3-D Ultimate Sandbag Workouts

It is a huge fear that I have with people using our Ultimate Sandbag workouts. That they just see something cool, but they don’t really understand the why’s. You might wonder why I would care, don’t I just want you using the Ultimate Sandbag? My goal is that you gain great power from our Ultimate Sandbag workouts not just in the performance of the exercises or workouts, but from the concepts and principles that power them.

The power of Ultimate Sandbag workouts comes in the purpose you put behind the exercises. 

After all, we live in the age where most people have an attention span of about eight seconds (this is actually a scientific fact!). What allows people to stay focused on Ultimate Sandbag workouts is both the results, but also understanding the real power behind our exercises and workouts.

One of those is how we think about moving in all directions. Some people think that doing so is just a circus trick or being novel. The truth is that the idea of moving in different planes of motion is not a new idea. Most strength coaches have known that we move in all sorts of ways in sport and life. Just the simple fact that walking requires use of all three planes of motion means it is something we should use in our training.

However, where our Ultimate Sandbag workouts do differ is the system and through process behind how we use these concepts in developing programs. I’ve joked for a long time that most strength coaches think they accomplish the idea of using the different planes of motion simply by adding in the token lateral lunge. While this is a good exercise we can do way better in being more thoughtful about our training.

Having a system of movement opens up how many people we can help and gives us direction to our training.

We aren’t against sagittal plane work either. Sagittal plane training is important as it is the most stable environment of the three planes of motion. That means we use it to teach the skill of all our movement patterns. You don’t want to learn a new movement AND be very unstable, that is a recipe for creating very bad habits! The sagittal plane being stable also means we can use it to continue to do work even after we have fatigued our body and nervous system with more complex exercises.

The way we progress the sagittal plane training is to resist the frontal and transverse planes. That is why we have such a heavy emphasis on lunges, sprinter stance training, drags, and so arc pressing. These are all simple and incredibly effective means of teaching our body to RESIST motion. Most injuries and weaknesses we see are based upon our body’s inability to resist motion.

From there we can start moving in the frontal and then transverse planes. So, when teaching our Ultimate Sandbag progressions we move sagittal to frontal to transverse. When we are programming Ultimate Sandbag workouts though we go from transverse to frontal to sagittal. That is because we want to perform the MOST complex exercises not only when our muscles are more fresh, but our nervous system too! So, how would this look in real life? It actually isn’t hard to use these concepts to create really great Ultimate Sandbag workouts like the following.

Workout1:
A1. Rotational Press Outs (Plane of Motion: Transverse) (Pattern: Pushing)
A2. Lateral Deadlift (Plane of Motion: Frontal) (Pattern: Hip Hinge)
A3. Off-Set Rows (Plane of Motion: Sagittal with Resisting Frontal/Transverse) (Pattern: Pulling/Hip Hinge)
A4. Front Loaded Squat (Plane of Motion: Sagittal) (Pattern: Squat)
A5. Side Plank Rows (Plane of Motion: Frontal) (Pattern: Plank/Push/Pull)

The above becomes far more powerful when we think of it in these terms. There is more meaning, purpose, and thought behind it than just a bunch of randomly assigned exercises. We can create better choices in creating our Ultimate Sandbag workouts. Here is another example.

Workout 2:
A1. Rotational Presses (Plane of Motion: Transverse) (Pattern: Pushing)
A2. MAX Lunge (Plane of Motions: Sagittal Resisting: Frontal/Transverse) (Pattern: Lunge)
A3. Pull-ups (Plane of Motion: Sagittal) (Pattern: Pulling)
A4. Front Loaded Good Morning (Plane of Motion: Sagittal) (Pattern: Hip Hinge)
A5. Bear Hug Carry (Plane of Motion: All Three) (Pattern: Gait)

So, how can we fill in the blanks of these circuits? Try the following in with one set of each exercise being performed in the order listed with appropriate rest.

Yea, this takes a bit more thought, but not a lot. Plus, when you think of the fact of how it really opens up the playbook in the variety of movements and workouts you can create it is well worth the little extra effort. Not to mention you can start problem solving more specifically for people as well as help more people of a wide variety of fitness levels. Adjusting planes of motion is a way you can use the SAME size of Ultimate Sandbag for various fitness levels. That means you actually get a higher return on your investment with Ultimate Sandbag workouts. Pretty cool huh?

Well, the only thing left is to try these workouts and start separating yourself in the industry by thinking differently. That is how leaders are created!

Want to find out more about how we use DVRT Ultimate Sandbag workouts to get results others just dream about? Check out our upcoming DVRT educational programs HERE and save 25% with coupon code “stronger”

See how we can use these concepts for a real world 3-D workout!