Watch this video on YouTube.

When I began in the fitness industry about 15 years ago I never thought about things like Ultimate Sandbag Training or something like home training. No one who was serious about fitness really ever trained at home, that was reserved for those that had to “settle” for a generic aerobics workouts. Over the years such thinking has really changed with a combination of better fitness tools being available and more importantly an even more innovative line of thinking about how fitness programs are performed!

Ultimate Sandbag Training for Home Workouts

The idea of having giant squat racks, plates everywhere, and a hodgepodge of equipment even in the garage can seem a dream for some, but quite overwhelming and unnecessary for most. In fact, thanks to the growing popularity of our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training education programs I have been fortunate to travel to see modern training facilities all over the world. The funny thing is that there is a trend where most of the best ones have equipment that would be easy to have no matter what your living situation.
Why is this a point I am driving home? In my mind any time you can remove the intimidation and reasons people can avoid great training the more we have help people really change their lives. I like to think Ultimate Sandbag Training goes a long ways in helping achieve this goal. To me Ultimate Sandbag Training allows 3-D training with almost limitless possibilities depending upon whatever the goal is of training.

That is why I was excited to see the creativity fitness expert, Sarah Gwynn, came up with in using a single Ultimate Sandbag to accomplish a variety of fitness goals. Fat loss, conditioning, stability, core, strength, power, it really sounds like it is too good to be true and you should be watching some cheesed out infomercial. I don’t blame you, if I was reading this I would probably be thinking something similar. That is till I come back to the right equipment is only half the equation. The other half (heck, might be 2/3rds) could be how you choose how to create the training that really is important.

Using Ultimate Sandbag Training to Create Your Best Gym!

Let’s be honest, we will see the trend of companies that will market home friendly equipment (some good and some not so much), but the test of time will be the results and the experience you have training with the equipment. In today’s workout Sarah shows you how Ultimate Sandbag Training can be transformed to be very advanced and yet movements that anyone can be greatly successful with. The only way to know is to stop reading and get to training with this awesome Ultimate Sandbag Training workout that will be part of her new program the 10 x10 workout.

Ultimate Sandbag Training Home Workouts the Next Evolution? is a post from: Ultimate Sandbag Training Fitness System by Josh Henkin

Watch this video on YouTube.

Ultimate Sandbag Training for Knee Pain

I am really glad to have Mitch Hauschildt of Maximum Training Solutions is back with some great way to use Ultimate Sandbag Training in preventing or treating knee pain. We get a lot of questions suffering many different aches and pains and wonder if using Ultimate Sandbag Training is still from them. If you follow the great tips like Mitch has in this video you will definitely notice a very positive result in your pain and discomfort. These innovative ideas from coaches like Mitch is why I am so excited about the future of Ultimate Sandbag Training! Using some of our foundational movements to teach varying skills is a unique attribute of Ultimate Sandbag Training. For example, we can transform the classic band x-walk or use the rotational lunge to teach some of the most important deceleration skills that will help in prevent injuries!

Ultimate Sandbag Training Exercises

It should be easy to see that Ultimate Sandbag Training exercises have crossover from fitness, performance, to injury prevention. It isn’t because of one single drill rather the fact that Ultimate Sandbag Training allows to build such easy progressive movements that no matter what your goal you can experience incredible success in reaching your fitness goals. That is why seeing the power of the DVRT system is quickly becoming a standard for all coaches in achieving better results in less time. Check out one of our education programs where you can personally experience the power of the Ultimate Sandbag Training System!

Ultimate Sandbag Training Helping Prevent Knee Pain is a post from: Ultimate Sandbag Training Fitness System by Josh Henkin

One of the things that I am most proud of our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training program is we always challenge ourselves to do better. Whether it is creating better fitness solutions via new exercises, or better fitness programs that both challenge people and help them progress to their fitness goals. Sometimes such an idea will rattle some cages as demanding more means we have to constantly be asking ourselves if we are doing the right things an more importantly we can’t be lazy! Unfortunately, much of the fitness industry is VERY lazy about the information they are giving the public and heck, each other!

Does Ultimate Sandbag Training Follow

The Basic Rules of Fitness?

The basis for my feelings about this is the consistent promotion of the idea that using “the basics” is good enough and where most people should spend their time in their fitness programs. It drives me insane for multiple reasons….

1. There isn’t a governing idea of what makes for “the basics”. Some would tell you push-ups are the basics while others will say the bench press. Is it squatting or lunging? That is why I am happy our Ultimate Sandbag Training program is not married to exercises as much as it is solutions!

2. How many basic exercises are there? Many text books will outline a host of exercises that fit into a “basic program” where some of today’s most popular fitness trainers will claim there may only be 5. How boring and not innovative!

3. What is “basic” for one person may be advanced for another. Again, what we have strived so hard to create in Ultimate Sandbag Training is not a distinction upon “basic”, but more of foundational movements that have a multitude of progressions so that we are incrementally working through more advanced movements.

4. What other industry asks LESS of themselves than fitness! While many sports and activities are rooted in learning foundations, they almost ALL also progress to more advancing techniques. Imagine if all we learned in math was addition? How about only dribbling with our dominant hand in basketball? What if artists only knew primary colors? What if we only taught athletes to run in a straight line? You get my point, seems almost silly, yet we allow such a line of thinking to happen all the time fitness, why is that?

I can appreciate the fact that most fitness professionals do this in an effort to simplify what could be viewed as “overcomplicating” fitness. The truth is, it is our responsibility as fitness professionals to not sacrifice the quality of the training information, rather, create BETTER systems that anyone can apply. That is what I honestly believe in Ultimate Sandbag Training we have accomplished. Once you know the foundational rules you can create a host of very exciting and progressive exercises. Yet, there is one more BIG reason that doing the “basics” doesn’t work, RESULTS!

Results? Shouldn’t the basics give us the best results? I don’t believe this to be the case, but it shouldn’t be up to my opinion, rather, let’s put it to the test. The following table below outlines two workouts given to an individual proficient in both kettlebells and Ultimate Sandbag Training drills. Why did I pick the kettlebell swing to compare to Ultimate Sandbag Training Rotational High Pull? It isn’t to show kettlebells vs. Ultimate Sandbag Training, rather the kettlebell swing has become a standard exercise for many fat loss programs by many top fitness professionals. The point isn’t to diminish this great exercise either, rather, what if we don’t get STUCK in believing the “basics” are the best way to always go?!

 Ultimate Sandbag Training Complexity Secrets to Ultimate Fitness!

Three things really stand out in this comparison….

1. The peak heart rate is a difference of almost 5%, which may sound like a lot, but it is the difference of a peak heart rate of 91% versus almost 96%!

2. The weight of the Rotational High Pull was almost HALF of that of the swing even though the amount of work was the same and the time was almost identical.

3. The calories burned during the swing workout was about 17.92 a minute, that of the rotational high pull was 20.28, about 2.5 calories more per minute, but you already see over a 40 calorie difference in about 14 minutes work of work. There is one more secret!

This workout wasn’t just swings and Ultimate Sandbag Training Rotational High Pulls. Each set of swings or rotational high pulls was alternated with a set of 10 suspended push-ups or a set of body rows for 10. Each set was also managed by 30 seconds of rest in between and the goal was 100 reps of the 88lb kettlebell swing and 100 reps (50 per side) of rotational high pulls. So the amount of work was the same all the way around and wasn’t just a  gut busting “how fast” and “how much” workout we could make. I did this deliberately because I wanted this to reflect more accurately a possible real workout. Now what do YOU think about just “sticking to the basics”? In the near future we will talk about how to integrate a progressive approach to really powerful Ultimate Sandbag Training workouts.

Ultimate Sandbag Training Basics Are NOT Enough! is a post from: Ultimate Sandbag Training Fitness System by Josh Henkin

What is Ultimate Sandbag Training?

In the beginning those that were “hardcore” lifters were the only ones open to the Ultimate Sandbag Training. However, as now almost SEVEN years have passed we have really transformed and yes, revolutionized, what people thought about sandbag training. In fact, in our last post, I shared an interview with Strength Coach and sports medicine expert, Mitch Hauschildt of Maximum Training Solutions. We discussed how Ultimate Sandbag Training fits into developing innovative corrective exercise programs.

In the above video Coach Hauschildt teaches two different means to use Ultimate Sandbag Training both as a means to improve mobility and re-establish stability. That is the power of our Dynamic Variable Resistance System (DVRT) and Ultimate Sandbag Training. With proper understanding of biomechanics and anatomy we can create endless programs that address needs of many fitness enthusiasts.

Ultimate Sandbag Training Continues the Revolt!

The true revolution comes in the fact that now we don’t have to stop training “hard” or have such separate programs when it comes to developing strength, core, stability, endurance, and corrective exercise. It becomes difficult to tell where one ends and another fitness quality begins. In our  DVRT program we don’t see things in the individual terms, why? Most fitness programs are very distinct in that they are aiming to develop one quality or another. For example, many times people will say they are training for strength, but sacrifice their mobility and joints. Others will perform fast conditioning work and forget about building stability and strength and their roles in fat loss and conditioning.

That is my goal and that is these are the exciting ideas I am seeing from other professionals. Below is a great video from Strength Coach, Joakim Bom from Sweden. Is this video demonstrate core training? Does it demonstrate mobility? Does it show strength? I would say a BIG yes in all respects. The lines are blending in our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training program which means we are also changing how people see their training programs. Sometimes change is hard, but if great pros like these gentlemen keep sharing such innovative ideas I think we together will “revolutionize” the industry!

How Does Ultimate Sandbag Training Revolutionize Fitness? is a post from: Ultimate Sandbag Training Fitness System by Josh Henkin

Evolving Ultimate Sandbag Training

Re-inforcing this idea of how Ultimate Sandbag Training is becoming a critical tool and training system for fitness professionals around the world, is the fact we have had the pleasure of traveling the world teaching our Dynamic Variable Resistance Ultimate Sandbag Training System. Most recently I had the extreme pleasure to teach at our first university, Missouri State! There I was so excited to spend the day with not only with some great pros from the Missouri State Athletic Staff, but the man, Mitch Hauschildt. Mitch is the Prevention, Rehab and Physical Performance Coordinator as well as Strength & Conditioning Coach for Women’s Basketball and Volleyball. To say Mitch wears a few hats is an understatement, and not only is he a great coach, but has a depth of knowledge that can make anyone think about hitting the books hard again!

Mitch and I got to speak quite a bit about how Ultimate Sandbag Training and its role in sports performance and most intriguing to me corrective exercise as well. Before we get into some of the very cool ideas that we discussed and how we see Ultimate Sandbag Training into a corrective exercise program, I wanted to interview Mitch about his views on just what corrective exercise means and why we, even those just looking to get fit, should really care about corrective exercise strategies.

Q: Mitch can you tell us about your own athletic background and how you developed your philosophy of fitness and performance training?

A: As an athlete, I played collegiate football at the University of South Dakota. I was a 300-pound offensive lineman whose size and activity level eventually took its toll. A total of 6 knee surgeries later, I decided that if I was going to stay in the world of competitive, collegiate athletics, that I needed to find a better way to create great athletes who could stay healthy and not have life-long health concerns. This lead me down the path of becoming at Athletic Trainer and Strength Coach. Because of my athletic background, I describe myself as a strength coach who happens to be an athletic trainer. This mentality has worked well for me, as I have been successful in rehabilitating injured athletes back to very high levels of competition. I believe this is due not only to the fact that athletes are very familiar with the movements and exercises that I prescribe (teaching them variations to work around an injury is easy), but mentally, all athletes prefer to feel as though they are performing work, not just lying on a table hooked up to a machine. One the other side, when I get to work with my division I programs from a performance perspective, I am able to use my medical knowledge to create programming that has been extremely successful in preventing injury while simultaneously increasing performance.

Q: Obviously Mitch you believe in “corrective exercise”, what does this really mean and can and should it be applied to people that want to get just more fit?

A: The term “corrective exercise” is a term that has been growing in recent years and because of that, defining it is a little bit difficult. To me, it refers to any exercise or movement that is specifically designed to fix or improve a pattern which has been deemed “faulty”. How we define “faulty” is another discussion all together. But, for the most part, corrective exercise tends to be very focused on movement quality, rather than quantity. The answer to the second part of the question is, YES everyone should be performing some sort of corrective exercise. It is very rare that I come across anyone in any walk of life that doesn’t have some sort of restriction, whether it is mobility, neurological patterning, strength, or biomechanical in nature. Our lifestyle in general does not lend itself to helping us move well throughout our day. Because of that, everyone has an ache or pain that is nagging them. And, if they don’t, they soon will when their exercise intensity begins to climb to the point where their body breaks down. Some people reach that point much sooner than others, but everyone eventually will. The good thing is, if you are training in a really good, well-rounded program, corrective exercise should be temporary. Once the corrections have been made. The training program should keep you mobile, active and healthy.

Q: What do you think are some of the more common misconceptions about “corrective exercise”?

A: The number one misconception that I hear a lot is that corrective exercise is only for those who are injured or for preventing injury. And, it is true that we almost always prescribe corrective strategies for injured athletes and/or use them to prevent injury, but we are also finding that by making the necessary corrections with our athletes, that we improve performance. I can show you a number of athletes who are average to above average athletically, but have some movement issues and restrictions. Once their restrictions are identified, we will often take 2-4 weeks of doing nothing but correcting those areas. This means no real lifting or movement training. Virtually every time that we retest these athletes, they have greater strength, power output, and speed, even though we have not trained them in a traditional strength and power program. This is because for the first time in a long time, their prime movers are actually performing the work they were designed to do, instead of trying to make up for another part of the body which is restricted or “lazy.” Once that begins to happen, suddenly the body’s nervous systems wakes up and they function at a much higher rate on all levels.

Q: More and more professionals are trying to implement corrective programs, what do you think as an industry we are doing right and wrong?

A: I think we are trying to do the right thing by attempting to implement the programs in general. Identifying the issues and attempting to correct them is a huge first step and I applaud many great professionals in the field for trailblazing this area. I do think that oftentimes we fall short in understanding exactly what is going on with an athlete who doesn’t move well and then how to correct it. This comes down to education. We have wonderful, well-meaning people with a lot of schooling who can’t see through the holes in the traditional ways of looking at the body as individual muscles, bones and joints that by themselves create motion. Conversely, we see a lot of young people trying to break into the fitness field who aren’t skewed by the traditional education system, but they just don’t posses the understanding of the body’s structure to begin the connect the dots. The human body is very complex and we need to do a better job of training the “system,” not the parts. When people come into our training room and see me doing rehab on an athlete, they usually can’t tell which part of the body I am treating, because we are treating the “system” in order to fix the injury. I love what Thomas Myers says in Anatomy Trains when he states “…we must look globally, act locally, and the act globally to integrate our local remedies in the whole person’s structures.” This is why functional training has become so popular in recent years. It places an emphasis on training the “system” instead of the part. Other areas that we need to improve upon are making sure that we don’t rush to add load to movements which aren’t perfectly clean, as well as figuring out better ways to integrate corrective strategies into large group and team settings efficiently.

Q: How does Ultimate Sandbag Training and the DVRT system fit into what you see the future of corrective exercise?

A: What strikes me about the DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training system is that it allows you to train the body in ways which are unique to other implements. If an athlete or client is willing to focus on the details of the system in every movement, they will feel and find areas of their body which are restricted that they never realized. Those unknown restrictions, no matter how small they may be, have a cumulative effect on the system, leading to large deficiencies in movement. While I think that the term “posterior chain” is a bit over used, lets face it, our backsides in this country suck. The DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training system is almost always training the backside in some form or capacity. I believe that if we simply make improvements in that area of the body, that we will correct a ton of the movement based issues that plague our society as a whole. Along with that, the varying loads that the sandbag provides makes for a very unique programming tool. And the final, and maybe most important advantage of the system is that it allows me to easily and safely train our athletes in an eccentric nature with rotation. I have found no other implement that can do that, and we have ignored that area of training for years with our programming.

Ultimate Sandbag Training Corrective Exercise

Working with pros like Mitch is helping us to constantly evolve our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training system to all new heights. This means for you, better programs, better exercises and experiencing how Ultimate Sandbag Training can be revolutionizing your fitness!

Ultimate Sandbag Training Corrective Exercises Intro is a post from: Ultimate Sandbag Training Fitness System by Josh Henkin

Most recently I performed a workout from our Synergy 2.0 Ultimate Sandbag Training and kettlebell program and got the following results:

Ultimate Sandbag Training Interval Results

-Burned 400 calories in 20 minutes of work

-AVERAGED a 90% heart rate which shows great potential for High Intensity Interval Training effects such as far increased metabolism and burning fat while sparring muscle.

-40 minutes after the workout continued to burn another 386 calories during rest meaning in an hour time frame burned 786 with only 20 minutes of actual training!

-Here is another amazing result coming from Fat Loss Guru, Alwyn Cosgrove, as he wrote me in regards to these results. “based on everything I’ve read – with post-workout “Anaerobic” afterburn (need a better term) and the anaerobic calories that you can’t measure – at that intensity the calories could be 30-40% higher.” That means I ended up burning well over 1000 calories for the hour and AGAIN with 20 minutes of training.

Making Ultimate Sandbag Training More Progressive

This wasn’t a workout to just destroy you in a training session rather designed to manage fatigue, build strength and stability, and yes, get a great fat burning effect. Part of this is from the idea of building complexity into our exercises along with the right training variables.

Complexity can be relative to the individual, a beginner may find that our Bear Hug Squats to be a challenging form of complexity while advanced lifters will find that Shoulder Lunges to Balance have a high form of complexity. The point is that you can scale complexity which probably will allow for a better training program than if you just changed reps or weight.

The other incredibly value component of working within complexity is the fact that you now transform our Ultimate Sandbag Training into an incredible versatile training implement that doesn’t require many pieces of equipment. Want to see how versatile Ultimate Sandbag Training really is? You won’t want to miss today’s training circuit that outlines some incredible Ultimate Sandbag Training exercises that definitely can give you the same type of results without running you into the ground!

Ultimate Sandbag Training Interval Training and Beyond is a post from: Ultimate Sandbag Training Fitness System by Josh Henkin

 Ultimate Sandbag Training & Re-inventing Strength Training?

Wow, that seems like a bold statement to think that our Ultimate Sandbag Training could re-invent what has been done for so long, is that all hype? Of course DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training doesn’t ignore the successes that other strength programs have demonstrated, in fact we embrace them and see if we can build upon them. However, what excites me the most is the many levels and progressions that are within the program. It isn’t a case of just “expanding the toolbox”, rather like getting you a much, much bigger new toolbox!

So what is it? What is it that is so different that I keep believing can change the way people see strength training? When I mention options and choices it means that we have ways to progress your fitness beyond just load. Weight in DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training is always an option, but unlike many other programs, it isn’t the ONLY option.

Stability: I spoke about in a previous post that we can get stronger by building up the stabilizers of our body. This means the smaller muscle groups that support our joints and the easiest way to think of this is the old saying, “we are only as strong as our weakest link.” In many cases it is the small stabilizer muscles that fail and prevent the bigger muscles from doing their full job. Ok, so how is this unique to DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training?

Most fitness programs only are able to address these needs by changing your body position or they try to put you on something unstable (the second being shown to be far less effective). In our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training program we have the following options….

-Stability or Instability of the Ultimate Sandbag

-Stability or Instability of Body Position

-Stability or Instability of Ultimate Sandbag Holding Position

-Stability or Instability of the Movement of the Ultimate Sandbag

This is a significant difference in what we see in other fitness programs which means we can create exercises specific to your training goal and to your fitness level. From a results side this stuff is POWERFUL! Why? When you start to progress any of these one or several of them you can raise exercise intensity which inherently all adding more weight does as well! So, when you begin to add the idea that you can ALSO increase weight the type of exercise starts to do some pretty cool things.

 Ultimate Sandbag Training Beyond the Weight

In the end only one thing matters, what does this mean for your results?! To be honest, it really depends on how you want to look at it. If your goal is to lose fat and get lean how does this DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training concept mean? Very simple, it means you burn more calories and are able to demonstrate a higher heart rate. Why care about the heart rate? Heart rate is an indicator of exercise intensity and if we have a higher heart rate during our workout the more likely we are to experience a pumped up metabolism for hours after our workout!

Does this mean anything to sports performance or just general wellness and health? Absolutely! From a performance stand point think of the fact that your Ultimate Sandbag Training is like a classroom for your body and physical skills. If you make your nervous system “smarter” you can produce more force, strength, and coordination resulting in better performance without feeling stiff an immobile. It is similar for those that are looking to feel and look better. Usually we think of such goals as mutually exclusive but using this line of thinking we can increase your movement skills, stability in the joint, and overall strength. Seems too good to be true, but that is what gets me excited about our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training program and why we continue to give you over 350 FREE Youtube videos showing you how to put this into practice!

Ultimate Sandbag Training Breaking Fitness Plateaus is a post from: Ultimate Sandbag Training Fitness System by Josh Henkin

Let me start this off by saying this is what I know and have experienced.

This is no BS after I finished my workout last, I just let my Polar FT7 heart rate monitor run for 29 min, and it showed a burn 250 + more calories just recovering from my Ultimate Sandbag Training and kettlebell Synergy 2.0 Workout.

Funny thing about this is, that many of the really popular forms of exercise only burn that much while your are actuating DOING them.

Why Does Ultimate Sandbag Training and Kettlebell

Synergy Training Work?

Why do these types of numbers matter?

Why even bother with the testing, data and metrics, etc…

Simple those numbers are important to many of you.

Personally I already unequvically believe that kettlebells and Ultimate Sandbag Training are the best strength and conditioning, tools we have available today, bar none.

Some of you question whether these tools can get you stronger?

Some of you question whether they are able to produce functional lean body mass?

Some of you question whether they are able to improve athletic performance?

Some of you even question if they are the best tool for fat loss and metabolic conditioning.?

So I am happy to give you numbers, and let you take an objective or even subjective look at them.

Then let you see if this type of time effective training is really valuable to your lifestyle.

Are these numbers really science, NO

Are these numbers from as accurate of a source as is reasonably possible, YES

Along with that Josh and I have done our best to give consistency with these numbers, YES

The workout numbers I am about share with are not some soul-crushing workout, nor is some re-packaged product using out-dated programming and out-dated fitness tools with new ‘terminology’ that some fitness guru that has ‘invented’, and is definitely is NOT some boring ass standard kettlebell and Ultimate Sandbag Training program of kettlebell swings and sandbag shouldering

These are real legit kettlebell and Ultimate Sandbag Training PROGRAMS, as a matter of fact and of course I am extremely biased.  However, I think these are the best kettlebell and Ultimate Sandbag Training programs, I’ve written so far.

I am not here to tell you they are as simple as a double seaweed body wrap; because they are not.

They are tough, real tough.

They have to be to be able to produce the numbers that they do.

So here are the numbers from our most recent test

Real Results of Ultimate Sandbag Training and Kettlebell Synergy Training

Troy

• Starting HR: 74 BPM
• Phase 1 HR High: 177BPM
• Phase 2/Finish High: 177BPM
• 39 minutes of Total Time
• 600 calories burned

15.38 calories per minute

Josh

• HR High: 182 BPM
• 30 minutes of Total Tim
• 660 calories burned

22 calories per minute

These number were produce from the Mayhem workout in our newest DVD called, Dual Threat Synergy. Personally but I think that this is the toughest of the 8 workouts.

We are currently working on testing other workouts.

The other day Josh also tested the Chaos workout the other day and burned 520 calories in a little less than 30 minutes.   So the numbers are point pretty consistently to the 500-600 range in a 30 minute time frame.

Let me reiterate these or NOT boring or ‘beasting’ types of workouts.

They are just good, high quality kettlebell and ultimate sandbag programs, that really get the job done.

Here’s the cool thing you don’t have to take my word for it, you can test it out for free

So while numbers don’t matter to me but I need to give you a chance to see them and make your own decision

Love, it hate, or be a skeptic.

These workouts produce unprecedented results, and I am super excited to bring you even more of these top quality workouts and workout data in the future.

Want to experience what an amazing PROGRAM of systematically combining Ultimate Sandbag Training can do for you? Get this awesome 12-week program now: CLICK HERE

Ultimate Sandbag Training Burns Calories Even During Rest! is a post from: Ultimate Sandbag Training Fitness System by Josh Henkin

Ultimate Sandbag Training Future of Fitness Training

One of the most challenging aspect of Ultimate Sandbag Training and our DVRT system is you have to change how you see fitness programs and sometimes words can be our biggest enemy. For example, many people mistakenly interchange “weight training” and “strength training” when they think of fitness programs. As small as it may sound, it can be a big difference in how people setup their fitness programs and try to progress over time.

“Weight training” tends to imply that the most important variable in a fitness program is how much weight you lift. For most this would  seem like an obvious thing, lift more weight during your fitness program. Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple, if it was we all would be lifting 1000 pounds only a short time of lifting. After the initial learning period of an exercise or program is finished, strength training effective strength training programs have to go beyond just adding more weight.

That is why I prefer to think of our fitness as “strength training” as that opens the door for us to create more successful fitness programs by looking at a host of different training variables such as speed, range of motion, leverage, and complexity of movement. Strength training is about adding a stimulus to the body more than it is typically familiar with. That can come in many forms but unfortunately most people only think of adding more weight and reps and unfortunately this leads to quick plateauing, stagnation, and overuse injures.

Ultimate Sandbag Training Advancing Functional Fitness

The challenge is how do you make continual progress in your fitness program. Ultimate Sandbag Training was designed to layer many levels of progressions outside that will feed into continual progress in your training. It may require us to be more creative in our thinking of strength training, but the results speak for themselves in not only getting leaner faster, but also move better and faster to adapt to any type of new exercise. Ultimate Sandbag Training allows us to change not just weight or reps, or heck even speed and range of motion, but body position and weight position as well. The more variables we have access to the more we can create better progressions to allow faster results.

The biggest decision comes in choosing the right Ultimate Sandbag Training system for you and your goals! When choosing the right Ultimate Sandbag it is important to consider not just weight, but dimension and stability of the Ultimate Sandbag as well. That is why we recommend the Power Package for most women and Strength Package for most men. The weight of the Ultimate Sandbag is only part of the consideration in your training. By looking beyond just weight we can teach the body to move in different positions and patterns, the result? A body that moves better, gets stronger by strengthening the entire body and not just the big muscle groups, and teaching mobility so that you don’t end up getting stronger, but moving like a robot. That is what today’s lesson is all about and see how the DVRT system with Ultimate Sandbag Training can change how you create better fitness programs!

Ultimate Sandbag Training Beyond Weight Training is a post from: Ultimate Sandbag Training Fitness System by Josh Henkin

One such topic that may seem a bit obvious is the idea of everyone should “train for strength!” How in the world could I be against this?! I am not against the idea of getting stronger (um, the whole idea of strength training), but I am against what is now being promoted as the best way to get stronger. To quote several well respected professionals, their belief to get stronger is to “lift heavy sh&*t!” Outwardly that would seem like some sound advice that would be hard to argue, well, I am going to argue it!

Ultimate Sandbag Training Heavy Lifting?

Lifting heavy first and foremost requires a high level of skill, awareness, and the ability to program than just about any fitness variable. It amazes me how many coaches forget the basics of strength training programming yet often espouse “doing the basics.” Tudor Bompa, an former Eastern European coach and one of the most respected coaches in the area of Periodization would have a VERY hard time with this idea of just lifting heavy.

In periodization Mr. Bompa recommended first a period of training known as an  “anatomical adaptation phase” (AA). The purpose of AA was to strengthen people’s ligaments and joints for more heavier periods of training. I would argue in our current age that this is a point where we need to spend a lot of time in implementing stabilization exercises to also teach body control, joint integrity, and provide muscular endurance. YES! A base of muscular endurance helps one be more resilient to the intensity of heavier lifts and recover faster. For our purpose it also teaches principles of proper movement patterns and identify weaknesses that could be hidden during heavier lifts leading to bad compensation patterns. This phase is seen to be 8-10 weeks for novice and somewhat shorter for more experienced lifters and athletes. A hypertrophy phase (increased muscular sizes) can often follow which means possibly 16 weeks of training needs to be performed before thinking of moving to heavier training.

“The AA phase represents the foundation on which the other phases of training are based. The name of this phase has been specifically selected to illustrate the fact that the main objective of strength training is not an immediate overload, but rather a progressive adaptation of an athlete’s anatomy. The objectives of the AA phase are focused around “prehabilitation” with the hope of preventing the need for “rehabilitation.” In other words, focusing on a higher volume of training with low to medium loads will aid in the adaptation level of an athlete’s muscle tissue, ligaments and tendons, and prepare the body for the more challenging program inherent in the following phases of training. Furthermore, a methodologically structured AA phase will aid in the improvement of inter-muscular coordination (i.e. balance, coordination and neural firing patterns), and increase the bone mineral content and proliferation of connective tissue that surrounds the individual muscle fibers.”

This almost four month period is important not to rush. The ability to not only perform but recover from heavier training is important. Now, what is stabilization for one person could be advanced for another. Here are some examples of how different fitness levels could use Ultimate Sandbag Training in this phase:

Ultimate Sandbag Training Progressions

Ultimate Sandbag Training Beginner

-Bear Hug Squats

-Clean and Press

-Zercher Reverse Lunge

-Bent-Over Row

Ultimate Sandbag Training Intermediate

-Staggered Zercher Squat

-Shoulder to Shoulder Press

-Shoulder Forward Lunge

-Forward & Back Ultimate Sandbag Drag

Ultimate Sandbag Training Advanced

-Shoulder Squat

-Half Kneeling Shoulder to Shoulder Press

-Rotational Lunge

-Single Leg Bent-over Row

You can see Ultimate Sandbag Training allows us to hit many patterns and levels while still getting “stronger”. Coaches are so quick to forget that developing better body awareness and stabilizer strength we can get a lot of people stronger without rushing into performing heavier lifts. If we examine why most injuries occur is it because someone wasn’t strong squatting or deadlifting or was it more of an issue that someone had a major weakness or instability in an area. I think you know the answer.

Do these Ultimate Sandbag Training drills really make you “stronger”? Let’s take a specific example of the deadlift. Where do a lot of people fail when they begin to lift heavy in the deadlift? The upper back and low back often are unable to maintain posture during the deadlift and rounding begins. Makes sense that our hips are way more powerful than our upper back so there is a big weak link there. How can we help that? Take the Ultimate Sandbag Training Zercher Good Morning as one of the most underrated lifts in our program.

The Ultimate Sandbag Training Zercher Good Morning accomplishes three VERY important goals:

-Build upper back and low back strength

-Teaches how to “hinge” at the hips instead of moving at the low back

-One of the toughest exercises on the abs because how hard they have to fight flexion of the torso.

If those three reasons weren’t good enough, because of the uniqueness of Ultimate Sandbag Training we could alter simple components of the Zercher Good Morning to stress different goals.

-Stable Bilateral: So working in this position allows us to use more weight so we can stress the upper and lower back in a positive way at a higher degree.

-Staggered Stance: Gives us a blend of the stable bilateral position and the single leg Ultimate Sandbag Training Zercher Good Morning with some instability that is going to now introduce our body’s need to also resist stresses in more planes of motion and see the balance between the two sides.

-Single Leg Zercher Good Morning: Allows us to really stress the hips and lower leg because of the unique placement of the Ultimate Sandbag it creates a more challenging lever arm. Here we can see all types of compensations in the hip and low back. Mild increases in weight of the Ultimate Sandbag can create HUGE perceived stress to these areas.

Here may be the best part of all…they are almost impossible to hide compensations. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get stronger and leaner without feeling achy and stiff. It isn’t magic, it is about learning proper progressions, patterns, and understanding how filling in the holes with Ultimate Sandbag Training can take you to another level!

Ultimate Sandbag Training Fallacy of Strength? is a post from: Ultimate Sandbag Training Fitness System by Josh Henkin