Kettlebells & Ultimate Sandbag Training Improving Group Fitness

I’ve always had to be pretty self-motivated. No one ever really expected much from me. I wasn’t naturally gifted in the world of athletics, many school subjects didn’t come to me easily. It was always the time I spent by myself working, studying, doing the things that most people didn’t want to that led me to find myself in the position I am in today.

I remember wanting to make the men’s basketball team at Arizona State so badly that during the summer I would wake up at 5 a.m. to run A mountain. That may not sound all that impressive but when you are in college and all your roommates are fast asleep, having just passed out from partying the night before it is a unique time.

Standing in front of the mountain before the sun gets out too much and the heat skyrockets, it is quiet. Just me, just a very, VERY steep hill. No one there to inspire me, no one there to cheerlead for me, no one there to tell me I can do it, no one there to care if I quit!

Experiences like this is why I think when I first heard Pavel Tsatsouline (the man who brought kettlebells back to popularity) talk about a “courage corner” I was sold. The idea was simple, Pavel would tell the story of Soviet soldiers who had very little space, time, and equipment to train. They were often dungy corners of nasty places that allowed the soldiers to train hard with minimal equipment. This really spoke to me pesronally.

Probably because I knew for years that I had many courage corners. Whether it was the mountain, shooting baskets by myself at the park till night, or locked up in my dorm room trying to ignore the obvious fun everyone else was having while I tried to do better in school. At the time, these were all my own personal courage corners.

It is the reason that I am so stubborn about DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training. While most others look to collect as much equipment I am content with a few simple pieces of equipment. While others try to look for the “cool” in things, I am often looking how do I get more out of what I already have.

We have a running joke, Jessica and myself, we say DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training is the worst business model in the world. That is because we constantly try to tell people to buy less Ultimate Sandbags. Why?!

Knowing how to integrate your tools to enhance your training is the key of any good toolbox.

We would rather you explore how much can be accomplished with just a couple of Ultimate Sandbags and really get what we are doing with DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training than buy a bunch and treat them like dumb downed barbells.

If you don’t believe me you can look at my own personal courage corner. A small room in my house that lets me train for infinite goals, challenges, and variety. Most people couldn’t ever imagine training in a gym like mine, but if I opened another training facility, it would look A LOT like this.

I don’t have my courage corner just for convenience, I do it because it is better!

Not because I believe in being a minimalist, but I think there is something special you learn about your own courage corner. Finding out more about you, your body, your heart, your mindset, and how to achieve something special by being mindful of real world movement than just jumping to the next “cool” exercise or piece of equipment.

Sure, I could have cable systems, barbells, bumper plates, you name it, but I don’t want it! Not because I am “hardcore”, but because it doesn’t make my training better! The DVRT system allows me to do so much just with some kettlebells, dumbbells, bands, suspension trainer, and of course Ultimate Sandbag Training.

I don’t have every size of kettlebell, I don’t need to! I don’t have ridiculously sized dumbbells, I don’t need to! I have less Ultimate Sandbags than any other tool because guess what? I don’t need more!

My courage corner is perfect and now it is becoming something that more and more gyms ARE adopting. Why? Because it simply works! Listen to what some well known coaches have to say about the advantage of building a true courage corner.

“I chose to build my own home gym instead of going to a regular box gym for a couple reasons. Number one, box gyms are always so packed and it takes forever to use the equipment you want. Number two, most of the equipment Is dominated by machines with some free weights but again you have to stand in line and wait. That makes your hour workout turn into a two hour workout (not very efficient). The equipment I want to use; Ultimate Sandbags, TRX’s, kettlebells, battling ropes, Sleds, Jam Balls, etc. are not in most big box gyms. … And last but not least I don’t have to drive anywhere to workout, I could just do it from the comfort of my own home.”-Mike Yudin, Strength Coach to Pro and amateur baseball players

Even DVRT Master, Chad of 168 Fitness in Pasadena has made a HUGE success out of his own courage corner. His ability to train such a variety of people with the same tools in a small place has not only made his clients love the training, but his business more successful than those two to three times his size.

Why? Because he focuses on what these amazing tools can deliver. Bored? You think you are bored? Then you aren’t training true movement strength like we talk about in DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training. You are missing the REALLY good stuff. If you want to see how easy it is to have variety, purpose, and challenge, check out the great training Chad and Ana are doing with their clients below and try their workout!