3 Rounds of Hell is Here

After I spoke about my challenge of "3 Rounds of Hell" last week I received a ton of emails!!! Some wondering how to do it, some how to train for it, and some doubting it could be done! I'll admit, my initial challenge was pretty brutal, but that is how I wanted it. Yet, I feel like there are things I needed to clear up....

1. Why shouldering the sandbag? This seems to be the most fundamental lift that encompasses the most overall body strength. We can load it very heavy or use a more moderate load and the drill won't be limited by blisters on the hands, major technique flaws, or anything other than the drill itself.

Where some lifts test a dominant area of the body (i.e. upper or lower body strength) shouldering requires everything! If you don't have proper hip or low back strength, you will know it! If you don't have enough upper body strength, you will know it. You simply can not cheat the movement.

2. Are there rules? The only rule I have come up with so far is that the movement must be a clean shouldering repetition. You can't inch it up the body or rest it on the legs. It must explosively reach the shoulder from the pulling position in one clean rep.

3. Can you scale the challenge? I don't think everyone should have the same rules. As of right now this is how I see the challenge

Men:
180 or under: 120 pound sandbag
180-220: 150 pound sandbag
220-270: 170 pound sandbag
270 and over: 200 pound sandbag

Women:
130 or under: 50 pound sandbag
130-150: 70 pound sandbag
150-180: 90 pound sandbag
180 and over: 100 pound sandbag

I will admit, this challenge is not well tested. That is the fun part about what we are creating with Sandbag Fitness Systems, we are writing the book on sandbag training. Unlike most other forms of physical conditioning there is not textbook on sandbag fitness that everyone follows, we are writing the rules. In fact, I wanted to take the challenge for a run myself, heck, I can't ask others what I am not willing to do.

Yep, it kicked my ass! I think within two weeks of training for it I will have all three rounds nailed down. However, I can honestly say that my hips, back, and arms were completely toast! My heart was racing and I KNOW this will have amazing carryover to so many other fitness goals.

In the next few weeks I will write much more about how one progresses and trains for such a challenge to dominate the hardest fitness challenge!

The Hardest Fitness Challenge Ever?!

I still hear it all the time, "sandbags are great for conditioning, but don't do much for your strength." How ridiculous is this? I always know this is someone that has really never spent any serious time sandbag training. Instead of trying to rationalize to people that sandbags can make you strong I wanted to place a challenge to prove my point.

The trouble is, "what is being strong?" Being able to lift a lot is great, but just being able to lift a lot isn't tremendously beneficial. Being able to reproduce feats of strength repeatedly is far more impressive. I took one of the best sandbag drills and created a challenge to see how many people could perform strength and endurance? No, I didn't want this to be easy, I wanted it to be a brutal test of fitness.

What is the test? Initially it was taking our large sandbag, loading it to 150 pounds and performing 10 shoulders (5 each side) within one minute. Many people weren't even able to last through this challenge. Heck at a recent conference I had a former football player who weighed 300 pounds unable to complete this challenge as he thought his heart was going to explode! I wasn't satisfied though.

I wanted to see how people really could recover and do it again! So, the NEW Sandbag Fitness Challenge is the "Three Rounds of Hell" drill. It is shouldering the 150 sandbag 10 times in one minute, resting one minute, and repeating this for two additional rounds. Don't worry, women can do it too with the 70 pound sandbag!

Want to see how hard the 150 pound bag shouldering is? I placed the challenge to an excited trainer at the recent Perform Better Summit. Want to see if he was able to make it? Oh btw, if you make our challenge you have to perform a CLEAN shouldering movement, no stopping at the chest! I was in a good mood here:

Steve Maxwell Interview

Interviewing different professionals is not a new concept. I have known people that have done such things and made lots of money and interviewed I guess some interesting people. The problem is that very few people actually get the best coaches in the industry to reveal what they find works so well for their own clients!

Steve Maxwell is just such a coach. I have known Steve for several years even being an assistant of his at the RKC a few years ago. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Steve as he has been in the industry over thirty years! He has worked with thousands of people from those just starting a fitness program to world champion athletes.

Since then Steve has been forming his own unique system of training. Combining elements of joint mobility, kettlebells, and bodyweight exercises Steve has come up with not only one of the most complete systems I have seen, but one that is sure to keep people interested and challenged.

I got to interview Steve today and he shared with me some amazing information! Yes, I am going to steal some of his ideas for my own training. Some of them came at the perfect time just for my own training. Steve goes into great detail on training, anti-aging, and many of the fallacies of fitness. Also, hear how Steve found sandbags to be a HUGE hit with a special forces group, "even more popular than kettlebells!"

Listen to Steve Maxwell Interview

Visit Steve's Site