Size Really DOES Matter!

This past weekend was our first full out High Octane Sandbag Seminar. I was able to share the weekend with Master Kettlebell Instructor, Kenneth Jay. It was terrific to have so many people from around the country in attendance, I can tell you how sincerely flattered I was that people would come as far as Connecticut to attend our weekend.

Over the next few weeks I will cover some of the very important lessons that were learned throughout the course. Yet, today I want to cover one of the most important ones that was reinforced over and over at our clinic, the size of the sandbag does matter!

I joked with those in attendance that online our best selling sandbags are the large packages. People try to equate what size they should use with what they know, barbells, and other weights. However, almost every time in our clinics and workshops the small and mediums sell far better! Why? If you truly understand the role of sandbag training you will know the answer.

Sandbags can be obviously lifted for movements such as squats, cleans, and presses. Yet, if that is the only reason you use them then you miss on some of the beautiful movements that are the most effective. Many of the rotational drills that I teach are the best drills to perform, but require one drop significantly in not only weight, but also the size of the sandbag itself. One could say the same for complexes, density training, intervals, and exercises such as get-ups and chops.

In fact, we had a gentleman in our weekend that could deadlift 700 pounds!!! Amazingly enough he struggled greatly in using the 150 pound sandbag for many of our drills. What was most important for this athlete was to learn that his movement capabilities could be greatly enhanced if he used a small sandbag. For a great majority of the time he use our medium sandbag loaded to 70 pounds. This isn't to say he isn't strong, of course he is, but he did find new ways to enhance his strength that weren't solely based on load.

So, you may be asking, "what should I use?" Here are my general guidelines.

Young athletes (8-13)-Intro Package
Young athletes (14-18)-Strength Package/Intro Package
Female Lifters-New-Intro Package
Female Lifters-Trained-Intro/Strength
Male Lifters-New-Intro Package
Male Lifters-Trained-Strength/Advanced


You will see some cool new changes in the site pretty soon. We are going to educate you guys more on how not to only use sandbags better, but how to pick the right ones for your goals. I hope you will keep visiting to see the very cool new changes along with the new sandbags we are releasing.

In Strength,
Josh Henkin, CSCS
http://sandbagfitnesssystems.com