The Best Core Exercise Done Wrong!

What Is One Core Exercise That Will Change Your Fitness? DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training

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It is just one of those DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training drills.

People see it, they become excited by it, and then they absolutely BUTCHER it!

What is that one DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training drill? While I could potentially point to a few, probably the most abused is the Around the World.

Don’t get me wrong, when done right it looks really cool! However, being cool versus being effective is our biggest challenge.

I know, I know, I can hear, “oh Josh calm down, just let people have fun!”

You know what’s fun? Getting results! You know what’s fun? Not getting hurt! That is why I am always dogmatic about knowing why you are doing anything in your fitness program, DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training related or otherwise.

Okay, that short rant over with, let’s talk about the good stuff. Let’s discuss why the Around the World is such an important drill to learn to do RIGHT!

There are actually two versions of the Around the World. One is an important DVRT Ultimate Sandbag exercise to teach rotational training. The other is a must do drill to teach anti-rotation and even leads to fun corrective exercise training.

The Tall Kneeling Around the World is a Key Corrective Exercise (See More HERE)

One is meant to be done very dynamically with a ton of body movement, one focuses on resisting movement. One can be done for higher repetitions, one often uses far less repetitions. Knowing which one you are using to achieve certain goals is very important to your success!

The Key To Rotation

The DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training drill actually began as a very explosive drill in order to teach rotational movements. Of the three planes of motion that we can use, the transverse plane (rotation) is typically the one that gets missed the most. Maybe it is because of the complexity of movement, maybe it is the fear that one would get hurt, I am not sure!

Either way, the DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training Around the World for rotational training is completely dependent upon the most important factor of rotational training, FOOTWORK! While most people would agree functional training is a good thing, or use terms like “train like an athlete”, the reality is we have GIANT gaps in both aspects of fitness.

All About the Feet!

If you look at most fitness programs they focus upon very rigid up and down movements that keep our feet flat. Not one single sport other than Powerlifting do you rely on keeping your feet flat. In fact, most sports will teach that a flat footed athlete is a slow athlete!

So, why do we spend so much time teaching people to always be flat footed?

That’s where the footwork we teach in our DVRT educational programs becomes paramount in truly learning what functional exercises needs to become. The Around the World is a safe way in teaching these mechanics and often lets us see people’s compensations in a variety of ways.

The first mistake people is that they think what is happening in the DVRT Around the World is some crazy swinging of the Ultimate Sandbag around the body. It is actually the complete opposite! We want to focus on wrapping our body around the Ultimate Sandbag rather than swing the Ultimate Sandbag around our bodies.

This may seem like an insignificant point but it is actually quite important. Most people that try to perform similar drills actually are not performing rotation, but anti-rotational drills. Remember, what makes a drill rotational is not so much what the implement actually does, but what the body ends up doing! Because the vast majority of people like to swing implements around their bodies, they end up flat footed and never actually do any rotational training.

That little change in focus changes everything about the exercise!

The movement is initiated at the foot and creates a chain reaction up the hip. You can quickly see who has good hip mobility and coordination and who does not! While one foot pivots and drives force into the ground, the other should remain rather neutral. The Ultimate Sandbag is actually being moved around the body by your footwork, not by you swinging the weight with your arms. The better you can coordinate your footwork the faster you can go in the movement.

Speed brings up an important point! Faster is not always better, high quality movement is better! Therefore, the speed in which you perform the Around the World is completely based upon your ability to maintain proper footwork, which is much harder than it sounds!

Now, besides learning rotation, what makes the DVRT Around the World so good? It does a heck of a job of helping with mobility and flexibility in the upper body, something just about all of us need! The Around the World also teaches us to have a reactive core. What’s that?

We don’t want to learn to have the rigid bracing that planks teach us all the time or in movement. Remember, high tension restricts movement. Instead, we want to learn how to relax and then quickly contract our torso just at the right moment!

Oh, is this just like…..NO! Yes, I know there are other tools and exercises that look similar, but if you are listening the detail in which I am describing the DVRT Around the World you will see it is quite different! For example, the trajectory of the Ultimate Sandbag in the Around the World is much greater than that of a kettlebell halo. That means you are getting more stress on the torso even though the weight may not be that significantly different. You will also find that the dimension of the Ultimate Sandbag plays a big role in this movement so starting with a Power or Core Ultimate Sandbag is HIGHLY recommended.

I hope this clears up a lot of what the DVRT Around the World is suppose to be! If you can dial it in and study the video above you will find this amazing power packed exercise. Next time we will talk about the Around the World in learning to resist movement and how it can be the exercise you need EVERY workout!

Want to know more about DVRT progressions and innovative techniques? Check out our educational programs HERE