Training With 100+ LB Sandbag

Love my Sandbells but I wanted to up the ante a bit and go even heavier and with only a few workouts, it feels awesome. Got some sand at a Ace Hardware store down the road and poured it into my 100 lb bag I've had for a while. Weighed it at 104.6 lbs. Just getting used to it and feeling it out was tough at first but knew I was strong enough to play with it. 

From carries to squats to overhead presses and more, this thing is making me work my ass off pretty well. Don't get sore all that much but I'm not killing myself with it either. With the carries, I marked 15 yards on the grass from the side of the house and would do a full revolution (30 yards) for however many times. One workout was 300 yards Bear Hug Style and another was 600 Yards doing shoulder to shoulder. Those exercises alone with a bag that heavy can make you rugged. 

Love going old school with this type of training and just sticking with one to a few exercises per workout and just hammer them. The last workout was 300 Total Yards & Over 1000 total pounds carried, 5x5 Deadlifts and 5x5 Overhead Presses. Might go for 100 Bear Hug Squats in sets of 10-12 reps but haven't decided yet or maybe I haven't reached that type of training yet but you'll never know. The idea is to see what's possible and work from there. 

Will I got even more say 150-200 lb? Someday but not anytime soon. Just working with this weight is still a great way to keep myself in shape. Sandbags are no joke and they can be brutal especially since they force you to work the stabilizer muscles and have the closest to training against a human. The transfer to regular weights is enormous and if you can easily work a 100 lb bag, you can work plenty of good weight with a barbell or dumbbell. One of the grips I use when I hold it in the bear hug position is the Gable Grip like in Grappling as I pull to keep the bag steady against my torso and work my back, shoulders and arms all at the same time as I Squat or Carry. It's a full body workout regardless of what you do. Just make it work for you.

I mostly use it for Strength Training and when it's needed, I rest long enough to go tackle the next set. These workouts can make you breathe harder than usual and quite hungry afterwards. If you want greater power in your training, a sandbag will do the trick plus if you're in wrestling or BJJ, you can do bag training by mimicking certain moves and throws as if you're going against an opponent, one of the oldest types of workouts around. Imagine building explosiveness in your throws, having insane grip strength, handle opponents like rag dolls or if you're a firefighter and able to carry a human being with ease out of the flames of a burning building. Strength Training with a Bag can be life saving.

This type of training is suited to the real world and being able to handle your own when it's called upon. Strength is more than just a look, it's having the ability to be strong enough to help others and not everyone picks on the rugged looking guy who can probably take your ass to the cleaners 6 ways to Sunday. Train to handle yourself but also be humble. You don't get strong to become an asshole bully, you become strong to have a greater quality of life and to make others feel safe. Get a Sandbag and see what you're capable of. Have an amazingly awesome day and check out the video below for some samples of exercises you can do. There are all sorts of exercises you can do but these few would get you started. 

Sandbell Front Squats And Squat To Stand

 Sandbag Training can be a hell of a method to getting some of the kinks out of your training and teaching you how to stabilize the body with an object where the weight shifts. When it comes to Sandbells, it's a great way to utilize this in that regard. From Shouldering to Carrying to doing all sorts of stuff with these things.

Training the Legs with a Sandbell offers great resistance and added benefits to working the muscles to a greater capacity than with a typical barbell or dumbbell which could add some cool benefit to what you're already doing. 2 Exercises that I've worked on for a couple days now that hammered out the legs hard was doing the Squat To Stand and the Front Squat or a better name for it, the Bear Hug Squat. The STS is an exercise similar to lifting a stone where you get the Bell into position in a deep squat and once you have it in a good grip, stand up, drop it and repeat. Because of the shifting of the weight, it's not always easy to get a good grip every time. Here's a demo here to see what I mean....A few sets of these and you'll be feeling it.

The Bear Hug Squat is pretty damn simple, pick up the Bell, squeeze it against you and start going up and down. Unlike a barbell, dumbbell or kettlebell for that matter, you're working a bit more of the core in my opinion as you work on keeping the back steady and in control. You may lean a little bit and create more of that natural feel like picking up a box or a sack of flour. When you work these like a madman, you'll be jacking up some hefty hormones and building some incredible strength. Some guys work light or heavy depending on their goal. I've only got the 70 lb which in itself can be a bitch and others work as heavy as 200 lbs or more (strongmen mostly) but for the best weight in this manner, 100 lbs would be more than enough for many. Personally, I may go 150 if I work hard enough but that's the highest I'll go, maybe 170 if I'm ambitious but I don't need to go that heavy to get something cooking.

These two simple exercise will give you some insane strength and power. With a good clip, you can get some serious cardio out of it as well especially if you're an athlete training for a sport like Football, Wrestling or MMA. It's the classic moves of the Old Time Strongmen that gave rise to what is possible to have that ruggedness and mental toughness. Squats are no joke and Sandbells or Sangbags for that matter are just going to murder you with a vengeance. It builds real strength.

You know you busted your ass when you feel things you normally don't feel after a training session as you'll find out your fingers may be sore, your core is sore, your shoulders are on fire and your traps feel like they went to war. Not saying being sore is the greatest factor to determine a good workout, I' am saying that your muscles are being used in a way you're not used to because of how awkward the bag is. Go old school and you can't go wrong. Have an amazingly awesome day and I'm going to check out the Freestyle Wrestling that starts today at the Olympics....USA USA USA!!!

A Dinosaur Style Thanksgiving Workout

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd get in a workout that will build a serious appetite later when me and the wife will visit family tonight. Not just a typical workout I do but one that's in the style of Brooks Kubik's Dinosaur Training. It's nothing special but it's brutal, nasty and really hard. It hits every muscle in the body and all it takes is 3 exercises. You don't need to do tons of exercises that only hit a one or two muscles at a time, just pick a few that hit multiple groups at the same time and go at it hard. In this case, it was using only one implement; the 50 lb Sandbell.

50 pounds may not seem like much, hell it's just a few pounds over a barbell plate right? The main takeaway, this is live weight and it shifts so this isn't just a solid implement, it makes you bust your ass in more ways than one. Sandbag training has been around for ages and has been used by the strongest athletes on the planet. When you work a bag hard, you're hitting the body in places that most conventional training can't even touch. Some guys work with up to more than 200-300 lbs (that's for truly elite powerhouses) but 50-100 can be just as beneficial and tough when you get after it like a madman with a thirst for hardcore training. 

This workout consists of the Clean & Press, Bear Hug Squat & Bent Over Row; it is done in a Tri Set which means you do one right after the other and then rest. Do 10 Reps each exercise and then walk it off getting as much rest as needed for the next set. It'll get you breathing hard quick so you'll want to catch your breath just enough to be fresh for the next round. The more sets you do, the heavier that bag will start to feel. It's very simple but sure as hell isn't easy. I managed 10 full sets of this workout and it was so thrilling for it to be over. I wanted to quit around the 6th or 7th set but something in me wanted to just keep going and really test my mental toughness. If I had to pick an exercise out of the three that made me rethink things, it was the Squats for sure. Around the 4th or 5th set, my legs felt heavy. 

Once it was over, instant relief, a much felt endorphin high and a high level of gratitude for it to be over. What are the benefits of this type of workout? A full blown level of strength and power, a good string of cardio because of doing three exercises back to back, Testosterone and HGH booster, great calorie burner and some serious muscular strength & endurance. Keep it simple but never underestimate what it can do especially when exercises like these with a sandbag has some real carryover into areas of regular life. 

I' am thankful for today, to my readers and to my friends and family. Have a great and wonderful Thanksgiving, eat well and train hard, earn that Turkey and those amazingly awesome sides.   

Sandbells & Kettlebells: A Lethal Combo For Destructive Strength

What we have on hand can be a great asset to what we want to achieve when it comes to building strength. One of those tools is the Kettlebell and thanks to Onnit, I have one of the coolest kettlebells on the planet and that's one in the shape of Darth Vader (yep, even Star Wars nerds train). I think the company stopped selling their Star Wars line a while ago because of limited supply for a brief period. It weighs a whopping 70 lbs and one of my personal favorites for Presses, Farmer's Walks, One Arm High Pulls and a couple others. 

Most who train with Kettlebells don't use more than a 53 lber which in most cases is more than enough to build some crazy strength and conditioning with. Any higher is more in the pure strength department and I'm in awe of guys who can do just about anything with a 100 lber. Think one of the few people to ever juggle one is John Brookfield who's about as strong as you can get. With the 70, it's a great implement to use every now and then especially for demos since it's the Dark Lord of the Sith and Star Wars is the GOAT of all Franchises (sorry Marvel, DC, LOTR, Star Trek NOT SORRY!!). 

Kettlebells have been around for more than a century and have been used by some of the strongest and incredibly fit athletes of all time. Valery Fedorenko ranks right up there, Steve Cotter is probably one of the best instructors in the field and Bud Jeffries was probably the greatest natural lifter to use a kettlebell up to 150 lb or more for reps. One of the greatest feats (somebody might correct me on this) that a kettlebell was used in was the Two Hands Anyhow that Arthur Saxon performed with a 350 lb Bent Press and a 98 lb kettlebell Clean & Press totaling 448 lbs in a sequence, no one has come close to matching that.

When it comes to the Sandbell, it's one of the most versatile implements around today. The combination of a Sandbag, Medicine Ball, Kettlebell & Slam Ball provides a near limitless supply of exercises you can come up with. I've been using it more in my demos lately because it's such a fun implement to use and safe to use on just about any surface that doesn't have something sharp to puncture the bag. From Squats to Presses, Windmills, Shoulder to Shoulder Carries, Snatches, Slams, Flipping & Catching whatever your imagination can come up with. Sandbags are extremely bad ass for conditioning because of the live weight as it shifts almost like moving a body around (not that is a good idea unless you're a wrestler or MMA fighter) but can strengthen the body using awkward angles and learning to expect the unexpected.

One workout that is very simple but effective is doing loaded carries with the Sandbell and going for as many yards as you can in total. I did this for a total of 1000 yards (just over half a mile) in around 20 minutes carrying the bell for 50 yards on my left shoulder, 50 bear hugging it and 50 on the right shoulder. Continue doing that until you've reached 900 yards and do the last 100 doing 50 for each shoulder. It hits a lot of muscles and tackles your strength endurance, grip strength, balance and your conditioning. The idea is to never rest...You pick it up, shoulder it, carry it for x amount of yards, drop it, pick up and bear hug it x amount of yards, drop it and pick it up shoulder it and carry. One of those workouts that tackles real life where you have to carry furniture, potato sacks or flour to and from a truck for an extended period of time. 

Another good workout is to do Farmer's Carries with a kettlebell by walking it in one hand for x amount of yards, put it down and switch hands, walk it, put it down and do Step Ups or Squats for x mount of reps. Set a timer and work this sequence until the timer ends. I've done this for sets of 20 yards with the bell and 20 Step-Ups for up to 20 min or more non stop. This builds incredible strength in your grip, leg conditioning, balance and stamina. Like the title says, these tools can build some destructive strength that can be a great asset for sports training, labor conditioning, bone strengthening and lots of other benefits. 

If you didn't have any other equipment, these two can be still be made to have the workout of your life. It's an idea where you don't always need a gym to get something cooking and build strength that very few possess. You want to be strong from many angles and doing so that doesn't cause injury or lessens the chance of an injury. These implements also develop incredible explosive strength as well.

Check out some of the videos below for some ideas you can use in your own workouts. I would caution you that some of these may be too difficult so if you're not sure about them, go with your instincts and don't do them. I would also advise to use lighter weights for most of these because it does take some strength and coordination as it is and to do these with heavier implements can be a total mind fuck. 

One Arm Kettlebell Presses

Sandbell Clean & Squat

Sandbell Windmills

Sandbell Slams

Kettlebell Push-Outs

Kettlebell Curl With Hand Towel

An Advanced Movement Of Sandbell & Kettlebell Combo

There you have it and do what's possible for you to do. Don't use heavy weights for the sake of it, it took me a while to build up to these and only did a few of these moves only recently these are just demos. Have fun and make your workouts interesting. Use your imagination and as long as you stick to the basics, that's really all you need. Be mindful and practice. Keep being amazingly awesome in your endeavors. 

Secrets Of The Old-Time Strongmen

Some of the biggest names in weightlifting shared certain secrets on how to not only increase their strength but how to build tendon and ligement strength as well. Back in the early days of Physical Culture there were strongmen that didn't just lift weights and do bodyweight exercise....They added an arsenal of training methods to not only experiment with but it helped their advantage that much more. Back when gyms were just on the uprise there men across the country who couldn't get to a gym either because it was too far away or because they didn't have the money to pay for the equipment themselves to use at home so they improvised a lot and tested different methods and found exercises that not only made them very strong but it helped carry over to when they could use weights. There were exercises that tackled very differently then weights and challenged the body from different angles and were in different shapes and sizes hence the name Odd Object Lifting. Say you had a barrel laying around or a sandbag....You can do a good amount of training using these objects and can turn your body into a conditioning machine.

Odd Objects are not barbells and dumbbells they are peices of equipment that can come from whatever you have. Here are a few Examples....

Barrels

Kegs

Logs

Sandbags

Hammers

Rocks

Concrete Blocks

All these would be considered odd objects to train with. A man who has mastered these time and time again is strongman Steve Justa. If you never heard of him he is considered one of the strongest men in the world and has written a book called Rock, Iron, Steel. You can find that on the Ironmind Website or at Functional Strength owned by John Wood. Justa is best known for training in his backyard and lifting very heavy weight ranging from 500 pounds to 2000 pounds. He carries scrap iron, lifts heavy barrels and carries a yoke that weighs as much as a beetle car. I have very high respect for what he does and is a genius in the realm of strength training. Another man whom I have high respects is Strongman Bud Jeffries. He has a DVD series covering many exercises on odd object lifting and the way he teaches you how to handle them are just incredible. I've played around with Barrels, Rocks and Sandbags myself and I will tell you without blinking twice they are ass-kickers and once you learn to adapt them into your training you will get stronger.

Think of it this way, with barbells and dumbbells you can only move them in limited directions. Now what if you can move a weight in more directions and still gain strength? That be a better way to look at it in my book. George Hackenschmidt once said that to be strong overall you have to adapt to more then just limited movement. If you want to get strong you have to work different angles while working major muscle groups. If you think lifting a 135 pound barbell is the same as lifting a 135 pound barrel it isnt. It takes far more strength and stability to lift a barrel because you can't tell which way it'll go so you have to shift your weight and grip it much differently and not in the same places as a barbell. Odd Objects teaches the muscles how to stabilize differently and how it makes adapt over and over. Go check out Bud's DVD Series and then find out for yourself how awkward it really feels. Train smart and train effectively according to your training needs.

Odd Object Lifting Series