Why Therapists Are Loving Ultimate Sandbag Workouts

Jessica Bento, Physical Therapist (Creator of DVRT Restoration, Pelvic Control, and DVRT Shoulder Restoration Course)

I’ve been trying to do it more and more. That is go with Josh to many of our live DVRT educational courses. For one, I really enjoy working with the diverse group of professionals we attract and hanging with Josh is okay…I guess;) Another reason I love it is because I still am amazed to see how fast people transform with our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag workouts.

Hopefully it is something I will get to do more of, but keeping our “mom and pop” show going and taking care of our four rescue pups can be a lot! I share this with you because another reason I like to come to our courses is that things are said that are just different enough where they can be an “ah-ha” moment even for me.

Josh often jokes that it took him ten years after learning many of the concepts of myofascial systems to know what to do with them. I get it, because context is very important. When you read the works of people like Diane Lee and Thomas Myers, the thought of bringing these ideas to exercise isn’t a prevalent idea. Mostly because many of these same professionals see an overwhelming number of coaches that are still stuck on training muscles because they can “feel” it, they rush people through progressions, and/or they don’t know how to build better systems. In other words, they often see fitness as creating more problems with strength training that doing good.

Fascia is soft-tissue that helps the muscles communicate. That is how your feet can actually be connected to your shoulders! 

I know that feeling as a therapist, it is partly what took me so long to see what we do in DVRT Ultimate Sandbag workouts in such a different way. More times than not, when I would visit a gym or fitness professional it was much of the same ole, same ole, or the rush to novelty because they saw something new on the internet.

A great example of this came recently when one of our great DVRT Master coaches, Kaori Tani, got to work with Thomas Myers. For those that don’t know, Mr. Myers has some of the most extensive work on fascial systems and his book “Anatomy Trains” is a go to for anyone wanting to understand the body.

Kaori shared with us some of her experiences…” He does run and in quite great shape for a man of 68, and his beliefs have shifted towards ” One has to move actively in order for them to keep their fascial network resilient ” , however when he talks about ” weight training ” I could tell he still was thinking of it as terms of ” muscles ” not as whole body connection / movement. I wanted to give him different idea of training.”

While some may roll their eyes that Mr. Myers feels this way, listen to how many coaches still talk about glutes, rotator cuffs, soleus, and many other muscles in isolated terms, not integrative. I don’t blame Mr. Myers. However, I love that he was open enough to let Kaori take him through some of our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag workouts.

“He was telling me that he wanted to improve his squat. I saw him doing body weight squat, and saw the need of improving T- spine mobility, SG stability, Hip mobility, Hip Hinge. I introduced him supine bridge with USB, March, MAX lunge all with supine bridge. He became very much aware of different between right and left and also the integrated manner of the movements. He got very much interested. 

We also did modified shinbox with press out, tall kneeling press out, press out squat.

He started asking us about movements of olympic lifting regarding to the questions he received from the seminar participants, I explained him the movement with Strength USB.

Although he was telling us that he wanted to improve his squat, what he really wants is to improve his movement efficiency for him to do what he loves, which is sailing his boat. As he experienced some deadlift and cleans with USB he said “ Wow this can help me to work better on my boat during summer.”

Helping create an environment where there really is no difference in building a more resilient body, a healthier body, or a stronger body, is what I think ultimately we are all after. It isn’t till we all understand how the body works and we create better solutions that we can really develop programs that address how the body truly works.

See how DVRT Master, Cory Cripe, breaks down why these Ultimate Sandbag workouts are so different and make you better faster!