I can’t really tell, is it craziness that makes one think the complete opposite to much of the industry? I like to think it is the fact we have courage to see problems, even if it may not be the popular view. Heck, doing what everyone else is doing is terrific if it is the RIGHT thing, but I have a feeling that the industry is going to be experience a giant paradigm shift in 2012.
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!
