Developing Advanced Stability Training & MORE!

Over the years one of the most common questions I have received from people is, “how did you come up with…” Whether it has to do with our education or our DVRT functional training tools, the answer is pretty much the same. There was a need! A need to help break down and systemize concepts and principles and when it comes to our training tools, it is about developing something that accomplishes goal better than anything else. You can imagine why then it drives me a bit nuts when people ask, “can I just use this piece of equipment instead?”

It doesn’t matter what training tool we are showing, we use that tool because it does something uniquely better. I know that is an odd concept for most people because many people aren’t aware of the pros and cons of using different tools and just think they are all just weights, but that ignores the obvious. That is bands, medicine balls, barbells, kettlebells, Ultimate Sandbags and more all function and do different things.

My best example of this is how our DVRT water bags came to be and why we actually use them. Initially the idea came about because I was asked to develop a training program that could be used throughout the US Army Special Forces selection process. Needing a tool that could be used literally anywhere and in any type of environment gave the original idea to make our Ultimate Sandbags also available as water systems.

While initially making great training more accessible was big part of our DVRT water bag creation, we then also saw a great way to advance stability training but NOT in the way MOST people see such stability training. I won’t say we created the idea of water bags as things like slosh pipes (pvc pipe filled with water) has been used in some strength training programs for awhile. However, these tools were never mainstays in fitness, strength, or stability training programs because they weren’t progressive or thoughtful other than just making training really awkward.

That’s why it is was important for us to do our water bags a bit differently. We still wanted some adjustability of the load, but there were other factors too! The biggest was helping people understand how different sizes of Ultimate Sandbags created different stability training demands. There are several ways that our water bags create better stability training and most people don’t realize the potential!

Don’t Let The Water Move

One of the most important ways we build better stability training is by aiming NOT to have the water shift very much. The more precisely we move, the less the water should shift. For example, if we are performing a front loaded squat with the water bags, we should aim to have VERY little movement of the water shifting side to side. If we feel big shifting of water, then it could be a sign we aren ‘t moving from efficiently in our squat and losing strength and stability.

Resist The Water Trying To Move You

This is probably the type of stability training that most people are familiar with when it comes to using water tools. The water is shifting an moving and you have to still move with great accuracy and precision to resist. With many water tools, this is often SO dramatic that people can’t use any real load and spend so much time and energy trying to balance they don’t ever build ever really great strength or stability training that transfers to real world very much.

Our design of our water bags allows us to utilize this concept, but also gives us the ability to build strength and not be SOOOO unbalanced that you can’t really move well.

 

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A post shared by Shannon (@jedi.training.for.girls)

Shannon from Fitness Lying Down shows we can still produce great power and movement skills even with heavier water bags (yes, 60 pounds of water is pretty darn challenging). 

 

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A post shared by Cory M. Cripe (@corymcripe)

Cory shows how when we move in directions like in the frontal plane we give the water momentum and our body’s movement has to stop the motion which takes great movement accuracy. 

Moving In Many Directions

One of the most overlooked and beneficial ways to advance stability training is to move in various directions and not always have the Ultimate Sandbag move in line with our body. When most lifts are performed, the weight moves in the same direction as our body. In DVRT, an advanced stability training and strength method we use is to have our body create great force and deceleration as the weight moves in a different direction.

 

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A post shared by Cory M. Cripe (@corymcripe)

Cory shows a great way to introduce these concepts. 

More Muscles, Strength, & Resilience

At the end of the day, my favorite aspect of DVRT, but especially adding in our DVRT water bags is that we can accomplish so many fitness goals at once. The biggest reason that a lot of water based tools never have been super popular is that you have only so much time and energy to train. When you want to develop better fat loss training, gain lean muscle, teach better movement, increase mobility, and more, water tools that are not friendly in accomplishing such goals usually get left behind.

That is why we are proud the way we use our DVRT water bags, we can accomplish all these goals at once while even improve some that you may have not realized are so impactful to your training!

Don’t miss this week saving 25% throughout DVRT including our water bags, you can simply upgrade any Ultimate Sandbag package to get both sand and water fillers HERE or add to your Ultimate Sandbags with water fillers HERE. Use code “sale25” and save big!