Modern Fat Loss Training

Today I wanted to provide another installment of our Inferno Fat Loss program. Holidays are here and so is intense training. You will notice we are integrating the TRX and kettlebells with our Ultimate Sandbag. These are perfect compliments to the Ultimate Sandbag and make training fun and challenging. Infinite variations are possible when you use these three simple tools.

Today we have the following:

Renegade Rows with One Leg Suspended: Adding one leg suspended causes the trunk muscles have to brace harder and uses the ab muscles even more. A nice progression on the classic renegade row, plus shows which side can stabilize. The use of the Ultimate Sandbag makes it more challenging to row without simply increasing the weight of the sandbags!

Alternating Kettlebell Snatch, Squat, Swing: A great hybrid with the kettlebell that gets you flowing fast and hits just about every muscle in the body! The alternating makes it a little harder to completely groove the lift so you have to work just that much harder!

TRX One Leg Burpees: Ok, a burpee is bad enough, however, being suspended and in sand makes it that much worse! If you don't have the sand available one leg being suspended is good enough. This adds more flexibility training, lateral instability, and exposes any weaknesses to your cardio, mobility, or lower body strength.

TRX V-Flye and Biceps Curls: Hey, isolating muscles isn't a bad thing, it is only bad if it makes the bulk of your training program. Adding in some isolation movements can enhance the body's stablizers and "fill in the holes". Many great lifters have used this technique to bring up weaknesses and prevent injuries. Heck, who doesn't like good arms;)

Sandbag Hand to Hand High Pulls: No, these aren't your classic high pulls, you will want to deliberately throw them at angles to greatly challenge the core, hips, and grip! The sandbags are hard to grab and ripping them up is practical for just about anyone who wants great strength. Changing up the angles makes it impossible to groove this lift!

Sandbag Ski Jumps: No joke on this one, especially in sand!! However, if you are just using the floor it is still a powerful drill. Jumping laterally often throws people for a loop, however, adding in a rotational pull of the sandbag makes it one of the best exercises for building lateral stability of the body. Not to mention, doesn't take long to smoke the legs.

Just as with all our Inferno programs, it isn't about just making you tired. It is about making your body strong, mobile, and athletic. Take our challenge of performing these programs yourself and email me at josh@sandbagexercises.com!

Beating The Gym's Ass!

I have long used sandbags in my training programs, however, it has only been the last few months they have really taken center stage. Having so many toys in my training facility it is often hard to use only one, however, I have found as I got busier and busier that I did tend to drift towards the sandbags. Yes, I have TRXs, Jungle Gyms, and kettlebells, I also have bands, sleds, and a ton of other great toys, but why the sandbags?

The best reason is that I know that any exercise I perform I am going to be challenged more than I could by any other tool, yes, even more than a barbell. One arm kettlebell snatches with a 32kg bell is a vacation compared to snatching with two hands a 90 pound sandbag! A 250 barbell front squat is no big deal compared with a 150 pound sandbag zercher squat. You can see that it is hard to find a equivalent for sandbag work. More muscles=better results!

It could also be that sandbags are so amazingly versatile. With a kettlebell you can hold it in the rack position by the shoulder, overhead, or by your side, however, with a sandbag you can have it on the shoulder, overhead, in the zercher, in the clean position, bear hug, or even on the back. Instantly you have six different variations of almost any exercise.

Grip work? Oh yea, sure lifting heavy bars helps your grip, but digging into a sandbag is like nothing else. The constantly shifting weight and awkward nature of the sandbag makes it an unusual grip tool. Just ask grip expert John Brookfield who recently became a fan of our sandbags!

Of course nothing can say more than movement over muscles. The quality and number of movements one can perform with the sandbag are endless. Feeling athletic is so far underrated and is really what makes people feel strong and powerful. The athletic drills you can create and perform truly make you feel half your age, or that you can compete with anyone!

The key is how you put it all together. This is the first video shot at my new facility and demonstrates how to put together all these great properties of sandbag training!