I like to test out different things when I train, find a creative way to do things or get ideas and mold them to my liking. One such idea was combining an animal movement with squats using the 70 lb Sandbell. The idea is to duck walk with the Sandbell for distance and then without putting it down, do squats.
I tested this out by doing a 5 yard Duck Walk with the bell and then do 5 Squats, rest and repeat. Managed only 3 sets before I just wanted to die, it was that nasty. It's one thing to bear hug and carry something like that like a "normal" person but to be in a full squat and walk in that position and do squats immediately after is a whole other level of crazy. The sheer burn or lactic acid in the legs along trying to breathe with a sandbag to your chest. This type of leg training builds some serious strength and muscular endurance. Add this to your arsenal or just as a stand alone and you'll feel it right away.
Start out with a lighter weight like a 20-25 lb bag and work your way up, it's not as easy as it looks, the less weight, the more sets you may be able to do, once you get past 50 lb or more, it's going to work you with incredible prejudice because you're not just fighting gravity, you're also trying to coordinate and stay balanced while handling something awkward. It's both a strength and cardio exercise. Not to mention trying to hold the damn thing with your arms and your grip will make you stronger too so you're getting a full body workout.
Give it a go, use a Sandbell or just a heavy sandbag and see how you do. Workouts don't have to be very long and when you do something like this, rest well between sets. If you can do this with a heavy bag without stopping the entire workout, you may not even be human. It's a good challenge if you got the grapes to try.
It's coarse, rough, irritating and it gets everywhere but what if we changed the idea of how to work with sand instead of hating it. I get it, if you're born in a desert, the last thing you want to deal with is sand. Sand can be used for many things but training with it can be a whole other ball game. Sandbag Training has been used by many athletes and laborers throughout the ages. It builds a real world type of strength and it hits the body far differently than with a barbell or a dumbbell.
It builds a level of fitness that even an Emo Jedi born on Tatooine can maybe work on and would make you harder to kill (talk about a different form of force training). I would play with the Sandbells off and on, doing different things like carries, 360's, slams, shouldering, squats and other exercises yet there's something satisfying about them that just make you feel powerful. Like training to be a Jedi, you learn to not take the easy path and find the flow yet the strength and awareness to use what is best to handle tough situations. Sandbag Training is not meant to be easy and it forces you to figure out how to move and wrestle with something that isn't always easy to grip and pick up. It takes something that is tough and triumph over adversity.
Sandbag Work challenges your entire body in ways you can't with a straight bar to lift with. You're using muscles you normally don't use and it has a more natural feel to it. Carrying a bag can be very tough especially when you go heavy. It's live weight and it doesn't like to sit still, it'll move and shift while trying to fight you. It's a literal wrestling match match at times. Hauling something like a 50 lb bag will work you harder than a 50 lb dumbbell and there's a reason why many of the old time strongmen worked with heavy bags in order to do other lifts. It prepared them and utilize their muscles that is more controlled with a straight bar to lift, it also strengthened their tendons and ligaments to a very high degree. If a Jedi like Anakin trained with bags, maybe it would've been tougher cutting up those arms and legs of his, you never know.
The conditioning with Sandbags is crucial not just for sports but for everyday life as well. It can build muscle and level up your muscular endurance for hauling furniture, loading a truck, strengthen your back and core along with giving you legs that last for days. Some of the very best cardio I've ever done was with the Sandbells mixing loaded carries with Step Ups and going for extended periods of time working strength and cardio at the same time. It works like a charm and it makes you work hard like crazy. If you don't believe me, try going for 5-10 minutes cleaning and pressing a 50-100 lb bag, I guarantee you you'll feel it and it'll show you weaknesses you didn't think you had. Think that was easy, ok then do bear hug squats with a bag and then go for distance doing the duck walk with it, you won't get very far.
Don't be like Anakin and hate sand, embrace it as a tool to make you strong in more ways than one. Keep being amazingly awesome.
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.
Experimenting and trying various exercises is always fun for me because I get to learn and discover things that could potentially be useful later on. Having being inspired by the wrestlers and other athletes doing crazy things with the Dopa Band along with the various workouts and exercises Eero Westerburg does with Animal Moves and his recent course with Clubs, Bags and the Mace, I wanted to take a leg exercise to another level.
During my workout back on Saturday, I wanted to see if what I could do with the Dopa Band attached to me & taking my 50 lb Sandbell and do the classic Duck Walk with them. I've seen wrestlers do Duck Walks with the band far better than I can ever do and seen Eero do it with a Sandbag that's over 100 lbs and do it. Just the thought of one or the other would've been nutty but seeing that I can be quite mad myself (have you you not read about the 1500 Rep Leg Challenge?) I just wanted to see what both felt like. It's quite the interesting feel and with the crazier thing to add in Squats to the mix was just nasty.
Adding squats to a movement like that really jacks up the strength and power in the legs. Consistently done, you can build some awesome muscle that is not only functional but very much conditioned as well. My idea was to duck walk out as far out as the band can go or at least to the far end of the room and than proceed to do a few squats, repeat that a few times to equal one set. When the band is fighting against you while practically bear hugging a sandbag, it brings a different type of strength training very few people do unless you're in wrestling or a mad scientist like Nick Nilsson.
First starting out with the exercise, I did a total of 7 sets (3, 2, 2) so that's walking out and doing 5 squats, walk back and repeat that set multiple times. It got me breathing hard quick and it's a full body blast with a heavy emphasis on the legs. I loved how it felt and might see how many I can do in one set. Do you have to do 5 squats for the set? No, you can 1-10 or more if you wish but if you're doing multiple sets of up to double digits with the squats, it's going to really test you. This is more of an advanced exercise so if you're not use to the duck walk itself, just do the bodyweight version as best as you can and even that alone has bad ass benefits for leg strength, health and conditioning.
The duck walk is a classic exercise used by athletes for eons, even Olympic Speedskater Eric Heiden did them as part of his training that helped him win 5 Gold Medals in the 1980 Games (The 1st athlete to do so). Wrestlers use this exercise to strengthen their legs for other drills, Japanese athletes use this to build strength in their knees. It's simply getting into a full squat and walking in that position. Many today have trouble just getting into a squat let alone walk in one so it's important to learn the mechanics first and foremost. I learned a bit of it during high school but after I got Combat Conditioning, I became more familiar with it. I didn't think much of it at first but once Ed Baran brought out his Animal Kingdom Conditioning course back in '08, it became a favorite because of the way he presented it. It was a great exercise to do with my Animal Dice Game Workouts that I've been fond of for years.
Although just another exercise that can be used in training, it doesn't take away how badass the bodyweight version of the Duck Walk is. Just walking a few yards would burn out most people but to go for a couple minutes or more is just nuts because of how much the legs are being pushed especially in the thighs and calves. You can squat hundreds of pounds and still be taken down after a few yards of the duck walk. It builds awesome hypertrophy and it has even been used to help with injuries (modified versions of course) such as strengthening the knee joints, back pain and shin bones. When I first learned this after doing Squats and Push-ups for month as part of my self-rehab, it hurt but it gave me an opportunity to get better at it and once I got use to it, it just became another exercise to do off and on until I really put effort into it with the animal workouts.
Keep discovering things and make your training interesting, fun and something that works for you. Naturally let it be a part of your life and don't take it for granted. It is ok to be a little mad sometimes in the head but don't go so far as to getting yourself injured or doing such crazy things you end up in the hospital on an often basis. Keep being amazingly awesome. Don't forget the 10% Discount at Dopamineo when you punch in POWERANDMIGHT for the checkout code.
