The Best Shoulder, Core, and Hip Exercise!

I was it! I was the client that I tell everyone NOT to be!

I always forewarn people when they start coming back from an injury and are feeling good not to push it too much.

Of course I wasn’t listening to my own advice. As I have felt better and better from my spinal surgeries last year, I have pushed my training more and more. Like most people, one of my goals was to feel “normal” again. Even though I realize there is a new normal, I wanted to prove to myself I hadn’t lost too much and I wasn’t going to be defined by my injury.

That meant I started getting back in to a lot of DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training explosive work like Cleans, Shoveling, and many others. It also meant I found myself getting a bit stiff and sore (not in a good way). I kept telling myself I’ll do a bit more DVRT Restoration work and keep going hard. However, I realized that I wasn’t being smart.

Not only did I feel these bouts of stiffness and soreness, it was impacting more than I liked. I was getting a bit more short with people and my dogs (which is unacceptable!) because I wasn’t feeling well. More and more it was clear that I was being stupid. Like I did when I was younger, I was confusing true toughness. Most of us believe toughness is pushing yourself through pain, it can be, but that really isn’t true. Pain and being uncomfortable are really two different things, especially physical pain and mental discomfort (too long of a blog there, but maybe another time).

I began to realize more and more that if I TRULY wanted to get back to some semblance of myself the “tough” thing would be to focus on the things I really needed to emphasize. For me, that was deciding how would I know I was getting to the point where employing some more advanced DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training drills would be beneficial.

When I saw DVRT Coach, Sean Lettero, demonstrate this version of our DVRT Bird Dog Drags I was like, “that’s it!” THIS was going to be the drill I used to determine my level of readiness to do more advanced exercises. Why?

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The most obvious is the fact that with a spinal fusion my core is always an issue. Being cut open in the front meant a lot of superficial and deep core stabilizers were cut too! The BIGGEST impact to my movement and strength is getting these muscles to work right. However, I could do that in a multitude of ways, why THIS exercise?

This DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training exercise forces one to learn how to drive in the ground, create stability in the shoulder and hip, works on cross patterning of the body, tests glute and hamstring strength, and challenges lateral stability (the BIGGEST type of strength people need but don’t train). In other words, about EVERY good thing that could prove to me that I was ready to create real power once again.

You see that is key! We want to do the “bad ass” looking exercises so badly we fail to realize what allows us to perform the really intense drills well. The point of any exercise isn’t to survive, but to thrive! When you have stability, control, strength in a many different ways you build a base that can really allow you to excel rather than constantly think about how much you ache and break!

Now you might try this exercise and find it WAY harder than you thought! The key after all is to do it with as perfect posture and positioning as possible, not just get through it! So, if you find it beyond your current means don’t feel bad, I do too and there is work I am doing to get better. What can you be doing? Try some of these DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training drills to develop synergy in your movement and strength so you can be strong in as well as out of the gym!

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