Stronger Low Back and Knees

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One of the things I love most is when I get the wonderful opportunity to spend time with our amazing DVRT Master instructors. I knew from the beginning I wanted to form a team of smart, innovative, and thoughtful coaches that would help DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training evolve and become all it could be. 

That is why when I got to spend almost a week with our tremendous DVRT Masters in Tokyo, Kaori Tani and Travis Johnson, I knew we would do some awesome brainstorming and problem solving. What were we trying to solve? 

The goal of DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training is both simple and complex at the same time. We want to help people move, perform, and reach their fitness potential. Yea, kinda lofty! However, with a strong functional fitness system it actually is rather easy to keep people to experience success. 

The idea of a system is still really foreign to so many people. Most think a strength training tool is good for maybe 4-6 exercises. Once you do those you just move on to something else right? Well, if you have a system, you see how much more progressive and meaningful a tool and movement can become. 

A great example is something as simple as a lateral band walk. If you aren’t doing them consistently you should be! Why? Most of the lateral stabilizers of the body are really weak on most people and these muscles are super important! They help us walk better, produce power more efficiently, and make us more resilient to injury. 

For those that are already doing them you know what I am talking about, it is amazing how you can make a strong individual feel pretty weak just by doing some lateral band walks for some time. 

So, where does DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training come into play? Glad you asked:) 

We still have a bad tendency to think of muscles in isolation even though we are more aware of movement. For example, if you ask people what lateral band walks are good for they will more thank likely tell you for your glute medius. Yea, if you don’t know what that is it is one of the most important muscles that never gets much attention. 

The glute medius is part of our lateral system that also involves our quadratus lumborum (fun names right?!) that spinal experts like Dr. Stuart McGill have lectured and written extensively in their importance for preventing low back pain and improving sporting performance. That is why Dr. McGill actually has the side plank as part of his Big Three core stability exercises. 

What I am getting at is that while it is good to strengthen the glute medius, it doesn’t work in isolation. In fact, NONE of our muscles do! They work in chains, in other words, they have a specific series of muscles that have to work together to produce strength and motion. 

It makes sense then we can make lateral band walks more “functional” if we teach the hips to work with the core and the lats. Why the lats? Because you glutes work with the lats to help stabilize the spine (you can read more about sling systems of the body HERE). We want to train the body to use these natural chains and create BETTER exercises and smarter progressions for ourselves and our clients. 

That is what today’s video blog post is all about! I was fortunate enough to have the wonderful Kaori Tani help demonstrate some great ways to make your lateral band walks even more effective. You sill continue to see that we can not just create more exercises with DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training, but smarter and better drills that will keep you down the path of building great strength, power, endurance, and mobility! Check it out!