3 Killer Total Body Kettlebell & Ultimate Sandbag Workouts

A well meaning soundbite in fitness that always drives me nuts is “more tools for the toolbox”. Why? Isn’t it good to have as many tools in your toolbox as possible? I’ll use myself as an example of why this just isn’t the case. Being handy in fixing and building things is NOT my expertise at all. Something breaking in the house and needing repairs is not going to be pretty when I get my hands on it. You could take me to any hardware store and buy me the most beautiful, beneficial, and biggest toolbox, guess what, I am still no better at fixing things! The tools we use only give us the POTENTIAL to do great things, it is our understanding of how, when, and unique aspects of our tools that actually allows us to achieve great things. In order to illustrate this point I thought we would cover 3 awesome total body workouts that two great coaches break down combining kettlebell and Ultimate Sandbag training.

For a lot of people they don’t immediately see a lot of the differences of kettlebell and Ultimate Sandbag drills. Because the truth is that for the most part, outside of some swings and get-ups, the majority of what people know is still derived from barbells and the occasional dumbbell exercise. That is unfortunate because especially kettlebell and Ultimate Sandbag training can offer so much unique value that if we took the time to understanding WHY we are using these tools, we could see we could create such superior results!

Workout 1

 

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In the above workout you see that Coach Cari Satre uses our Ultimate Sandbag front load squat to not only load up our body to develop strong legs, but to create specific tension with our core to help achieve better mobility and pelvic control during the squat. So, she is building strength from the squat that will transfer to many things in and out of the gym. The rear step kettlebell row may seem somewhat familiar, but most people only use a very small step to challenge stability of the row. The fact that our shoulders/upper body connect to our core and lower body, using a longer step challenges our stability in resisting frontal and transverse plane movement while we train strength in the upper body. The Ultimate Sandbag lateral deadlift is a great way to teach stability moving through the frontal plane and by being able to pull the handles apart we can help keep tension that helps our core prevent rotating and losing positioning. Meanwhile, the kettlebell half kneeling press is a wonderful way to again, teach the connection of the lower body, core, and upper body in not only building strength, but better movement to our upper body. Most shoulder injuries are a byproduct of just trying to use the shoulders and not integrating the body properly. Finally, the Ultimate Sandbag power clean to front load is a wonderful way to teach not only acceleration but deceleration in the posterior chain. We teach the higher pulling motion and more vertical movement of the Ultimate Sandbag sets us up for great success in many other exercises.

Workout 2

 

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DVRT UK master, Greg Perlaki shows a more advanced level of combining Ultimate Sandbag and kettlebell drills. The clean to lateral lunge catch helps us teach the fact that most injuries occur during deceleration and high level mobility and stability training should incorporate both power elements, but also the ability to move in different planes of motion with great efficiency. Tall Kneeling alternating kettlebell presses makes that half kneeling press in the first series more challenging. Learning not just how to push and pull at the same time, but the movement of the kettlebells back and forth increases the core demands in both resisting extension of the lumbar spine and lateral motion. Greg shows how we can progress that rear step row that Cari showed in the first series by increasing the length of the rear step placing greater demands on the glutes and core to help stabilize as we still row a challenging weight for the upper body without compensating. Rotational snatches are a very high level power drill as the snatch requires higher power production as well as a much stronger ability to resist force coming down. Doing so in a rotational manner helps us build qualities in a plane of motion that is foundational to human movement, but often gets overlooked in most workouts.

Workout 3

For the last workout Greg shows again the diversity of using Ultimate Sandbags and even just a singular kettlebell, not just in having variety but building serious strength. While Ultimate Sandbags and kettlebells won’t reach the total weight that one will find on a barbell that is fine! These tools don’t have to as a 100 pound Ultimate Sandbag and 100 pound kettlebell act very differently than a barbell so they are really shocking to people how 100 pounds can be so challenging! Greg does a great job in demonstrating this idea as a Burly Ultimate Sandbag and heavy kettlebell still allows us to train stability and mobility, but we get to load the body in ways that build serious strength in all 3 planes of motion too!

You see, it isn’t the number of tools in your toolbox that you have but the quality of the tools and your understanding of how to use them to build incredible workouts and results!

Find out more with our DVRT Online Education Sale! Save 25% on DVRT Level 1 or Restoration Certification and also get a FREE Power Ultimate Sandbag. You can save the same on our PKM certification and get a FREE 12kg (26 pound kettlebell). Of course you can also save 25% on our totally integrated functional training system L.I.F.T and get 2 FREE Ultimate Sandbags (FREE items only for US domestic customers only , excludes HI, AK, PR, and GU, please contact us for more info). Just use code “online” HERE for this week only!

 

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