The REAL Power of This Core Exercise

When you first think about it, being the inventor of something should give you some unique perspective upon that “things” use. No, I didn’t invent the idea of a bag of sand, but I did create what you see on the marketplace today in the world of a sandbag fitness program. Yet, I realize that I can be seen as a flawed messenger. Because I created this genre, it would be not a huge leap to believe that my mission is just to get you using Ultimate Sandbag Training. 

My hope was that by putting out over 1,000 free training videos since 2005 (no that isn’t an exaggerated number), we would earn people’s trust that we aren’t offering them sandbag training, but a solution to smarter training. What does this REALLY mean though? 

There are few better examples I can think of in our system than the use of our Ultimate Sandbag Training lateral drags. Once again, a quick glance may make you believe that this isn’t a very unique Ultimate Sandbag Training exercise. After all, aren’t we just tossing a weight back and forth? Heck, we can do that with anything!

If we REALLY get the purpose of this Ultimate Sandbag Training drill, our perspective starts to change. Is the goal to transfer the weight side to side? Sorta, dragging the Ultimate Sandbag across the body creates the increased anti-rotational stress on the body. Unlike something like a push-up row, the drags change where and how much force is on your core depending upon where the Ultimate Sandbag is during the drag. 

Both are powerful core exercises, they are just VERY different movements for looking somewhat similar.

Great, it is an anti-rotational drill, we get some different forces, but what about just dragging anything? I get the cynicism that what we drag shouldn’t matter, however, that is where the fitness industry does a poor job of pointing out what different tools do uniquely and when we should look to employ different tools. 

In the instance of lateral drags, yes we have anti-rotational forces, but how do we teach the body how to resist and what does our body really learn from the movement. The fact we can create pre-tension upon the Ultimate Sandbag allows us to make a connection to our lats. As we have long spoken about in our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training posts, connection of the lats in this manner allows us to bring in our core and opposing glutes. We build the powerful chain of the Posterior Oblique System (POS) that allows us to move in real life far more effectively and efficiently. 

Connection is key and that is why technique in what appears to be a simple drill is so vital. Simply placing the Ultimate Sandbag in the wrong position, or grabbing the wrong handle and we lose that tie in of the POS. We lose much of the purpose of this great Ultimate Sandbag Training exercise!

The other aspect that is so unique is that the Ultimate Sandbag itself has dimension. That dimension gives us friction on the ground that no other tool can emulate. This provides us load and challenge in both the physical weight of the Ultimate Sandbag and in the ground itself. In other words, a much stronger impact upon our core training. 

Instead of trying to convince you of these aspects of Ultimate Sandbag Training that can’t be replicated, I thought I would let you hear an unbiased voice. Sarah Rippel runs Rippel Effect Fitness in Lousiana. She wrote to me not very long ago wanting discuss this very topic. I asked her why and she wrote a very thoughtful response speaking how she once thought that the tool didn’t matter in such exercises, but when she read what our intent really was and used the Ultimate Sandbag to perform it in the manner we describe, she was so surprised how much it really made a difference!

Even more cool was Sarah’s “ah-ha” moment when she told me it opened her eyes to not just Ultimate Sandbag Training, but being more thoughtful on which tools she used and really feeling confident on the why’s. 

You can imagine how happy I was when she sent me this video to share. Not only does she explain the true purpose so well, she demonstrates the “little” techniques of our Ultimate Sandbag Training drills that make them as powerful as we promise!

Check out by scrolling through these great progressions to our lateral drags Sarah breaks down. Don’t forget to take advantage of 30% off our DVRT site with coupon “summersale” on our Ultimate Sandbags, DVRT Workouts, and Online Certifications HERE