More Effective Corrective Exercises

Jessica Bento, Physical Therapist (Creator DVRT Restoration Certification, Knees Over Toes Course, DVRT Rx Shoulder, Knees, Pelvic Control, & Gait Courses)

The history of DVRT explains A LOT of how we came to develop the solutions you see today. There really wasn’t a map of any sort to demonstrate how sandbag training could be more than just a “hardcore” workout that would make you sweat a lot.

I remember back when I came to work and be apart of DVRT it was after Josh had launched Ultimate Sandbag Training in 2005, so about 3 years after the start of the company. During those early years, there was really only three sizes of Ultimate Sandbags and typically the education focus at that time was on strength and conditioning. After all, that was the work Josh specialized in and was trying to come up with how DVRT was going to be a system for fitness and performance.

However, as time went on we saw a need for more correctives and rehab based education. We began to see (partly from the work I was doing as a physical therapist) that corrective exercise and even rehab could be greatly benefitted from the concepts we were developing. However, we couldn’t accomplish some of these goals with the 3 sizes of Ultimate Sandbags we had so that brought about the Core Ultimate Sandbag. A smaller and lighter weight Ultimate Sandbag that could easily be used by anyone and allow for more correctives based drills and or more complex ones.

Funny side story, I was not on board with the Core size…I actually fought Josh on the idea. I didn’t see a need for a smaller size and just didn’t want to add another product in the line up. However, Josh saw and started to explain all the solutions it could offer, it was impossible not see how impactful it could be to our system. So, yes, it was his idea along and now one of our most popular sizes.

With the addition of the Core USB, this is when I started introducing DVRT to my own patients, the Core USB transformed my practice, the tool was able to provide feedback in such an amazing way, it allowed my patients to move better, understand movement better and most importantly get better faster. Never before did I have a tool that could provide such results.

We specifically designed the sizes of the Ultimate Sandbags to allow for various movements as well as provide specific feedback. I think sometimes people think we just slapped handles on the bag with out really thinking about it but there is reason for the spacing of the handles, what each handle is used for, and why the dimension is what it is for each bag size.

So even thought we say the Core Package is a great starting point for women, it really has a place with anyone and any age group. I use my Core USB every single workout. I know the load range of 5-20 pounds doesn’t seem like much but for a lot of our DVRT movements it more than enough. You might find that you can sue the Core USB for your entire workout, or it may be a part of your active warmups, either way there will always be a place for our smallest USB.

Now that leads me to discuss another size USB we did not originally have, and yes , I fought Josh on this one too. That is our Force USB. The Force Ultimate Sandbag came about because we were finding that a jump from our Power to our Strength sized USB’s was a bit too much. Partly because of the dimension of the Strength USB, it’s rather large and that means there is a bit more instability wiht the implement making it more challenging when it comes to movment accuracy. So enter in the Force USB which is a step up from our Power size. I hate to say it, the Force is my go to and one of my favorites if I had to pick one size ( which is kind of like asking someone to pick their favorite child).

Again, I think a lot of times people see the weight ranges of the Force (20-50 pounds) and think that it really doesn’t offer much. I can tell you though it allows for so much variability in your training. It eases you into training with the larger and more unstable USB’s but still challenges your movements accuracy with every rep. Between the Core and Force packages you can pretty much do any of our DVRT movements from correctives based to more foundational strength training. That is why I tend to tell people its so worth while to have a smaller USB and a larger USB so you can appropriately challenge yourself.

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