You Even KNOW Glute Exercises?!

This past weekend I got the great honor to speak at the College Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association national conference (CSCCA whew!) Our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training continues to grow among a wide variety of people that want to find their better. You can imagine in the competitive world of college sports, having an edge is key and everyone is looking to see if they can find it! You can imagine how flattered I was to be asked to present about our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training system. 

It wasn’t just DVRT though, my presentation last year at a few conferences called “The Glute Truth” definitely got some attention and eye balls because it just makes sense! Helping people understand how the body works and more importantly, helping them experience it for themselves is a game changing experience for so many people. 

Thanks to Coach Dos for his introduction and support in helping coaches think differently about their glute exercises!

Getting flooded by coaches from a whole bunch of universities after was awesome because it meant I accomplished my goal. No, not necessarily getting them bought into DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training, the bigger question of are we training people the way we are designed to move in life?!

That is the funny part, I think when people hear me speak they first think I am going to do a long dissertation on the history of “sandbag training” and how it is an ancient tool so we alls would be using it in our training. They are surprised how I don’t really do anything like that when I present on our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training system. 

Why not? Because our goal is not to get you into “sandbag training”, but to help people understand how our exercises, cues, and progressions are designed for real world movement and strength training. 

That meant helping these coaches understand how the glute exercises work and that most people miss the boat completely in how we use glute exercises for real world strength. Sure, a lot of them had their deadlifts, cleans, hip bridges, etc. However, when they saw how the “little things” make such a profound difference they were blown away!

Where do we start? First it is important to understand how the feet play such a paramount role in the performance of the glutes. Think about it, in life we don’t randomly “squeeze” our glutes or thrust our hips forward. Our glutes move forward through our feet pushing our body forward in walking, running, etc. Even when we lift something from the ground, when we place emphasis on pushing through our feet we not only feel stronger, but feel basically nothing in the low back. This is key in good glute exercises. 

How do we accomplish these goals? It is why in DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training we progress not just weight or reps, but body position as well. Moving through more challenging positions and directions places a great emphasis in using the feet to create power through the glutes. 

A simple demonstration of this is how we don’t try to use crazy loads on hip bridges, but rather move to more complex versions. Why? When we do so you HAVE to place pressure through the feet and learn how to stabilize the pelvis through all planes of motion. Again, knowing how the body works changes how you create glute exercises. 

The second key, and this makes people’s heads REALLY explode, is that the glutes work with the lats and core to create movement! How in the world? If you look at the anatomy of the lats you see they are the only muscle that connects the upper body to the pelvis. There is a very good reason for that! It is because the lats work the glutes through what is called the thoracolumbar fascia to create stability in the spine. 

This is how even though walking is a very unstable activity (60-70% of our time walking is on one leg)  we are able to make it look fluid and easy. The question comes into HOW do we connect the lats, core, and glutes? In REALLY easy ways. 

By creating tension through the Ultimate Sandbag whether it is actively pulling the handles apart or into the USB itself (in positions like front load especially), we create that connection. That is why we are able to produce such powerful results in DVRT so fast, simple cuing that matches our body’s natural movement equals better coaching! 

DVRT Master, Cory Cripe, does a great job breaking down these concepts in a variety of ways so make sure to check out these great video posts. They will completely change how you train the glutes, but more importantly the results you GET from such training!

If you want to find an edge in the competitive fitness landscape don’t miss our upcoming live DVRT educational events HERE. Can’t make it? Save 25% on our DVRT Online education HERE with coupon code “spring2018” HERE (not applicable to live events).