How Ultimate Sandbag Exercises Fix So Many Injuries

This past weekend was simply AWESOME! We got to run our DVRT Restoration and Level 1 Certifications at Train for Life in Chicopee, MA. Two things made it really phenomenal, the most important was the open minded fitness pros and therapists that came with one simple mission…..learning how to make others better through our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag exercises.

What a lot of them didn’t expect is what also made the weekend tremendous. How many people got so much better THEMSELVES!!! I always tell people that we want them to work with our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag exercises so THEY can feel the impact and what movements do for your body that you may not expect.

We had in particular three or four people that hadn’t gone overhead in a few years due to shoulder issues. While I always warn people to be smart, I also advise them to “just try” some of our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag exercises because so many times the connections we make the body end up transforming them so quickly!

Two people popped out at me immediately. One was a young lady who was VERY concerned with the idea of our Clean and Press test. She had significant pain in her shoulders and neck and I can relate. I told her she didn’t have to do the test, but try the Ultimate Sandbag exercises we teach leading up to the Clean and Press.

Why? Going through our progressions we can usually find the major issues for a lot of people and many times it is making better connections of our bodies chains as well as changing the intent of an exercise.

For example, so many people don’t realize that pressing overhead is MORE about pushing your body DOWN into your feet. This simple change to your intent on an exercise from using your tiny shoulder muscles to try to lift big weights to using your WHOLE body especially your glutes and core. The result? You feel almost nothing in the shoulders which makes you stronger and more pain free.

Are the changes in such simple things with our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag exercises that big of a thing? Well, as you can see the young lady who hadn’t gone overhead in years knocked out 40 reps her first time doing a 40 pound Strength Ultimate Sandbag Clean and Press test. Best of all, she had no negative issues after! That’s pretty amazing!

The biggest achievements aren’t always in reaching a specific test, but the fact you can do things you didn’t think possible. This young lady was a rock star!

I would also not do the weekend justice if I didn’t talk about one of my favorite attendees, Pete. Few people have made our programs as enjoyable as Pete, his enthusiasm, open mind, and hard work were really inspirational. Besides his great personality, Pete reminded me of myself. A former athlete that battled injury and he thought he had lost the ability to go overhead because of a torn labrum.

JUST after Restoration Pete was pumped and I was pumped for him! He was going into ranges he hadn’t in a long time and doing so pain free. I’ve always said getting people stronger is awesome, losing weight..tremendous, getting people out of pain or much better is life changing! I know that from my own challenges.

However, might be better to hear from Pete himself…“As a PT, you may be interested to know that I have made attempts to lift overhead, over the last couple years.  All have been with bad pain (bad pain equalling discomfort before even working hard, as opposed to good discomfort/muscle hurt that comes from work).  Having been recently diagnosed with a torn labrum, I’d basically thrown in the towel on having overhead strength, but this past weekend changed that.  The tall kneel stuff, bugs, dogs and floor-gripping really made a difference.”

Many times the way to get the body better is simply teaching it to work better through more purposeful exercises. 

So, how do we do it? Jessica wrote several great posts about why certain DVRT Ultimate Sandbag exercises work so well, but this one in particular was pretty great (HERE). However, we are just building, check out the 3 DVRT Ultimate Sandbag exercises below in training something that most people don’t think enough about, lifts/chops that have a direct relationship in building better backs and shoulders.

Check them out and if you love training like this don’t miss our upcoming DVRT programs HERE or Jessica’s new DVRT Pelvic Control Course HERE