Ultimate Sandbag Fitness Isn’t REAL Training!

I admit it, I spend some time on social media every day. Now, I don’t post a lot of the fun selfies (of course unless one of my dogs are in it), or my PR lifts (is it really that interesting?). What I do like to do is get ideas for our Ultimate Sandbag fitness blogs by seeing what people are talking about and sometimes hearing internal dialogues come out.

Two things really struck me scanning social media yesterday. For one, the idea of “looking cool”. It is something that I have thought about a lot, that people end up doing what they do because ultimately they think it “looks cool”. However, yesterday I actually heard someone write that, pretty amazing right?

The problem with chasing “cool” is that it is a constantly changing idea. What is “cool” can literally change from second to second making your training almost crazy trying to chase the next “cool” thing. Going after cool also is sure way to get frustrated.

Why? For one, you probably are always going to find someone “cooler” than you. You aren’t chasing an actual result based goal, you are going after something so incredibly subjective. To me, there is NOTHING cooler than making people better. Whether that is by getting them moving better, using their body better, lifting better, or performing better. That can only be done though with focus and intent. That is why while we have tons of “cool” exercises in our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag fitness program, we don’t chase cool, we go after better.

That means finding what DVRT Ultimate Sandbag fitness exercise is right for you, not just what is cool. After all, that gives you intent and purpose which trumps the novelty of cool every time!

The other thing that caught my eye was a coach defending the trap bar from being called a “cheating” way of lifting. I was intrigued because all the reasons he gave for validating the trap bar are things that if we used for other tools people may overlook or say they aren’t important.

Before we get into it though, why did people think the trap bar was cheating? If I read into it a bit (which I am apt to do;), it was because they believe the barbell is the standard and that is how you lift if you want to be serious about getting strong and fit. I thought it was an interesting response that if we have a better and safer way to get the same result then why wouldn’t we use it?

Now, you might be nodding your head when it comes to the trap bar, but why does the same not apply for DVRT Ultimate Sandbag fitness programs? Let me give you a few examples.

Deadlifting: Our Ultimate Sandbag puts the shoulders in a more friendly position to activate the lats and core so that you are more likely to lift with your legs/hips and NOT the low back.

Overhead Pressing: Again, we have a more friendly shoulder position that keeps people from having issues that they do with typical external rotation movements that happen in barbells and most other implements. Plus the Ultimate Sandbag is unstable enough where you build stabilizers as well as prime movers.

Squats: Not only are most of our Ultimate Sandbag fitness squat progressions in front of the body that is safer for the low back and knees, but we can easily change position of the load to really make a light weight feel heavier while emphasizing how the core works with the lower body.

Cleans: Why do Ultimate Sandbag Cleans feel SO much harder than barbells? Because the weight is far away from the gripping point and the Ultimate Sandbag has dimension. This means you have to be much stronger in your hips and accurate in your movement.

Hmmm, all these reasons that Ultimate Sandbag fitness exercises are better for our body, but we have people that believe that because the loads are less you can’t get REALLY strong! Well, to those people I have to say two things.

First, most people that say such things have never lifted a heavy Ultimate Sandbag, no seriously, I have had online debates where people admit to this and yet STILL want to argue with me. Once you feel a 100 pound plus Ultimate Sandbag fitness bag, your attitude changes quite quickly.

Secondly, when you understand that the goal of our Ultimate Sandbag fitness programs aren’t to mirror barbells, dumbbells, or kettlebells, you quickly realize we have our own reasons for how we set our progressions and find out MORE about your body than just focusing on load alone. We have a more holistic approach to your fitness and think your training should be reflected in how we create those workouts.