 2025 Day #9: HEAVY.

“You’ve used barbells and dumbbells. Maybe you’ve even used kettlebells and clubbells. Now introducing the plate-loaded, fully adjustable Plungerbell!
I have been working out for almost four decades now (yikes). In that time, I’ve experimented with a lot of exercises, movements, and training approaches. What I’ve found is I enjoy them all for various reasons. I consider myself an exercise/movement nerd. I like trying new (to me) movements and equipment. I like designing and building my own exercise equipment and gadgets. At first glance, a ‘plungerbell’ seems like an amusing, silly device, but the more I think about it, the more I think it would actually be a great tool.
There is an extensive, centuries-long history of odd object exercises, particularly asymmetrically loaded levers. Warriors from various cultures would train with weighted weapons like swords and spears. Clubbells were large, weighted, wooden clubs popular among middle eastern wrestlers. In Okinawa and Japan there were stones attached to sticks to create ‘chi ishi’, which were used to perform a variety of unique, martial-related strength and conditioning. In modern times there was a guy online that founded a workout system called ‘Shovel Glove’, which used a 10-pound sledgehammer to mimic ‘functional’ movements like shoveling, hammering, etc. (on a side note, the term ‘functional’ tends to get thrown around incorrectly. One must ask ‘functional for what?’ If you are a powerlifter, bench pressing and related accessory exercises is functional. Most people usually mean training for common, everyday human movements, though, like climbing, crawling, walking, running, picking up, carrying, and using tools.). There’s also another guy I’ve seen on social media who created the B.A.M.F. hammer, which is basically a giant block of rubber on a handle that you can use to do a whole host of unique exercises with, the most fun of which is smashing it against the ground.
Anyway, once PMD is famous, maybe I’ll put some energy behind marketing a ‘plungerbell’.”

Do you enjoy these silly pen and ink illustrations starring Plunger Monkey? Wish you had a whole book full of them to gaze at lovingly whenever you wanted? You’re in luck! Get a copy of Inklings to satisfy that need: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1733734716/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1AO28074KOTGC&keywords=inklings+by+toby+gray&qid=1689026488&s=books&sprefix=inklings+by+toby+gray%2Cstripbooks%2C103&sr=1-1