Can I Do That Workout AGAIN!

Can I Do That Workout AGAIN!-DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training

I can think back to when I first started working out in high school. As I have written about before, I was extremely fortunate to have one of the first strength coaches be someone who actually worked with a professional sports team. Yea, Mr. Lang was an assistant strength coach for the Chicago White Sox and also worked at our school, pretty cool right? 

I remember probably pestering Mr. Lang more than he would have liked as I was just so fascinated with everything about lifting! To temper my excitement and maybe just to get me off his case, he would provide me with monthly workouts. I don’t think he minded too much because he knew I would show up everyday and do them! 

Yea, we had the classic dungeon of a high school weight room. In the basement with the boiler, encapsulated by a cage. Heck, as I think about it, it would probably be seen as pretty cool today, but it was our dungeon. Dark, always smelled funny, you get the idea. 

I tell you this because really as far as I can remember, I’ve always worked off of a program. I know, I know it is super trendy to do whatever floats your boat nowadays, but I liked Mr. Lang’s programs. While he probably wouldn’t think they were ground breaking by today’s standards, they were pretty awesome then. Even without all the science we know now, he always tried to build off of my previous programs, see what my weaknesses were and try to make them stronger. Crazy idea right?!

REPEATING a workout that leaves you feeling like this can be a tough decision!

That is why in my workouts now, I try to stick with some workouts at least 4-5 times. Why? For one, I think it is WAY more mentally challenging to repeat what you know is a hard workout, rather than start a whole brand new one. I mean, once you know something sucks, sucks badly, making yourself do it again I believe says something. It isn’t about just punishing yourself, but finding how to get better. After all, things usually suck because we aren’t great at them:) 

I was reminded of this after today’s DVRT Ultimate Sandbag workout. It was pretty simple, 15 minutes, Clean to Fist, Squat, to Press. The goal? Well, I had talked with DVRT Master, Troy Anderson, and he thought 75 reps. Yea, okay Mr. Anderson! In truth, that number was based off of using an 80 pound Burly Ultimate Sandbag and I did end up using 100 pounds. None the less, having the goal in mind and this workouts overall taught me a lot of things. 

Think the DVRT Clean and Press is a challenge? Add that squat in there to go another level!

For one, it still amazes me how 100 pounds can torture someone’s fitness so badly. This past weekend in New York, DVRT Master, Steve Holiner, ran a DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Level 1 Certification. When I asked him how the Clean and Press test went he told me not one person using the 100 pound Burly Ultimate Sandbag passed. Wow! His words? “People just don’t believe 100 pounds can be that challenging, but it is, it SO is!” 

Why 100 or 80 pounds? We’ve begun to see that load is very important to these workouts. Without it, it becomes just an odd conditioning test that doesn’t seem to have a lot of transfer to other things other than the workout itself. By using a challenging load people really learn a lot about their movement and bodies. For myself, I had to pay special attention to not only every rep, but each part of a rep. As you fatigue your desire is to just muscle through the work, you can’t do that with the Ultimate Sandbag because you will fail the accuracy component. 

I learned that how to breathe behind the tension, how to bring my heart rate down between sets, in essence, an awesome workout. Now you can see by the numbers it was pretty intense! I’m not suggesting you work that hard all the time, you will burn out! However, I am looking forward to next week when I will perform this workout again. I want to see if the lessons I learned the first time will allow me to increase my volume (I got 52 reps this time) and show important progression. 

My guess is when it is time to repeat the workout I’ll get those butterflies. You know the ones you get when your mind and body know that serious work is ahead! That to me though is the challenge as well, repeating, doing it again, putting accountability on myself to do something I find very difficult. If you start to understand this concept you will find DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training programs to become even MORE rewarding. 

My Polar heart rate monitor I think summed up the workout well!

How about you? Ready for this DVRT Ultimate Sandbag workout challenge? Share with us your results, what you felt was the right weight of Ultimate Sandbag and what you discovered about YOUR fitness!