The Best Clean and Press Exercises You Aren’t Doing!

The way we approach training in DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training either tends to get people really excited or severely skeptical. Why skeptical? There are many that look at fitness and don’t see anything broken with the way the “classic” exercises are done. Funny when you think about it, what many people think of as “sacred” exercises are usually under 100 years old (in the way we know them today). Most of these great exercises were also villains no longer than about 20 years ago. So, it isn’t that we have always seen many of the drills that are popular today as ones we should be using in training.

Lastly, maybe more interesting, is the fact that many of the exercises of today were developed for sport. Both Powerlifting and Olympic Lifting really started to take form in the 30’s (although both changed dramatically over the decades since). Meaning that there wasn’t some deep scientific reason many of these exercises were created or how they were performed. If you read some of the books through the last 100 years of fitness you will see that these drills often looked VERY differently even 50-60 years ago.

This was the form for the dumbbell swing back in the earl part of the 1900’s. I wouldn’t have any client use this method today. Old doesn’t always mean better. 

Ultimately, my point is just because we read about how exercise “x” is the best thing since sliced bread, the reality is that is based on personal opinion, recency bias, and little in terms in an inability to make exercises better. Especially because in DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training we do not train for the “sport” of DVRT. Maybe one day, but in over 15 years of doing DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training I’m less interested in making it a sport and helping people live their lives better, even athletes (that means performing at a higher level while being more resilient).

Life and sport don’t happen in the gym. We want you ready for everything and anything!

That means we don’t see an exercise as anything but a combination of different natural movements of the body. Which is actually very freeing. That means we can create, sculpt, and innovate exercises to be anything we need them to be as long as we do adhere to the principles of good movement. Where most fitness programs make feel a slave to a few exercises, or novelty, we are looking to have them fit our needs as our fitness reaches new heights.

When people ask me “hey Josh, is this exercise good?” There are really two things I look for in answering. First, does the exercise in the way it is performed put the individual at high risk for injury? Second, what is the goal and who is it for with the drill? That is why when I show DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Walking Clean and Press as an example. Really I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of this drill before. What’s the point? The Ultimate Sandbag Walking Clean and Press actually does a lot!

First you better own the foundational version of the movement. 

Many of our most basic movements like walking require us not to just move up and down, but forward, backwards, and many different directions. Adding a horizontal movement component the Ultimate Sandbag Walking Clean and Press is actually very relevant to true functional movement.

In DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training we also look to build balance in our flow drills like the Clean and Press. You see in the classic Clean and Press the great majority of people can clean more than they can press. So not only are they limited in their clean by their pressing weight, they also end up doing the hardest exercise second! In the Ultimate Sandbag Walking Clean and Press we use the staggered stance to help build balance between the clean and press aspects of the exercise, so you are getting more uniform work through the exercise.

DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training is full of subtle things that make a BIG difference! The forward step in the Walking Clean and Press has such things. By adding the walking step it forces the lifter to more strongly fully extend their working hip. It also adds elements of stabilization in other planes of movement. Yea, in other words a heck of an exercise that can be relatively easy to implement.

Follow today’s teaching video and see how Jessica and I teach you how you can build on the DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Walking Clean and Press! Add it into a workout by using the following simple idea…

The DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Workout

Ultimate Sandbag Walking Clean and Press x 3 each side, then clean to front Load and walk for 30 seconds, repeat 3 times. Rest for 1 minute then try to the series again. Perform this for 10 minutes and see how your whole body feels totally worked! 

Want an additional challenge and see where we can take movement strength? Follow these ideas that DVRT Master, Cory Cripe and Megan Berner offer! Also don’t miss saving 20% on all our DVRT training tools, workouts, and education HERE with code “save20”