The Ultimate Way to Build Movement Strength

Danny Jackowicz, DVRT Master (Twoguns Training Systems)

Two weeks ago, I had the honor and privilege to present and teach a DVRT and Ultimate Sandbag Training In-Service on “DVRT Flows for the General Population” at Results Fitness. 

For those that don’t know, Results Fitness is owned by Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove and is one of the country’s most successful “training gyms”. Continually do they make top industry lists like Men’s Health and many others.

The In-Service was exclusively to their staff and team, who are easily one of the most educated and professional staffs I’ve ever experienced.

What is a flow? I define flows as “the seamless transition of three or more exercises into one overall movement.” It isn’t actually one exercise, but it almost appears as such. They differ from something like a complex in that in a complex, you would perform all of the target reps of a given exercise before moving onto the next one.

Flows have been a big part of DVRT almost from the beginning. Because of the unique positions and angles that could be achieved, the ability to quickly transition from one movement to another made DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training a really unique form of strength and movement based training. 

Several years ago though, DVRT Master, Steve Di Tomaso and Kari Negraiff of Envision Fitness made DVRT Flows almost an art form. 

This doesn’t just look cool, which it does, but also teaches us real world qualities that are important for functional fitness. Such as deceleration, transitioning, reactive core work, and incredibly mobility.  

How is this different than the more familiar concept of a complex? If this were a complex, I’d perform a specific amount of Forward MAX Lunges, followed by a certain number of Around The Worlds, followed by a specific amounts of Lateral Hinge with Overhead Chops. Instead, you see how one literally “flows” into the other than.

Forward MAX Lunge to Around the World to Lateral Hinge with Overhead Chop is 1 and then repeat depending in desired outcome.

First, the same way I started the In-Service and before I discuss what we talked about in the In-Service about how we build up to flows…

I have to include the caveat that DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training Flows as we have just shown you are what I call step 5 in a “5 Step Process”. They aren’t where you start by any means and you have to build up to them and form the foundation. They require an advanced level of skill and precision as well as having a lot of exercise options in your arsenal. Some people never get to them and that is completely okay. The best exercise and variations for you or your clients are the ones that meet them at their ability level, not the above above their ability level that they perform poorly or ineffectively.

Yet, that doesn’t mean you can start to build some very fundamental flows with just two or three movements either. However, the last thing I want to see if a bunch of videos doing flows with clients who have not built the foundation to do so. This is primarily why this blog and the In-Service were focusing on the building blocks of flows and not so much actual flows.

Here is the the help of DVRT Coach, Geoff Lewis, I demonstrate a rather simple DVRT Flow

Work on building blocks with clients and maybe play around with them yourself before moving on to anything else.

The first rule of DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training Flows is an obvious one that sometimes gets overlooked. You cannot perform an exercise in a flow that you haven’t practiced and mastered already in isolation or on its own.

So in the example above, I’ve performance the Forward MAX Lunge, Around the World and Lateral Hinge with Overhead Chop as their own exercise in the past many times.

After mastering individual exercises, the way we build up to flows looks like this…

Combinations of the Same Pattern

– Forward + Reverse MAX Lunge (Both Lunges)

– Forward + Rear Step Deadlift (Both Deadlifts)

Combinations of the Same Pattern in Different Planes

– Lateral Step + Crossover Step Deadlift (Both Deadlifts, Different Planes)

– Lateral Lunge + Dragon Squat (Both Lunges, Different Planes)

Combinations of Different Patterns in the same Plane

– Rear Step Deadlift + Forward MAX Lunge (Deadlift + Lunge, Same Plane)

– MAX Lunge + Forward Step Deadlift (Lunge + Deadlift, Same Plane)

Combinations of Different Patterns in Different Planes

– Lateral Step Deadlift + MAX Lunge (Lunge + Deadlift, Different Planes)

– Forward MAX Lunge + Crossver Step Deadlift (Lunge + Deadlift, Different Planes)

This progression both builds up work capacity and strength to progressively get stronger/better but also trains the neuromuscular system to progressively work on more complicated patterns. 

It makes me sad when people look at a DVRT Flow and either think they are too complicated or they go in before they are prepared. The best advice is to start with just two movements, ones that are really complimentary and start weaving them into smaller Flows that make sense. DVRT Masters, Steve “Coach Fury” Holiner and James Newman break down just how you can start building your Flows simply. 

There are so many great benefits to DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training Flows that it is hard to nail them down to just one. The key is knowing where you are going with them and how to build them up successfully. After all, if one of the top gyms in the country is doing them, it might just be something you want to start implementing too! 

Want to learn how to build movement strength and beyond? Don’t miss our New York upcoming DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training Certifications and get $100 towards Ultimate Sandbag gear HERE