Silverback Strength with Burly Ultimate Sandbag Challenge

Troy Anderson, DVRT Master

The biggest, baddest primate is the silverback gorilla.

These guys are Grade A  Alpha’s, they can get as tall as 5’11” and weigh as much as 510 lbs.

If a chimpanzee can rip a human, limb from limb, what the heck would  silverback do.

This my friend is homage to the silverback and all of real world dominance in strength and power.

To be honest the idea for  the Silverback protocol is not completely mine.

Just something to getting underneath heavier Ultimate Sandbags like the Burly that really begin to teach you about both your strengths and weaknesses. 

When Josh & Jess were unveiling the new 10.0 version of the Ultimate Sandbag during a summit one year my fellow Master trainer Dio Vujich uttered the word, “silverback”upon seeing the Burly Ultimate Sandbag.

I wrote that idea down in my handy notebook I always carry.

Part of the reason Dio uttered those inspirational words are that the Burly Ultimate Sandbags is the Alpha of all Ultimate Sandbags.

That stout Burly can be loaded to humbling 150 lbs.

The Burly Ultimate Sandbag has both the size and weight to earn the name “silverback”.

Which leads us to the Silverback Protocol.

While we’ll likely never get to the typical 250 lbs of spring steel appeal of a full grown silverback, there is definitely some awesome stuff we can do to build up a a knuckle draggin’ posterior chain that will help us become the silverback of our own kingdom.

Since the Burly is the silverback of Ultimate Sandbags, I strongly suggest that everyone that does this protocol use a Burly.

If you don’t typically use a Burly but have one, ‘downloaded’ it with rubber mulch or some other lighter medium. One of my favorite things is to fill the Burly to 60 pounds by filling each filler bag to 20 pounds. The dimension of the Burly Ultimate Sandbag will give you HUGE benefits even with lighter load.

So the whole plan here is to expose that posterior chain to some serious systematic stress.

Perform the following unbroken if possible:

Clean and Press x 1

Don’t worry, you just have to do ONE rep!

Good Morning x 2 (make sure that core stays tight!)

Make sure to create tension like DVRT Australia Master, Cam Ward shows and soft bend in the knees!

Bent Row x 3 (don’t rush through the reps, enjoy the old exercise feeling brand new!)

Shouldering x 4 (don’t cheat! Start from the ground, don’t let that body rotate!)

Watch the Silverback Burly Ultimate Sandbag Workout below:

Then

Shouldered Carry 10 yd [alternate shoulders after each block }

Complete for a 200 yd round trip, this protocol is meant to be done outdoor you don’t keep the king of primates inside, son. However, I realize winter is out there for some of you! Therefore, you can perform 2 minutes of Front Loaded Marching or Up Downs as a substitute.

Modifications can be made as long as you start using a heavier Ultimate Sandbag to discover what load can teach us. 

Each full set plus the carry should take about 11 to 15 yds which means you’ll be doing 12 to 20 sets now that some nice full body volume if you ask me.

But we are going to up the ante’ on this bad boy throwing in time  cap, aka adding a density component.

Initially you’ll have a 30 minute time cap.

Once you can come in at sub-25:00

Drop your time cap down to 20 minutes.

Ok load, I know some of you are wondering how heavy your Burly
should be.

The best answer is: a load you can handle.

The cool answer is: 60, 80, 100, or even 120 pounds (if you are a real silverback!) a nice round number and when a Burly is filled with the right medium it looks pretty damn silverback-ish at those loads and that is cool.

If you need to think of ways of making that 100 pounds of Burly work for you don’t be afraid to borrow from this Men’s Health workout we did!

While the Silverback protocol might get you mistaken for the real thing.

It will sure as heck help you pack on some muscle and in all the right places;  and give you gratification of dominating your 200 yd domain, and the feeling of  being the alpha of your kingdom.

If you want to see how we build strength, better movement, and conditioning at once, you can save 25% on ANY of our Ultimate Sandbags and programs HERE with code “save25”

Hey Ladies! Don’t think you can’t join in the fun either! I’ve seen some pretty amazing women use the Burly, but if you can’t try a 50 or 60 pound Strength Ultimate Sandbag and you will learn to show your power!