Why You Need More Ultimate Sandbag Snatch Training

One of my all time favorite Saturday Live skits was the Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken cowbell scene. Something so memorable, that I never got upset when clients would jokingly call kettlebells, cowbells. Little side note,  Jessica and I ended up at a party where the host had won the actual cowbell from the skit at auction. Yea, that is the type of sophisticated crowd we roll with!

You can tell who Jessica and I are likely to hang around at a party!

Okay, why do I really bring up the cowbell?! Well, like that memorable SNL skit, when I got into kettlebells (see how I made that transition there;), the exercise I had really fallen in love was the snatch. Having come from a world of strength and conditioning where I helped athletes use drills like the snatch to build performance power, the kettlebell was such a great way of bringing the exercise to more people. After all, power is a quality that everyone should have as it builds longevity, helps with increasing resilience, and makes for some great conditioning that doesn’t actually wear out your joints like running.

This video is SO embarrassing! However, it was 12 years ago but it showed how enthusiastic I was about the kettlebell snatch. 

Now, that last one you may want to say “hey Josh, don’t you need good shoulder mobility to snatch?” My answer would be, of course! However, what many miss is that we can use that position to actually build great mobility as well. How? If you can recall the Joint by Joint approach of strength coach, Mike Boyle, and physical therapist, Gray Cook, you can see that shoulder mobility isn’t just the shoulders. In fact, rarely is it the shoulders themselves.

The point of brining up the Joint by Joint is to share that the feet, hips, and core all play a role in shoulder mobility as does the thoracic spine and shoulder. We can make the body better REALLY fast if we focus on these concepts and the snatch can be part of the solution. Now, if you have a complete inability to get the right positions, I will suggest following some upcoming blogs where we discuss other methods too. So, don’t force your body to something it can’t do now.

The Ultimate Sandbag Snatch can be very user friendly if you have the right technique behind it!

The DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Snatch Solution

First off, we don’t have to do a lot of snatches to actually use it to our mobility benefit. The position the snatch allows us for is another holding position with some great benefits. One of the reasons you are going to see me talk more about the use of our Ultimate Sandbag snatch is how we are going to use the weight and how easy it is to learn. Plus similar to the kettlebell, but the Ultimate Sandbag amplifies this idea, is we are going to use the feedback of the weight beyond us to teach some important concepts.

Physical Therapist, Jessica Bento, gives one example of how we can use our Ultimate Sandbag snatch to build mobility. 

Ultimate Sandbag Snatch Strength Mobility

What I like how we approach mobility specifically, is we give an element of strength with our movement which is MUCH more effective in cementing the pattern and new found range of motion. As well, the load help the lifter create proper tension to create the mobility they needed just from connecting the body smarter!

That means we can use loads in our Ultimate Sandbag snatch that are lighter when we combine them with complexes. Since a lunge is a great way to connect the feet, hips, core, and upper body, there are several Ultimate Sandbag snatch combos we can use.

DVRT Master, James Newman shows how we can put the Ultimate Sandbag snatch and overhead lunge into a great workout!

Think kettlebell and Ultimate Sandbag snatches are the same? Kettlebell expert, Steve Holiner breaks down what you may be missing!

DVRT Australia Master, Cam Ward, gives simple and practical ways in which you can use these strategies while you may be improving your mobility!

DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Snatch For Real World Strength

What makes me a big fan of the Ultimate Sandbag snatch is yes, it take a lot of power to bring the weight overhead, but it also takes a lot of strength to bring the weight down correctly. Like our cleans, we don’t want to lower the weight with our arms!

You see how Coach Joe Chalakee demonstrates the right way to both lift and lower the weight of the snatch!

Great power to both accelerate and decelerate the weight is needed, but so is the bracing of the core, teaching how to drive into the ground, basically principles that are really important to functional strength. Once we learn these foundations we can start to make it far more dynamic of a movement than most people ever realize! We do so while STILL lifting solid weight to improve our strength as DVRT Master, Sean Lettero shows…

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiccqE5lueE/

DVRT Master Cory Cripe shows where our training CAN go if we spend time building those foundations and some of that positioning !

If you are wondering what mere mortals MIGHT be able to do, starting off with the Sprinter Stance Snatch is probably a better option for most!

Learning to move laterally is another incredible way to build up your Ultimate Sandbag snatch and build qualities of functional fitness that most people using the snatch miss completely.

Hopefully, what you are seeing is another possible solution to your fitness goals. Just changing the holding position to the snatch may open brand new doors to your training. Especially right now when people are trying to make do with less, having these strategies is really key!

Want to jump start into our DVRT system and find out what makes us a leader in functional training for the past 15 years? Check out our NEW DVRT Online Workshop and Foundations we are giving at a special price of $70 and use code “save30” on this program and get ANOTHER 30% off the complete program that normally goes for $124! We wanted a way people could get great education during this tough time, earn CEU’s, and empower themselves with some great training. Just go HERE now for a limited time!