The Most Surprising Ultimate Sandbag Training Drills for Strength

If someone asks me what gets me excited, it is trying to find ways to make science really applicable to our fitness programs. After all, when I think about what DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training really is, it is using specific exercises to teach people how to use their bodies smarter to be strong in life and sport. We look to use exercise to bring what science teaches us about movement to life. 

Not a lofty goal at all right?! Of course that is why we have our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training blogs, to teach one idea at a time (okay, sometimes more than one) and how a few exercises can be so many solutions all at once. That is why I think one of the most important ideas that we just don’t talk about in fitness is teaching how to decelerate. 

Which is really odd when you think about it because the majority of injuries are because we can’t stop our bodies in motion. Let’s use sport as a way to convey this message. Most ACL injuries are non-contact and are caused people can’t decelerate well. Many shoulder injuries in throwing are because athletes can’t decelerate their shoulder. Low back injuries are also largely a function of not being able to stop movement too! 

Renowned strength coach, Robert Dos Remedios, has long been a supporter of our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training to build a unique form of resiliency for his athletes. 

With all that said, it makes you wonder why teaching deceleration isn’t MORE of a focus in strength training. Guess you know that I am gong to say it IS a big part of what we do with DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training. Whether it is in smaller ways like our Up Downs, Arc Presses, Lateral Deadlifts, and many more. We can also be far more dramatic with the deceleration concept in the form of Shoveling, MAX Lunges, Around the Worlds, and much more. 

The key with any form of training is to be progressive. If we try to introduce a concept at its highest level, of course we are going to create failure, frustration, and potentially injury. So, how can we use DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training to ensure we teach the important concepts of deceleration in a progressive manner? 

Let’s use both hip hinging and lunging as example of what can be accomplished with a good plan. Both lunges and the hip hinge are integral parts of DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training and functional fitness overall. Yet, most people get stuck on only a few drills and why I love using these two movement patterns as examples is because we can progress them slowly and they have direction to their movement. Yes, we actually move with our hip hinges, novel concept right?! 

 

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 Just a few ideas we use deceleration with strength to build real world resiliency.

People think of walking lunges all the time, but they don’t think the same for hip hinges, not sure why?! However, that isn’t what this discussion is about, we can use DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training progressions of direction to help build progressive intensity. Instead of just stepping randomly we tried to systemize how we step because the direction we move in does impact the level of the exercise. How do we do it? From easiest to most difficult we do the following….

-Backwards

-Lateral

-Forward

-Crossover

With that right there, it is more than most ever address or systemize in fitness, but we can go a step further. In DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training we can manipulate holding position too! For the hip hinge we can have the weight more by our hips like a traditional deadlift or we can place the Ultimate Sandbag into the front load position emphasizing more core, lats, and glutes. This makes the exercise MUCH more challenging. 

Similarly we can manipulate the lunge with holding the position. While most only challenge the lunge with weights down by their side, we have way more options with DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training. We can use the following progressions to really make some significantly challenging movements. 

-Front Load

-Fist Loaded

-Shoulder

-Suitcase

-Shoulder/Suitcase

-Snatch Overhead

-Press Overhead

-MAX Lunge progressions (front, hip, suitcase, press/snatch overhead)

Shannon from Fitness Lying Down, shows how we can get purposefully creative when we think bigger than just muscles, but how we move. 

When you combine the holding positions with the directions of our movement, we have not only hundreds of options, but more importantly we have progressions to our movement. We don’t just have to fall into the trap of lifting more or less or doing more or less reps. Having more options allows us to create better solutions, especially as we combine these movement patterns as DVRT Master, Cory Cripe, and I demonstrate below.

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The power of DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training isn’t in the sandbag. It is how we can bring science to life through the use of the Ultimate Sandbag. That is how we help people find their better ALL the time!