2022-05-8
There is an odd misconception that a tool like our Ultimate Sandbag isn’t powerful in building muscle. This makes very little sense just from the most foundational stand point that the weight of the Ultimate Sandbag is unstable. In being just unstable enough (not too unstable as I will explain) we have to integrate more muscles to perform any movement. If we are training more muscles, it seems like an odd idea that we can’t build muscle.
Why haven’t tools like the Ultimate Sandbag been thought of as great ways of building muscle? If something is crazy unstable then our body works so hard to just balance that we can’t produce any force and we see the impact for building muscle drop quite significantly. That is why our Ultimate Sandbag offers just enough to challenge the body, but not so much we can’t lift great loads and produce high levels of force.
Some also building building muscle with the Ultimate Sandbag doesn’t seem to make sense is because the loads don’t seem nearly as high as what one would expect in lifting other tools like barbells, dumbbells, and even kettlebells. This is because the Ultimate Sandbag doesn’t just offer a challenge and instability through the moving of internal weight, but dimension and leverage play just of a big part in not just creating better functional strength, but building muscle as well.
Here are some great examples and why DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training can be one of the best ways to build real world muscle.
Clean & Press
For a long time the clean and press was a popular means of training total body strength. It makes sense, you have to use a ton of muscles to get the weight to your shoulders and your whole body is necessary for lifting a weight overhead properly. The Ultimate Sandbag version helps us emphasize building muscle because the instability will use even more muscles.
How can we do it well?
Bear Hug & Front Loaded Squats
Squats are not unfamiliar for anyone looking for great exercises in building muscle. However, many times people often end up loading their low backs more than their legs in the squat. They often don’t know how to use certain squats that allow them a deeper range of motion that allows them to go deeper into the squat which allows them to build more muscle.
Bear Hug and Front Loaded Squats are both ways we can have squats that help build mobility, won’t hurt our bodies, and help us in building muscle.
Bent Rows
Like the other drills we have been discussing in our efforts to build better muscle, bent rows aren’t exactly a new exercise. Yet, both the Ultimate Sandbag and our DVRT system allow us to get much more out of them in building muscle. Having all the weight of the Ultimate Sandbag away from the handles makes the weight of the Ultimate Sandbag much heavier than any other tool.
Then we have the most options in changing our grip and the position of our bent row to integrate more muscles. Not only do we use more muscles, but with these concepts we can build better strength and stability. Here are some great examples of how we do just that!
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Front Loaded Good Mornings
While the deadlift is a familiar lift in any program for the hamstrings, glutes, and low back (the posterior chain), what is far less common is the good morning, for good reason. The good morning with the barbell on the back often leads to back issues for people because of the lack of core recruitment, but also because of the lever arm it creates on the low back.
Yes, we deadlift plenty in DVRT, but the Front Loaded Good Morning provides some additional benefits as Cory Cripe describes…
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Just like our deadlift progressions, we can use different stepping patterns to progress our training and build muscle in the posterior chain more effectively.
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Cory shows how even just two Ultimate Sandbag drills can set us on a powerful path of building muscle in effective ways that help us develop so much more too!
This week we have a special opportunity to save 50% on our educational webinars about programming functional strength, workouts, and much more! Just use code “webinar” HERE
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