Making Life Better

Making Life Better-DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training

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by Michele Meinville Decerio, DVRT Master Instructor

“I feel great! I feel strong! The other day I was putting my work boots on while I was standing on two feet instead of struggling and hopping around as I typically do. Four weeks ago, it wasn’t that easy! Now after a long, tough day of physical work on the job, I wake up the next day and feel totally different.”

This particular client is male, 54, and has a cement business. He loves to do crazy things with his pal, also a client, such as ice climb, rock climb and I mean HIGH mountains, sleeping in tents in 10 degree weather kind of craziness! But never before hired a trainer or had any kind of consistent workout routine. We’d see each other at social gatherings and he’d always say, “I’m going to call you.” So after a few of those, I decided to reach out to him. He was on my calendar the following week twice, which eventually resulted in three times weekly!

As I do with each of my clients, the first session consisted of the assessment and health history. When I put him through the Functional Movement Screen, his shoulders were pretty immobile and he couldn’t perform the trunk stability test. Hmmm OK, what now?

We discovered which exercises would improve his movement, reassessing multiple times. Developing his program, I followed the FMS protocol of the red, yellow and green lights and applied appropriate FMS correctives. At the same time, I began to incorporate Ultimate Sandbag Kneeling Press Outs, Kneeling Around the Worlds, and a lot of core activation drills, such as weight bearing bridges, and lots of other supine movements also utilizing the Ultimate Sandbag.

My past experience has proven that trunk stability typically takes longer than 8 weeks to start seeing decent progress. This was not the case once I began using DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training. Within the first month, I was able to see much quicker progress using the Ultimate Sandbag and the above-mentioned correctives.

Why? What was it about using DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training that was making a profound impact? What I concluded was that adding weight bearing load, along with the dimension, the unique angles, and shifting of the Ultimate Sandbag,  we were able to address his trunk stability faster than the norm.

Not only that, with improved shoulder mobility and trunk stability, I saw him start to gain strength pretty quickly in his Clean and Press, moving from a 66 pound strength bag to an 80 pound Burly Ultimate Sandbag. Anyone that has worked with both of these size bags can attest that not only is the increase in weight challenging, but also moving from a Strength to a Burly Ultimate Sandbag is a whole different ballgame!

We trained for 6 weeks to do the Clean and Press test, alternating days of speed work with a lighter bag and days of timed sets with his test weight. It took three shots for him to pass with good “clean” technique and I know at times he was frustrated, but what an accomplishment for him when he got it!! And the benefits continue…”I’m the old man on the job but also the only one who can stack 94 pound bags of cement 7 feet high thanks to that damn test!” His words, not mine!

There are many fitness gimmicks out there…the latest and greatest tools, but those tools aren’t necessarily making the difference in people’s daily lives that I see the DVRT SYSTEM create. It’s great to have many tools in your pocket to keep things interesting. It’s another thing to have a system that make a difference! We are now 4 months into training and the results we have seen made for one happy client and therefore one happy coach! Win-win in my book!