How To Develop Better Beginner Workouts

It is a totally reasonable question! “How do you create good beginner workouts with DVRT?” We get this question a lot and we have tried to supply people resources (like these HERE) but it maybe be a bit confusing at first. Why? Why would something as foundational as beginner workouts have any level of complexity to it?

Well, because you have to understand an important difference about our Ultimate Sandbag and our language of DVRT if you are going to maximize beginner workouts. The biggest side of our Ultimate Sandbags that most people fail to understand at first is how dimension plays a BIG part in our system. I don’t blame anyone as it was something I didn’t appreciate until we really started to systemize what “sandbag training” should be.

My greatest joy is helping fitness pros see how accessible DVRT is to helping beginner workouts help people show they can enjoy training and find success quickly!

Having systems that were based on a barbell for a sandbag makes no sense. Ultimate Sandbags have very deliberate sizes that not only allow us different loading capacity, but fit different exercises better (something we will discuss in a moment). Barbells never change their size so why would you think about it in your programming?

That means we consider not just the weight we are using, but the dimension as well. Bigger Ultimate Sandbags work better for drills like Bear Hug Squats, Deadlifts, Clean to Fists, etc. While smaller Ultimate Sandbags do better with Drags, Dead Bugs, Around the Worlds, Lifts/Chops, etc. The dimension of the Ultimate Sandbag can alter the outcome of an exercise as well as the intensity. They can also change the range of motion of an exercise. Deadlifting a Strength or Burly Ultimate Sandbag off the ground is MUCH different in range of motion than a Core Ultimate Sandbag (probably making the range of motion too far for most).

The size of Ultimate Sandbag we have will determine a lot of things about the exercises we select. 

The other key is our language of DVRT in creating beginner workouts. While if you have a wide array of Ultimate Sandbags, the process is easier, we have always been adamant that you don’t have to have a lot of equipment to achieve a lot with your training. That is why we focus even in beginner workouts with teaching people our DVRT system. In doing so, we allow you to do so much more with a lot less!

It isn’t that our language of DVRT is complicated, but when you look at most programs they have you change your weight, your reps, and maybe your rest intervals. That does require more equipment and does make people limited with only a few training variables to see progress in for your training. Beginner workouts are the perfect opportunity to teach a better way of thinking about training.

What do we focus upon? Really some simple variables that will not only make beginner workouts better, but any workout!

-How we hold the weight

A barbell offers us 4 holding positions of load if we really try (3 in reality), while our Ultimate Sandbag offers 11 different ways to hold the weight to manipulate an exercise. This is PART of how we build progression of 5-10 pounds since changing the physical load of the Ultimate Sandbag doesn’t work great in the midst of a workout (you can change weights for different workouts but we end up changing the load very few times).

DVRT Master Cory Cripe explains it isn’t just holding the weight of the Ultimate Sandbag, but what we do WHILE we are holding the weight. Teach this in your beginner workouts and watch your success accelerate. 

Physical Therapist, Jessica Bento helps demonstrate how using different holding position helps us make progressions to more challenging body positions as well. 

-How we stand with the weight

When we think of bodyweight training we know that we can alter our body position to change the intensity of the exercise. It makes sense that we can do the same when it comes to external loading, if we plan for it. The goal should be to make it as progressive as possible as you can see in this break down.

You see from these coaches how we can use this concept to change our body position for upper body exercises like rows to make them more or less intense.

DVRT UK Master, Greg Perlaki, shows how we can adopt these ideas to building stronger and more resilient shoulders!

-The Direction We Move

In life we move in 3 planes of motion (sagittal (up and down/front and back), frontal (side to side), transverse (rotation)) However most fitness programs are ONLY sagittal plane based. For beginner workouts this can be really helpful because it teaches me you how to move better in a more stable environment before we progress to more challenging drills. When we change the direction we move or how much we have to RESIST from the other planes, the more intense the exercise becomes even though the weight will tend to be lighter.

You can see in the exercises above how we build frontal plane strength from the ground up while Greg helps us understand the difference between producing and resisting rotation. These are ways that we can progress our training, but building that foundation of strength in the sagittal plane is very important!

If we focus on these 3 training variables your options expand greatly and not only give you more variety but ability to train qualities like strength, stability, endurance, and mobility all at once! These aren’t difficult concepts, but if we think about them we can problem solve so much more effectively. You can get our DVRT workouts and Ultimate Sandbags 30% off with code “holiday2020” HERE and for a limited time we are giving 30% off our DVRT Online Education for Memorial Day holiday with code “holiday2020” HERE