As we’ve come to the end of this series I’m reminded of the words of a great coach whom I once asked about tapering prior to competition. He told me, “There comes a time when preparation, mental rehearsal, and skills practice needs to end. At that point you have to dig in and show the world what you’ve got. In that moment you’ll learn more than you ever could thinking about how you might respond under pressure.”

I think those words are fitting for this final part of the series and the real ethos that I hope I’ve been able to impart. Get through these workouts and you’ll learn an awful lot about sandbag training, your strengths and weaknesses, and exactly what you’re going to need to do to make progress in your strength and conditioning routine.

The Workouts

These workouts are tough and are designed to build from those earlier in this article series. If you haven’t yet completed the earlier workouts or are unsure about your fitness level, then please go back and attempt those first. All of the workouts below have been designed to offer a good mix of both strength and conditioning and could be used as an alternative for your existing met-con or fitness routine.

Sandbag weight targets have been given, but don’t worry if you need to start lighter until you are confident with the exercises. Conversely, as you improve you can add additional weight to your sandbag to increase the challenge.

Workout 1

This workout is a great test of conditioning and upper- and lower-body strength. Ideally you’ll complete it with a sandbag that is around 25% of your bodyweight. Do not underestimate this one. That hill will feel like Everest after twenty minutes.

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes:

• Sandbag hill sprint (sprint up a 40-60m hill carrying a sandbag)
• Jog back to the bottom of the hill, still carrying the sandbag
• 10 sandbag floor presses at the bottom of the hill

Workout 2

This workout is fast and furious and will test even the best-conditioned athletes. Aim to complete this workout with a sandbag that is 50% of your bodyweight.

5 rounds as fast as possible, rest as needed:

• 150 Skips with a jump rope
• 20 Burpees
• 15 Sandbag high pulls
• 10 Sandbag thrusters

Workout 3

An awesome mix of pulling, pushing, and squatting. Aim to complete using a sandbag that is around 50% of your bodyweight. For the sandbag shoulder squats you should switch sides each round.

10 rounds as fast as possible, rest as needed:

• 5 Gorilla pull ups
• 10 Handstand push ups
• 15 Sandbag shoulder squats

Workout 4

Where possible you should try to complete each round of this sandbag complex without putting the sandbag down. This will help to develop your grip strength and endurance. Aim for a sandbag that is 50% of your bodyweight. To make things even more interesting, give yourself (or your training partners/clients) a 10 push up penalty for each time the sandbag is dropped.

5 rounds as fast as possible, rest as needed:

• 5 Sandbag cleans
• 5 Sandbag push jerks
• 5 Sandbag Zercher squats
• 5 Sandbag good mornings

Workout 5

I really believe that one of the best exercises for conditioning is the load carry, push or drag. This workout also adds in some agility work for balance. Aim to complete this workout with a sandbag that is 75% of your bodyweight.

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes, rest as needed:

• 100m Load carry
• 20 T-push ups
• 20 Lateral lunges

Workout 6

Agility, power, and strength make this workout a great choice for any athlete interested in improving performance. Aim to complete with a sandbag that is 50% of your bodyweight.

5 rounds as fast as possible, rest as needed:

• 200 Skips with jump rope
• 10 Sandbag shoulder-to-shoulder press
• 15 Toes-to-bar
• 20 Box jumps

Workout 7

A serious endurance challenge, this workout is perfect for long distance athletes and anyone who wants to push their conditioning and muscular endurance to new highs. Aim to complete with a sandbag that is 25% of your bodyweight.

5 rounds as fast as possible, rest as needed:

• 10 L-pull ups
• 10 Sandbag clean and jerks
• 10 Sandbag overhead walking lunges
• 10 Sandbag bear hug squats
• 10 Sandbag snatch

Workout 8

This workout is about as simple as it gets, but sometimes simple is the best thing. Aim to complete this one with a sandbag that is at least 100% of your bodyweight, and ideally without handles.

10 rounds as fast as possible, rest as needed:

• 5 Pull ups
• 10 Sandbag deadlifts
• 15 Push ups

Workout 9

Another brutal strength and conditioning workout that will challenge everyone who tries it. Aim to complete the workout with a sandbag that is 50% of your bodyweight.

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes, rest as needed:

• 10 Sandbag push press
• 10 Sit ups
• 10 Sandbag back squats
• 10 Pull ups

Workout 10

The real secret to getting through ladders is to persevere through the high repetition rounds, and this workout is no different. Where possible you should aim to complete this with a sandbag that is 50% of your bodyweight.

• 15 – 1 of push ups, box jumps, and sandbag Zercher squats

Complete 15 repetitions of each exercise, then 14, then 13, etc. Do this fast as possible. Rest as needed.

In Summary

I’m a great believer in accessible health and fitness in which everyone can get involved, and I think sandbag training really fits the bill. That’s one of the main reasons I remain so passionate about sandbags as a means of improving your strength and conditioning. Through a good few hundred workouts and coaching sessions I’ve also come to appreciate the unique benefits that sandbag training can offer and firmly believe that it has a place in everyone’s strength and conditioning program.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the series and it’s inspired you to either try sandbag training or further develop it with some of the concepts I’ve presented. Train hard!

Check out the rest of the series:

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 1 – Get Started

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 2 – Building Strength

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 3 – Planes of Motion

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 4 – Play Time

The post 5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 5 – 10 Killer Workouts appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

When children play, and indeed animals, they learn vital skills that prepare them for the rigors of life. It’s a way to develop physical and mental skills that can’t be beaten. If you’ve long since forgotten the art of playing then you might be be missing out on an important part of your physical training program.

What Are You Playing At?

I spend a lot of time looking at other people’s training programs either during coaching sessions or if I’ve been asked to re-program a session for someone. It can make pretty depressing reading. Why? Nine times out of ten it is so sterile that I wonder how people ever managed to stay motivated enough to do it. Of course it’s a great thing to put yourself through some hardship to achieve a bigger goal, but maybe you’re focusing on the hardship too much? And, while it’s easy to mentally equate hard work with great results it doesn’t always work out this way. Sure, I enjoy tough training sessions that I know other people would shy away from. But, for most people, I think a training program needs to be enjoyable on many levels for it to be effective.

Defining Play

Play can be defined as “a range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities normally associated with recreational pleasure and enjoyment.”¹ But this can give an unfair representation of the true value of play. Some see it that anything done purely for recreation cannot then also hold value in terms of achieving a particular aim. I disagree and believe sometimes we can achieve goals in a somewhat oblique manner.

Flow, as described by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, is “the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.”² That sounds a lot like how fitness training should be to me. And I think flow represents the perfect example of how we should approach play within our training sessions.

Playing With The Sandbag

Play itself is, by definition, free from the constraints of many traditional gym activities. In fact, it’s a great excuse to get outside of the gym if you’ve become a little too habitual. With that in mind, you could argue that play shouldn’t actually be defined by any one training tool. I’m inclined to agree with this but we can use select tools to make our play more appropriate to the overall goal of the session.

If you want to improve your ability to move well, along with significant improvements to your strength and conditioning, then the sandbag is a good option. On the other end of the spectrum, trying to go through a play drill on a fixed resistance machine like the leg press or lat pulldown just isn’t going to work.

When I think about play with the sandbag, the following are key points:

• Try to actively avoid going through your normal exercise patterns, especially avoid long sets that just turn every session into circuit training.
• The aim is to be creative. If you feel like doing something different, then go for it!
• Think of your play session as a game with very loose rules.
• Games can be played alone, but work best in groups. So get out there and find some people to play with!

Sandbag Play Drills

These drills have been designed to get you to approach your training in a different way. While ideas have been given below, you should also try to get creative and modify the sessions. What other things could you add to your training sessions to make them spontaneous, yet still effective?

The suggestions below will work best with training partners, teams, or groups. Remember, play should retain an element of fun while still being challenging, so don’t be afraid to scale any session to suit your current fitness levels.

Play Drill 1: Sandbag Volleyball

Set out an area of 10m x 10m and designate a center line (or put up a net). Divide into two teams. Start by chest passing the sandbag from one side of the court to the other. A member of the opposite team should chest catch it and then pass it back to the other side of the court again. Each time the sandbag drops to the ground the opposite team gets a point. If you’re not using a net make sure you try to clear the imaginary net line with each pass.

Play Drill 2: Sandbag Casualty

Oh no! Your best friend has been injured and you’re going to need to get him or her to safety. Unfortunately this is one heavy friend, so you’re going to need to load the sandbag up as heavy as you can – 200lbs or more is ideal. Work in teams of two or three people to carry the sandbag around an obstacle course or up a big hill. Carry it as a team or take turns.

Play Drill 3: New Exercise Generator

Get into a group of five or so people and each take turns to come up with a new exercise. Teach that new exercise to the others in the group. Once you’ve come up with ten or more exercises put them together into a circuit training session. Are you trying to come up with long-term replacements for the squat and deadlift? No, this drill is designed to get you to think about different things you can try. Who knows, you might just find your new favorite exercise.

Play Drill 4: Sandbag Relays

Get into teams of four people and set out a course of 20m or so. Pick four different ways to take the sandbag from the start to the finish line and back. You could try dragging, flipping, throwing, putting it across your shoulders and lunging, or putting it on your back and crawling. Really try to think outside of the box here! Run the relay as normal until every member of the team has done the course using each different method.

In Summary

In many ways this was a difficult article to write, as suggesting that people add more play into their training programs can come across as a little vague. It’s not as scientific as technique advice, or as immediately recognizable as being effective like a ten-minute met-con workout, but that’s definitely no reason to avoid incorporating play. Regular play sessions will add a level of enjoyment, creativity, and recovery everyone can benefit from. And it’s often in these freeform sessions that you’ll discover things that’ll really propel your strength and conditioning onto the next level. As the saying goes, if you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always get what you’ve always got.

Check out the rest of the series:

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 1 – Get Started

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 2 – Building Strength

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 3 – Planes of Motion

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 5 – 10 Killer Workouts

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post 5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 4 – Play Time appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Although I briefly touched on the concept of biomechanics in part one of this series, this article will delve deeper into exactly why sandbag training works and how you can maximize your results.

Welcome to the third part of this five-part weekly series on sandbag training. Today I’m going to be discussing the basic biomechanics of sandbag training and further advancing your competency with another three workouts for you to try.

Although I briefly touched on the concept of biomechanics in part one of this series, this article will delve deeper into exactly why sandbag training works and how you can maximize your results.

Hold Up, What Are Biomechanics and Why Should I Care?

If you want to be able to critically assess the programming and exercise options available to you, then you need to take an interest in biomechanics.

Even a basic understanding of biomechanics will put you head and shoulders above those who blindly pick and choose their exercise options on a whim. Plus, when things go wrong, like picking up an injury, then you’ll be in a far greater position to figure out how to fix it.

Biomechanics is described as the application of mechanics to biological organisms, and the relationship between the two. In this context we are using it to figure out how and why exercises and programs work or don’t work.

We want to know how to move more efficiently and more effectively – this is exactly where the value of biomechanics lies. We can use the sandbag to both demonstrate this and also add an extra level of functionality to programs.

Planes Of Motion

The planes of motion might best be described as invisible sheets of glass that your body can pass through. There are three of them, and many movements require that your body move through multiple planes at the same time.

A movement in which your body passes through two planes is called multi-planar, and a movement that passes through all three is called tri-planar. Planes of motion are not unique to sandbag training and the theory is applicable to a wide range of training tools and methodologies.

Planes Of Motion: Sagittal Plane

The sagittal plane of motion runs from side-to-side and you pass through it when moving forwards or backwards. Imagine the sheet of glass dissecting your body from shoulder to shoulder. The vast majority of exercises and human movements work in the sagittal plane Examples include walking, swings, deadlifts and sit ups.

Planes Of Motion: Frontal Plane

The frontal, or coronal, plane of motion runs down the center of your body and you pass through it when moving from side-to-side. Imagine the sheet of glass dissecting your body from your nose to the back of your head. Examples of frontal plane movements include lateral lunges, sidestepping, lateral raises and side bends.

Planes Of Motion: Transverse Plane

The transverse plane of motion sits through the center of the body and you pass through it when rotating. Imagine the sheet of glass dissecting your body horizontally. Examples of transverse plane movements include wood-chops, round-the-worlds, and T-push ups.

Movement or Stress?

Planes of motion are often confused as only being applicable if a person is physically moving through space. But it’s also important to realize your ability to stop yourself moving through a particular plane of motion is a very important thing.

Standing on one leg is an example of your ability to withstand stress in the frontal plane. This ability is a vital component of sandbag training because the bag does not remain balanced throughout an exercise.

While you are fighting to maintain the position of the sandbag you are also effectively stabilizing through multiple planes of motion. In this respect the sandbag forces an element of multi-planar instability into your exercise program, and that’s no bad thing.

Multi-planar stability is also highly correlated with a lower incidence of injury, principally in non-impact injuries. This is primarily due to an improved ability to resist against external stresses and improved joint health and function.

Multi-Planar Sandbag Workouts

The following workouts have been selected to encourage either movement or stability in all three planes of motion. You should also take a look at your current sport (or daily activities that you want to improve) and examine where you might need to develop improved movement and stability. Are there elements of your programming that could do with some fine-tuning?

Workout 1

• 10 x Sandbag shoulder squats (sagittal movement with stress in the frontal/coronal plane)
• 10 x Sandbag lunge and twist (sagittal and transversal movement)
• 10 x Sandbag round-the-worlds (transversal movement with stress in the sagittal and frontal/coronal plane)

Rest for 1 minute and repeat for a total of 4 rounds, switching sides/direction each round.

Workout 2

• 5 x Sandbag get up/windmills on each side (tri-planar)
• 5 x Sandbag single arm/single leg overhead press on each side (sagittal movement with stress in the frontal/coronal plane)
• 5 x Sandbag shoulder lunges (sagittal plane movement with stress in the frontal/coronal plane)

As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes. Rest as needed.

Workout 3

• 25 x Sandbag shoulder-to-shoulder overhead press (sagittal movement with stress in the frontal/coronal and transversal planes)
• 25 x Sandbag bear-hug good mornings (sagittal plane movement with stress in the transversal plane)
• 25 x Sandbag Zercher lateral lunges (frontal/coronal movement with stress in the sagittal plane)
• 25 x Sandbag wood-chops (transversal movement with stress in the frontal/coronal plane)

Complete the workout as quickly as possible.

In Summary

The sandbag, although unique in its own right, shares a number of characteristics with other odd-shaped objects. Principally, you’ll find that regular sandbag training will improve your ability to move and stabilize in all three planes of motion.

This will have a dramatic effect on sporting performance, your ability to perform daily activities, and help you to avoid injury. With an understanding of some simple biomechanical principles you’ll be able to train smart, as well as hard, and make your exercise program even more effective.

Check out the rest of the series:

• 5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 1 – Get Started
• 5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 2 – Building Strength
• 5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 4 – Play Time
• 5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 5 – 10 Killer Workouts

Anatomy graphic courtesty of Rhetth at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons.

The post 5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 3 – Planes of Motion appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Strength Building 101, 6th Century BC Style

As an industry, we’re a little guilty of making strength seem like it’s a bit out of reach for many people. With marketing that proclaims “secret systems” and a myriad of programming options it’s really no surprise that many people are left confused when it comes to building strength. There are plenty of ways to maximize your strength, but the basics are really, really simple.

The story of Milo of Croton illustrates it perfectly. Milo of Croton was a famed wrestler in the 6th Century BC. A legendary figure, he was said to have performed the feat of lifting a fully grown 4-year old bull from the ground and up onto his shoulders. How did he accomplish this feat? He simply lifted the bull every day, from birth. As the bull got bigger, he got stronger. Like many of these stories, we don’t know exactly how true this is but it remains an excellent example of a progressive strength training program.

Have you ever actually approached your strength training in this way? I know many of the clients and individuals that I’ve spoken to over the years have never considered something so simple. They get bogged down in reps, sets, and exercise selection when many would get amazing results from just adding a little weight to the basic exercises from session to session.

Sandbag Strength Workouts

Developing strength with the sandbag, as opposed to a traditional free weight like the barbell or dumbbell, requires some adaptations to your programming. As I mentioned in part one of this series, sandbag training necessitates that you get good at transitioning between positions. But the bottom line is, it is going to be very tough to hit your max back squat with a sandbag if you can’t even get it onto your shoulders, so you need to be a little creative.

The Sandbag Strength workout below gives some of my favorite sandbag substitutions for the key barbell strength exercises of deadlift, back squat, overhead press, and bench press. Like a standard strength program, you can break these up into one or two lifts per session, with accessory work if required. And, as with any strength work, you need to be adding small incremental increase to the weight of your sandbag. This can happen from session-to-session, week-to-week, or month-to-month, but it needs to happen.

Workout 1: Sandbag Strength

Left photo: Bear Hug Squat. Right photo: Open Grip Deadlift.

Sandbag Bear Hug Squat 3 x 5

Grip your sandbag in a bear hug so it rests high on the chest. The placement of this sandbag makes this more of a front squat variation, but it does mean that you can complete the exercise without the need to have to press the bag overhead as well.

Sandbag Open Grip Deadlift 3 x 5

You may well be able to add enough sand to your bag to make a sandbag deadlift comparable to a regular barbell deadlift. But for those who are stronger, you can maximize the benefit of using your sandbag by adopting an open grip – using the fabric of the sandbag itself rather than any handles. This places additional stress on the grip, as you won’t be able to fully close the hand. This can be a particularly important variation for judokas, jiu jitsu athletes, and anyone who wants to improve their grip strength.

Sandbag Floor Press 3 x 5

You can perform a sandbag bench press if you have access to a bench. Otherwise, the floor press is a great alternative. I prefer to start the exercise with the sandbag across my hips and then bridge to lift it up onto my chest. Take a firm grip of the sandbag from underneath, this way you’ll be able to maximize your range of motion if the bag begins to sag.

Sandbag Overhead Press 3 x 5

The overhead press is one of the few sandbag lifts that can be done without too much adjustment, principally as most individuals are able to clean their overhead press weight fairly comfortably. You will have to contend with a greater degree of multi-planar stress at full arm extension. The sandbag, much like dumbbells or a Swiss bar, also allows for a more pronated grip – excellent if you have any issues with shoulder impingement.

Rest 2-4 minutes between sets.

Workout 2: The Milo Sandbag Challenge

This workout is designed to replicate the famed wrestlers feat and, who knows, you could be lifting a bull by the end of the year. We’ve added a little more volume to the program, but it remains essentially the same. The aim is to continually add small daily increments of weight to your sandbag. This requires commitment, but the results can be fantastic. I’ve personally achieved a 100kg sandbag ground-to-overhead lift at a bodyweight of 82kg and I continue to make progress with it.

Perform 5 ground-to-overhead lifts with your sandbag. Take as much rest as you need in between lifts. You should start with a moderately heavy sandbag and add 1lb of sand to your bag each day. Perform daily until you can no longer complete the lifts.

Workout 3: Sandbag Medley

Sandbag Drag

Sandbag Loading

Drag a heavy sandbag 20m before lifting it onto (or over) a platform at around chest height. This could be an actual platform, a wall, a fence or even a tree branch. Rest for 2-4 minutes and repeat for a total of 5 rounds. You should be working with the heaviest sandbag you can handle.

In Summary

The sandbag is a free weight, albeit a little tougher to control than some others, but a free weight nonetheless. So there is absolutely no reason you can’t utilize it for the strength component of your fitness training program. The type of brute strength you’ll develop with the bag is unlike any other, so it warrants a place in any program. If you apply some of the standard principles of a progressive strength training program to your sandbag training you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve. Until next time, train hard.

Check out the rest of the series:

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 1 – Get Started

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 3 – Planes of Motion

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 4 – Play Time

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 5 – 10 Killer Workouts

The post 5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 2 – Building Strength appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Sandbags, Seriously?

Despite authoring a couple of books, owning a sandbag training company, and founding the Sandbag Fitness blog, I’ve really only been training seriously with sandbags for four years or so. It all started back in 2008 when I had neither the time nor the money to get to the gym, so I went about getting hold of as much weight as I could for as little money as possible. It just so happens this turned out to be sand. I ended up purchasing 150kg of sand for my garage gym for around £10/$15.

Those first few sessions were tricky and it did take me a little time to get used to the demands of training with the sandbag, but it wasn’t long before I felt as though I was really making some progress. When I did get back into the gym (after about six months of sandbag lifting), I saw 10-15% increases in all of my main lifts. While I’m not trying to suggest sandbag training is some miracle method, if used correctly it can be an excellent way to help you develop your strength and conditioning.

10 Reasons Sandbag Training Is Awesome: 1. It’s Affordable & Accessible

I started sandbag training because I didn’t have the time or the money to get to the gym or purchase any other equipment. My first sandbag was a 25kg plastic contractor bag of builders sand, taped up to seal the holes. Was it perfect? No. Did it get me off my ass and doing something? Most definitely. It also cost me less than £2/$3. As I progressed I started adding these bags into ‘outer’ bags for extra strength and durability – I used an old hold-all and rucksack that I had spare in the house. This degree of affordability and accessibility is important as no one should feel like fitness is something unavailable to them.

10 Reasons Sandbag Training Is Awesome: 2. You Can Do It Anywhere

Sandbag training doesn’t really require any additional equipment or specific location. Sure, there are plenty of additional pieces of equipment that’ll improve your results over time, but you don’t need any of that stuff to get started. It’s also an incredibly portable way to train. I take my sandbag with me when I’m traveling and fill it when I arrive.

10 Reasons Sandbag Training Is Awesome: 3. Be Awesome Rather Than Just Looking Awesome

The bottom line is the vast majority of people who train with sandbags are more concerned with what they can do than how they look. If you walk into a gym with a pile of sandbags in it, you know those people are there to train. Only those in the know will really be able to appreciate that you’re doing superhuman work picking up that nondescript bag. That’s the polar opposite of the guy who picks up the biggest dumbbells and always looks around to make sure people have seen him. It takes real skill to control a sandbag while making the movement look impressive and you’ll probably spend most of your time looking like you’re wrestling an oiled hippopotamus. This is not a good look for posers.

10 Reasons Sandbag Training Is Awesome: 4. It Makes You Feel Like Rocky

I train in my garage in all weather. Plenty of times I have to take a breather because my hands re too cold to grip my already frozen sandbag. Have you ever tried to lift a 90kg frozen sandbag? It’s the kind of thing that makes you pretty focused. I actually like the adversity element that comes with sandbag training. I’m there to get results, to make a real difference and, sometimes, to simply get through it. I don’t care that the other guy is training in a temperature-controlled gym, sipping his energy drink, with access to a whole range of expensive equipment. That guy is Ivan Drago. I’m Rocky Balboa, and I’m going to go the distance (possibly winning the hearts of the Russian people in the process).

10 Reasons Sandbag Training Is Awesome: 5. It Really Does Compliment Other Training Methods

As opposed to a lot of health and fitness ‘experts’ promoting their systems, I’ll just say that sandbag training could be a great addition to your program rather than saying you should drop all that other stuff and do this instead (“no credit card required!”). Yes, you could use sandbag training as your primary form of strength work. I do and it works well for me. But you can also use sandbag training as accessory work for barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell, bodyweight, or any other form of training. Try including some sandbag lifts during deload weeks or during outdoor conditioning sessions like hill sprints. I know plenty of people who have dramatically increased their overhead lifts by supplementing regular barbell presses with sandbag variations, myself included.

10 Reasons Sandbag Training Is Awesome: 6. Unlock A Whole New Range Of Exercises

The nature of the sandbag means you can use it for a range of exercises that are either impractical, or just plain impossible, with other traditional free weights. Sandbag training really comes into its own when you start including exercises like:

• Bear hug squats, step ups, lunges and carries
• Shouldering
• Drags
• Load carries of any variety

10 Reasons Sandbag Training Is Awesome: 7. It’s Unforgiving

The sandbag has a constantly moving center of mass and, more often than not, will make you fight for each and every lift. This does a few interesting things, most notably it gives you a high return on the time and effort you put in. But I’ll be honest right now and tell you a lot of people don’t stick with sandbag training because it isn’t easy and there are very few glossy ads telling you it’s the thing to do. However, like most unconventional training methods it can also yield unconventional results. And sometimes unconventional results are just what you need to move forward.

10 Reasons Sandbag Training Is Awesome: 8. It’s Like Totally Multi-Planar Dude!

While I love biomechanics and sport science, there is no denying it’s often used incorrectly to get you to A) buy something or B) follow a particular method. When discussing multi-planar movement it’s all too common for people to assume that every exercise needs to be performed in every direction for it to be effective. This is just plain nonsense and leads to the kind of programs that steadfastly refuse to incorporate exercises that haven’t literally just been invented there and then. Yes, multi-planar movement is important, but it’s not the be all and end all of athletic training.

Resistance against stress is a great way to work on developing your core strength and multi-planar capabilities. For most people, the ability to resist against movement in the sagittal (forwards and backwards), frontal (side to side) and transverse (rotational) planes is just as important as being able to move through them. The sandbag is a great tool for this as it forces you to control an unstable object through all planes, irrespective of whether you are moving in a particular direction.

10 Reasons Sandbag Training Is Awesome: 9. It Makes You Better At Other Stuff

I’m a big fan of heavy barbell lifting (heavy anything for that matter). And I’ve had numerous conversations with people who are trying to improve their strength that typically raise concerns about their inability to lift as much weight in a sandbag as on a barbell. That’s true, especially when it comes to overhead lifts. But the thing about sandbag training is that it makes you very good at the stuff in between the lifts as well. You get good at the transitions.

You can’t overhead press a sandbag unless you can also clean it up to chest height. If you’re using a handleless sandbag (the choice of the purist) then you’ll also probably have to round back lift it from the floor like an Atlas stone. You may well be pretty tired before you even start your actual exercise and that will really test your mental fortitude. The same is true of many sandbag exercises – there are transitions to accomplish alongside the main lifts. Some would see this as detracting from the program, but I see the opposite. Sure, I like to lift max weight on a barbell from time to time. My sandbag work is something different though. Though I’m loath to say it, as it is always horribly over-used, sandbag training can therefore have a good transference into functional daily activities.

And that leads us nicely onto…

10 Reasons Sandbag Training Is Awesome: 10. Sandbag Training Is Simple (But Not Stupid)

One of the greatest advantages of sandbag training is the intense challenge it can provide. I know I’ll certainly end up dumping the bag after a failed lift far more than I would with a barbell. This has the surprising effect of keeping sessions focused on the work at hand rather than lots of arbitrary additions that don’t really add anything.

One of my favorite sandbag training sessions is 20 ground-to-overhead lifts with a handleless sandbag filled to my bodyweight. It looks simple, even basic, but it never fails to leave me feeling as though I’ve had a great workout. This ethos of straightforward and effective training sums up sandbag training and how I feel about health and fitness as a whole.

Get Yourself A Sandbag

In order to follow the next five weeks of training sessions you’ll need a sandbag. There are two main options here with space for a range of budgets and needs. You can do much worse than starting with a homemade sandbag, just like I did a few years ago. Get yourself an old hold-all, stuff-sack, or rucksack that you don’t mind beating up. The sand you use isn’t that important, but builder’s sand is generally better as it has less dust and normally comes in cheaper. The most basic option is to put a whole bag of builder’s sand directly into your outer shell bag. If you need to adjust the starting weight then just cut open the contractor’s bag, remove the required amount, and tape the bag back up. Likewise you might want to add more sand in this way. You may also wish to create a number of smaller plastic wrapped sandbags to act as incremental weights.

The alternative is to get a sandbag specifically constructed for use as a strength and conditioning tool. On the whole these will be considerably more durable and they will often have additional features such as handles.

The Workouts

Each weekly article comes complete with a selection of workouts for you to try. These will build, week on week, to give you a great grounding in sandbag training and set you on the right course to make some serious improvements to your strength and conditioning. The workouts have been designed to give you a blend of various different exercises and methodologies, so you should aim to give them all a go (so no picking and choosing your favorites, okay?).

Take a day off between each workout and make sure you warm up thoroughly beforehand. As with any new exercise or activity you should try to build slowly to working at full intensity. This will give you the chance to learn the movements and allow you to maintain the quality of your workout.

Workout 1: Sandbag Basics

This workout is designed to give you grounding in the basic techniques involved in training with a sandbag. Use a moderate weight sandbag and take the time to really get a feel for the movements.

1. Sandbag Clean x 10 repetitions
2. Sandbag Floor Press x 10 repetitions
3. Sandbag High Pull x 10 repetitions

Repeat for a total of 3-5 rounds with rest as needed.

Workout 2: Sandbag Strength Session

This workout is focused on developing strength with the sandbag. The sandbag should be relatively heavy and offer a challenge.

1. Sandbag Deadlift x 5 repetitions
2. Sandbag Back Squat x 5 repetitions
3. Sandbag Overhead Press x 5 repetitions

Take 2-4 minutes rest between each set.

Workout 3: Sandbag Conditioning Session

1. Sandbag Get Up with a Sandbag Windmill x 5 repetitions on each side
2. 400m Run

Complete as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes.

Sandbags in Summary

I hope you’ve found the first article in my series on sandbag training interesting and it’s inspired you to try it out (or return to it if you haven’t given it a go for a while). The next part in the series will further develop the theory of sandbag training and build on the practical element with a whole new range of movements.

Check out the rest of the series:

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 2 – Building Strength

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 3 – Planes of Motion

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 4 – Play Time

5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 5 – 10 Killer Workouts

The post 5 Week Sandbag Workout Program: Week 1 – Get Started appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

This article isn’t going to focus on the standard dumbbell movements we’ve all seen and done. Chances are you’ve got some great dumbbells and you use them regularly but fall into the same old exercises and routines. Most people I speak to do curls, bench press, and lateral raises with their dumbbells but little else. With such a versatile piece of training equipment, wouldn’t you rather get the very best from them?

Below, you’re going to get some dumbbell exercises that will not only blast your strength through the roof, but also create a crowd in the weights room.

A Brief History Of Dumbbell Lifting

The dumbbell itself is widely believed to have originated from the haltere, a hand-held weight used in ancient Greece, specifically in the long jump. Later they were used by English bell ringers as a silent way to build strength.

These days, the dumbbell is commonplace in gyms throughout the world and remains one of the most popular options for those training at home.

The Advantages of Using Dumbbells

While basing a strength program around the barbell is age-old and sensible advice, there are many benefits to be had from utilizing the dumbbell as an alternative:

• The dumbbell will not allow for strength imbalances between your arms. You won’t be able to use your dominant arm to assist when you aren’t strong enough to lift the weight with your weaker arm. This will help to eradicate any strength imbalances that you may have.
• The compact nature of the dumbbell makes it a good choice for dynamic, power-based movements.
• Having a different weight in each hand allows you to perform various combinations of bilateral and unilateral movements.
• Dumbbells can provide a more comfortable range of motion for many individuals.
• It can be easier to dump the dumbbells when a lift goes wrong, making them a great option when training alone.

So here are my five favorite exercises to spice up my dumbbell training routine:

Exercise 1: The Windmill

What’s It For: Great for developing shoulder stability and rotational core strength, perfect for MMA athletes, wrestlers, and martial artists.

How To Do It: Press a dumbbell overhead in one arm and keep that arm straight throughout the exercise. Set your feet around hip width apart and turn them outwards at 45° to your working arm. Start the movement by hitching your hip to the side, and then slowly reach down towards the ground. Look upward to the dumbbell and allow your shoulder and arm to rotate. Return to the start position and repeat.

Men’s Weights:

• Beginner: 20% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Intermediate: 35% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Advanced: 50% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Beast: 75% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm

Women’s Weights:

• Beginner: 15% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Intermediate: 25% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Advanced: 35% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Amazonian Goddess: 50% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm

Exercise 2: The Bent Press

What’s It For: Develops additional pressing power in the windmill position. This makes them a great choice for developing true multi-planar strength.

How To Do It: Clean a dumbbell to shoulder height. Set your feet in the same position as if you were completing a windmill. Start the movement by hitching your hip out to the side and press the dumbbell upwards as you reach down towards the ground with the opposite arm. Return to the start position and repeat.

Men’s Weights:

• Beginner: 15% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Intermediate: 25% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Advanced: 35% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Beast: 60% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm

Women’s Weights:

• Beginner: 5% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Intermediate: 10% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Advanced: 20% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Amazonian Goddess: 30% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm

Here is a video of “Iron Tamer” Dave Whitley teaching the bent press with a kettlebell.

Exercise 3: Straddle Press

What’s It For: A serious test of core strength and flexibility in the hamstrings and hips

How To Do It: Sit on the ground in a straddle position with a dumbbell held at shoulder height. Press the dumbbell overhead without leaning backwards. Aim to keep your legs completely straight throughout the exercise. Complete on both sides.

Men’s Weights:

• Beginner: 15% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Intermediate: 25% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Advanced: 35% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Beast: 50% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm

Women’s Weights:

• Beginner: 5% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Intermediate: 10% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Advanced: 20% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Amazonian Goddess: 30% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm

Exercise 4: Renegade Row with Rotation

What’s It For: A killer variation on the traditional push up position

How To Do It: Begin in a press up position, supporting yourself on your dumbbells. Keep a tight core position and row one dumbbell up toward your chest. As the dumbbell reaches your chest, allow the arm to fully extend upward. Return to the start position and repeat on the opposite side.

Men’s Weights:

• Beginner: 10% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Intermediate: 20% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Advanced: 30% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Beast: 40% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm

Women’s Weights:

• Beginner: 5% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Intermediate: 10% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Advanced: 15% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Amazonian Goddess: 25% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm

Exercise 5: Bottom Up Press

What’s It For: Great for grip strength and shoulder stability

How To Do It: Start by getting a dumbbell up to shoulder and positioning it in the palm of your hand. Press the dumbbell overhead, keeping the weight balanced in your hand. Repeat on both sides. This exercise won’t be possible with certain types of dumbbell – hexagonal work best.

Men’s Weights:

• Beginner: 10% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Intermediate: 20% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Advanced: 30% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Beast: 40% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm

Women’s Weights:

• Beginner: 5% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Intermediate: 10% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Advanced: 20% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm
• Amazonian Goddess: 30% of your bodyweight for 5 reps per arm

I’m a real believer in getting the very best out of the equipment you have access to. You don’t need to be limited to the same exercises week in, week out. Sometimes you need to get creative to push through boundaries.

Stick to the basics in general, but try supplementing with these dumbbell exercises. You might just find that it’s the jolt you need to keep moving forward.

The post 5 Best Dumbbell Exercises To Get Strong (And Gather a Crowd) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Compounding this is the fact that developing strength and conditioning for MMA and the martial arts can be confusing because the needs of these athletes are varied. Your individual style, physical attributes and abilities will determine the proper way that you should develop your training program.

My approach to this dilemma is simple. I develop programs that support the training needs of these athletes rather than developing fitness for its own sake. I generally set the following guidelines regarding strength and conditioning for MMA athletes:

• Will the activity directly improve an athlete’s performance in training and/or competition?
• Will the activity enable faster (and better quality) skill learning?
• Will the activity reduce the incidence of injury and/or encourage recovery?

This article will cover some of the training principles and practices I include when working with MMA athletes – all using the humble sandbag.

A Multi-Disciplined Approach To Training

Much like the blend of styles required for today’s high-level MMA competition (boxing, muay Thai, wrestling, jiu jitsu, and more), it’s also important to take a balanced approach to your fitness.

For a well-rounded approach you should include some agility, endurance, strength, power, mobility/flexibility, and speed work. Much of this can come through skills-based work, but it’s also vital to include some supplemental strength and conditioning.

Using strength and conditioning exercises that also have some functional parallels in your sport is a great idea.

Why Sandbags? An Alternative Resistance Training Option

Although used by serious athletes for decades, the sandbag has struggled to go beyond being an alternative option in strength and conditioning. Most people add in some sandbag training for a change when their existing program becomes stale. I hope I can go some way toward convincing you that it has a place in your training year round.

A key point to remember is that sandbag training is resistance training. You’ll get many of the same benefits associated with traditional forms of resistance like barbells and dumbbells. The sandbag does also have a number of other distinct advantages though:

• It’s incredibly tough to work with. The sandbag is an awkward load that will make you work for each and every lift. While this means you won’t necessarily be able to lift as much weight as you can on a bar, it will be a truer representation of how you can handle a “real-life” load – like an opponent.
• The sandbag will naturally develop your grip strength. Rather than including a lot of additional grip work, the very nature of the sandbag means you’ll develop an iron grip just trying to hold onto it.
• The sandbag is malleable and will mold to your body shape. This makes it a great tool for carries, sprints, throws, and a range of partner exercises. You can also use the sandbag to simulate grappling with an opponent.

Getting Started

One of the biggest benefits of sandbag training is that you can get started with the bare minimum of investment.

When I originally started training with sandbags I used a homemade bag that literally cost me nothing to make. I just took an old bag of sand, put it inside a duffel bag, and I was good to go.

You can also invest in a custom-made sandbag that has specifically been designed for strength and conditioning use (my personal favorite is the Brute Force Sandbag.

By far and away the simplest way to construct a homemade sandbag is by using a duffel bag or holdall.

You can then add contractor/builders bags of sand directly into this outer shell. These bags of sand are generally sold in 25kg/55lb weights so you may need to adjust the weight before you can start.

To do this, make a small slit in the bag of sand and remove what you don’t need. You’ll then need to tape up the bag to avoid any leakage (use strong tape for this).

Whatever option you go for, sandbag training is an accessible and affordable training method. In this respect it trumps many of the traditional resistance training options that either require gym membership or costly equipment.

With so many existing barriers to exercise it’s important that you understand that your results are not dependent upon your budget.

My Top 3 Tips For Integrating Sandbag Training

1. Use sandbag training as a supplemental activity.

Sandbag training is not a magic formula, nothing is. You’ll get consistent results by applying hard (and smart) work over time. With that in mind, I’d recommend adding in some sandbag training to your existing program rather than trying to replace everything.

Try integrating one or two sandbag conditioning sessions per week. The following exercises have been taken from my book Sandbag Training For MMA & Combat Sports.

Try this workout – Complete as many repetitions as possible in 1 minute per exercise. Rest for 1 minute between each set of 4 exercises and repeat for a total of 2-4 rounds:

1. Bear Hug Squats (see photo #3)
2. High Pulls (see photo #2)
3. Floor Press (see photo #1)
4. Backwards Drags (drag for 20m, turn, and repeat – see photo #4)

2. Use exercises that are sandbag specific.

It is entirely possible to replace a number of key barbell strength and conditioning exercises (like deadlifts, squats and presses) with the sandbag.

There are many benefits to doing this, but I still recommend that the sandbag be used for exercises that make the most of its inherent benefits. These are some exercises that I’d class these as being fairly unique to the sandbag:

• Shouldering – Lifting a sandbag up onto your shoulder is a surprisingly tough exercise, despite its simplicity. Done for reps this is a serious conditioning work.
• Bear Hug Movements – Anything where you’re holding the sandbag in a Bear Hug (or similar position) is a great way to develop the strength and conditioning required for grappling. Try it for squats, lunges, or load carries and experiment with different grips on the sandbag. There are very few training tools that work as well as the sandbag for this – except perhaps the atlas stone.
• Load Carries, Drags and Throws – The sandbag is perfectly suited to being carried, dragged, and generally abused. You can add heavy sandbag drags into your agility work or try incorporating throws with a partner.

3. Apply sound training principles.

No matter what the training tool you should be applying sound training principles. Aim to base the majority of your program on compound (multi-joint, multi-muscle) exercises that will have a greater transfer into your sporting performance.

A blend of strength (higher weight, lower repetitions, long rest periods) and conditioning (lighter weight, higher repetitions, shorter rest periods) work is vital for high-level MMA performance. So this is also something you should emulate in your sandbag training program.

In Summary

Sandbag training, properly implemented, can be a great fit for anyone involved in combat sports and the martial arts. Like any form of resistance training it can be used to improve your strength and conditioning, but with the added benefit that the sandbag will also help you to improve a number of sport-specific attributes.

You can read the Breaking Muscle book review of Sandbag Training for MMA & Combat Sports.

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