2021-04-17
One of the biggest obstacles to helping people train consistently is that of time. I know a lot of fitness pros like to say that lack of time is just an excuse, but I can tell you in my life and what I see from my fellow coaches, when we get busy lack of time gets real quickly! Far too often people default to just super crazy workouts in such cases and often just blow themselves up rather than doing something really productive for their training. It doesn’t have to be train for an hour or do crazy workouts.
A good coach knows how to create solutions for people, so when it comes to being able to solve the time issue for many of our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag workouts, a great solution is that of flows. The idea of flows have been around for a long time, it is when one exercise “flows” into another. It has been called other things over the years, but I think something descriptive helps people understand what is occurring.
You may have seen a wide array of flows on social media with all sorts of equipment. What makes flows unique to our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag workouts is how we put more meaning a thought behind them. There are really 3 HUGE mistakes that people make in their flow workouts that keep them from really seeing the benefits to strength, stability, mobility, and conditioning all at once.
Unbalanced Flows
Probably the biggest mistake I see repeated again and again is that people just have unbalanced flows in their workouts. What do I mean? Typically a series like a clean to a squat to a press is going to be limited to how much you can press in the flow. Therefore, your squat and clean don’t really get nearly the same strength benefits that the press offers. So, how do we solve this?
The easiest way to solve this issue for your flow DVRT Ultimate Sandbag workouts is to simply match planes of motion or position of the body to the series of movements. Let’s look at a few examples below…
View this post on Instagram
If we just take the first flow in the series above you can see how I use a lateral step row to MAX lunge to match my overhead press. Not only does this level the playing field out for these 3 movements, but it also takes into account that as I fatigue in performing repetitions of this flow in my Ultimate Sandbag workouts that I will also be performing the last exercise in a more stable environment. Making sure that we match the intensity of the exercises correctly in our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag workouts is so important in making flows as effective as they can be!
Too Much Movement Redundancy
As much as I can I try to avoid having too much movement redundancy in any of our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag workouts. What does that mean? A classic example comes from the kettlebell world where you will see something along the lines of the following…
-Swing
-Clean
-Deadlift
-Snatch
-Press
In that series we have 5 movements and 4 of them are hip hinges. Since we have 7 movement patterns to train and work from that seems unnecessary and even counterproductive to our goals. So in our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag workouts we look to have as much balance or at least avoid repeating the same movement pattern in our training.
View this post on Instagram
If we look just as Filip’s example of such Ultimate Sandbag workouts in the first series we see great balance of movements. We have an upper body pull, a hip hinge, a lunge, rotation, and an upper body press. That is really what we are looking for in our Ultimate Sandbag workouts with flows. It can be a bit challenging at times because a bent row and a clean, for example, both have hip hinges in them. In which case we would make sure the more challenging movement first depending upon factors like which plane of motion we are using.
Too Many Exercises At Once
Few things are a worse feeling as a coach than realizing that you made your client totally overwhelmed and they have become frustrated with their training. That is why I see one of the biggest mistakes in any type of flow is adding way too many exercises when introducing the idea of flows. Those of us that have been training for a long time or feel very proficient at a tool forget that not everyone feels the same way.
That is why flows often get seen as “dancing tricks” rather than serious strength training tools. Instead, what we teach in creating our Ultimate Sandbag workouts is that we start small, like 2 exercises in a flow. What Cari Satre shows in the workout below is a great example of how we begin people with our flows. You might think it looks easy, but it is actually quite challenging, especially when the focus isn’t just “getting through it” but being mindful of how we are performing each part of the movement.
Flows allow us to maximize the versatility of the Ultimate Sandbag to train in ways that is just about impossible with other tools. When you add that in with the instability and the ways we can progress our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag workouts it becomes obvious that time doesn’t and shouldn’t be an obstacle to achieving your fitness goals! Try these ideas in your next workout or program and see the tremendous benefits and how you can often achieve more in less time!
DON’T MISS OUR BLACK FRIDAY SALE WITH 35% OFF OUR ULTIMATE SANDBAGS, DVRT ONLINE CERTIFICATIONS/COURSES, AND GREAT WORKOUT PROGRAMS LIKE OUR FUNCTIONAL MUSCLE BUILDING PROGRAM HERE WITH CODE “HOLIDAY2021”
View this post on Instagram
© 2024 Ultimate Sandbag Training. Site by Jennifer Web Design.