Ok, So How?

Last post I spoke about the fact sandbags can definitely be a powerful training tool. So much so, it can be a great way to build extra muscle. No, you aren't going to become a freakish bodybuilder, but maybe a guy like this.

That's right! Most of the top UFC fighters are using sandbags in their training programs. In fact, speaking with top UFC strength coach, Kevin Kearns, he told me that sandbags are one of their favorite training tools to prepare their fighters. How about looking like Chuck Liddell, Rampage Jackson, Randy Couture, Rashad Evans, Matt Hughes, and George St. Pierre? That wouldn't be so bad and I don't think most could deny how these guys are amazing athletes and have physiques that function as good as they look.

MMA expert strength coach, Matt Wiggins, talks about how to develop the same power as these great athletes. What exercise does he recommend as the best drill? Take it from him....

"If you were around a few years ago, during my first stint with MMA Weekly, you may remember that I wrote an article about training to slam your opponent. Well, with all the new readers, and with Rampage's title win (and eventuality of seeing him slam somebody in the UFC), I figured it was time to revive and update the article.

There are a few ways to train if you want to be able to slam your opponent, but the first thing you're going to need is some plain old brute strength and power. Slamming – at least the way Rampage, Hughes and many others do it – isn't as much technique as it is just out-muscling your opponent. (I guess I could insert an argument about how good it is to be strong enough to dominate bodyweight, but I think I've made my point in the past, so I'll let that one go.) It's time to get you strong.

Weights are great for strength training, but in many (not all) instances, I prefer odd-objects, mainly the sandbag. I've touted the effectiveness of sandbag training for years now. I won't get into all the arguments as to why it's so good; just take my word for it. If you think you're tough, strong or powerful, a heavy sandbag will humble you in a hurry. Sandbags are also perfect for slam training.

There are two main exercises you should focus for your slam training: the Sandbag Shoulder and the Hug Morning.

The Sandbag Shoulder is pretty simple (notice I didn't say "easy"). Stand with the bag in front of you just between your feet. Squat down and grab the bag (depending on how your bag is shaped, you can set it up on one end if you like). Plant your heels into the ground. Your butt should be down, back flat, head up, and chest spread. In one movement stand up with the bag and muscle it to your left shoulder. When doing so, focus on driving with the hips.

Many think that the kind of strength you need is that of the lower back. While this is true to an extent, it is hip strength and hip drive that allow you to pick up that opponent and slam him. Drive forward with the hips, and your whole body will come up. DON'T LET YOUR BUTT COME UP! You will then be lifting solely with your lower back and are asking to get hurt. This is a no-no. Drive with the hips. You will use your upper body to continue the momentum (or lack thereof) of the bag to get it all the way to your shoulder. Once there, drop it to the ground, and repeat to the other side.

The Hug Morning is a variation of the Good Morning. This is another one that will build incredible lower back strength and hip strength/drive. The first thing you have to do is get your sandbag into a Bear Hug (i.e. holding the bag around the center, vertically against the front of your torso). You can do the beginning part of a Sandbag Shoulder to get it there. Once you're there, dip your butt backwards and lean forward. Your butt should go pretty far back, as if you're going to sit in a chair. The lean of your upper body will mostly be as a result of your butt going back. At the "end" of the movement, your upper body should be roughly parallel to the ground (don't force it there – as far as it goes is as far as it goes – forcing it to parallel can put your lower back in a potentially dangerous position) and your knees bent anywhere from 45-60 degrees or so (more or less 1/4 to 1/3 squat position). From there, drive the hips forward as forcefully as you can, straightening the body. Once again, don't let your legs stay straight and butt in the air. Make the butt go back so that you have to drive the hips forward to straighten your body.

Once you get good and strong at these two exercises, you can try a few variations. You can morph either into a variety of suplexes and you can see if you can Hug Morning with enough force to get the bag all the way up to your shoulder.

How effective are these exercises? So effective that I made them staples of Program #4 in my "Working Class Fitness - The Programs."

Give them a shot. You may not be slamming like Rampage in a week or two, but you'll be on your way. And when you do slam your opponent the next time you roll, he's going to wonder where it came from!"

You want to see how to perform this great drill? Click on the video below!!

The MOST Common Mistake

I hate it, I say it, over and over and over again! It doesn't seem to make sense to people because I continue to see information on the internet that completely ignores this fact. What is it? There is a method to using sandbags and there is a system of progression. I STILL don't understand why with any other implement people are very deliberate with how and why they perform certain drills. Yet, when it comes down to sandbags all common sense of strength training goes out the window!

So, I was motivated to start a series of videos to take you through those progressions. This is the same system I cover in my Sandbag 101 DVD that every customer gets when purchasing our packages. No, not just a DVD of exercises, but a deliberate and systematic way of getting stronger, leaner, and more athletic.

Here is the first installment, covering how different loading positions impact the exercises.

Sandbags Can't Build Muscle, B.S.!

I often hear it, "sandbags are good for conditioning, but don't do much for building muscle." Huh?! How is that possible, load is load. If anything, sandbags have a greater potential for building MORE muscle because more muscles are being stimulated, THE number one rule in building muscle!

I've ranted about this enough times, so don't listen to me, listen to an expert. Strength Coach, Jason Ferrugia, is just that! Jason is known for two things, building some serious muscle and creating some bad ass fighters!

In Jason's book, "Fit to Fight: An Insanely Effective Strength and Conditioning Program for the Ultimate MMA Warrior", he states the following about sandbag training...

"The beauty of sandbags is that unlike some of the other strongman implements, they can be used almost anywhere (even in a stuffy public gym...


Sandbags challenge your strength, balance, stabilization, and coordination and provide an extremely brutal workout. When you lift a barbell the weight is evenly distributed, and never shifts. But when you lift a sandbag, the sand is constantly shifting around, which makes it incredibly challenging."


Oh and what about making your own? Jason isn't against it but read this....

"The only problem is this can get very messy and will make adjusting the weight of the bag more of a pain in the ass than it is worth."

Jason goes on to outline some of his favorite routines and exercises and the book is definitely a great read. You can pick it up http://tinyurl.com/dj3ose

Does Jason like our bag? You be the judge....

"I've been a big fan of sandbag training since 1996 and have used a wide variety of bags since then. I can honestly say that Josh Henkin's Ultimate Sandbags kick ass and are unquestionably the best on the market. They are also the only ones I use at Renegade Gym with all of my clients. The filler bags instantly eliminate the old school problems of having a huge mess to clean up every time you used your sandbag. And the multiple grips give you a ton of different options to choose from. Josh definitely set the new standard in sandbags with these bad boys. "

Jason Ferruggia
Strength & Conditioning Specialist
Chief Training Adviser, Men's Fitness Magazine
www.JasonFerruggia.com

Sandbag 100 Challenge

I hope the holidays have all treated you well, but like most holidays the chances are you endulged a little too much! That's ok, that is why I planned to release my second Sandbag Challenge this week. I figured many of you could use the workout!

The Sandbag 100 is based upon the principles of density training. By having a goal of a set number of repetitions in mind you focus should shift from counting mindless repetitions to how fast you can accomplish this workout. I would advise you use a weight that you could normally perform 10-15 repetitions with for each exercise. The fatigue comes fast because of the awkwardness of the sandbag so don't try to be too tough right at the start.

Alternating between squat cleans and clean and press is a fantastic way to hit every muscle in the body and still work on your strength, endurance, fat loss, and mobility all at the same time. Don't think either that I accidently prescribed cleaning the bag every time for both exercises either! This is a great trick that I learned from Strength Coach, Dan John. This repeated cleaning will strengthen you whole back side and teach you how to be proficient because as you get tired you will find your form wanting to change, don't let it happen! Plus, the cleaning for the squat clean is a little different for the clean and press. You will notice a little more upper body movement with the clean and press and full lower body power for the squat cleans, a really nice compliment.

Oh, and please don't ask where is the Burly Bags, they are planning to be released in June. I love it though as it is nice to have a bag that can load in between the medium and large and the slightly smaller dimensions make it for pressing overhead. It truly completes the set!

Was Tabata Wrong?

Certain things make shock waves, they completely change the way people do things. Sometimes this is either for good or bad reasons. In the last few years the Tabata interval training protocols have done just that. For those unfamiliar, a Japanese study demonstrated that a specific interval training protocol improved both anaerobic and aerobic capabilities. This was shocking for two reasons...

1. The control group that performed moderate intensity only improved aerobic abilities and nothing really to anaerobic. This wasn't shocking as training is thought to be very specific and cause specific adaptations. However, the Tabata interval protocols improved both significantly.

2. The Tabata protocol only required four minutes of work being performed, while the control group performed an hour.

When this research came about people were excited! Heck, four minutes of work could be better than an hour? Can't beat that. So, what did people do? Many began trying to implement the Tabata protocol into their training. Yet, unlike many things in this industry, the original ideas where changed and misapplied. So, really are you doing the Tabata protocols?

I want to propose some issues with both the study and the way people are applying what seems to be potentially a great concept.

1. The study did not compare this form of intervals with any other form of interval training. The study compared the Tabata protocols to a steady state "moderate" level of training. How does Tabata compare to other forms of interval training? There needs to be some direct comparisons and studies to see if there are even more optimal forms of intervals.

2. In the study the Tabata protocols were performed 5 days a week. If you perform them 1-2 will you still get the benefit of the training? We don't know if frequency has anything to do with the results.

3. The study was done on a mechanically braked cycle ergometer, this means CONSTANT motion. Too many people are trying to apply the concepts with exercises that have a break built into them. For example, kettlebell swings, snatches, front squats, shouldering, are all bad choices because their is not constant motion with any of these movements, there is a rest period no matter how brief compared to cycling.

4. The other issue is the intensity, in the study it was "intensity of about 170% of VO2max" that means to the absolute max. Not kinda hard, pretty hard, it means with nothing left to give! You couldn't possibly being performing Tabata correctly and then go train like many are claiming.

The truth of the matter is that we really don't know the answer to some of these questions as with most research, more is needed. Other forms of interval training have been shown to be incredibly powerful and are often underused and misused. That is why interval sets is an integral part of my program. However, you have to follow some rules as well.

1. You have to choose drills that allow quick fluid motions and not long breaks (i.e. get-ups are a bad idea). Shouldering, bear hug squats, push jerks are all good drills.

2. You have to use a very sub-maximal weight to keep the intensity high and not allow fatigue to accumulate so fast you can't perform the interval. Since sandbags generally don't lend themselves to percentage based training you will have to use an RPE or a weight you can perform 20-30 reps normally.

I have always been a big fan of interval training, in fact, you can read an article I posted almost ten years ago!

Josh Henkin's Interval Article

Want to see some of the Tabata actual study? Read Here

Single Leg Blast Training

Want to get strong, squat, want to get faster, squat, want to get more muscular, squat. That is traditionally what all the classic strength books say. Heck, if you asked me a few years ago those same questions I would have said the same thing. You can't get much better than squatting, or can you?

Some time ago I read an article on how a elite level Eastern European soccer team didn't do anything of the sort. In fact, they only performed step-ups and lunges for their lower body strength training. At the time I thought this was garbage, of course they had to squat and deadlift, you just can't load the body same if you don't.

I'll admit it too, I had a personal bias because I greatly enjoyed doing those lifts and while I did single leg training, I did it almost as a great after thought. It wasn't till years passed and working with more people and myself that I began to reevaluate what was most important.

It seemed as my interest in becoming more athletic, not just lifting big weights grew, I actually found myself feeling less athletic just focusing on squats and deadlifts. I found my hips feeling locked up and change of direction type of drills or those that required great hip mobility felt awkward and far too difficult. With my clients I noticed the great instabilities that became very pronounced whenever we did single leg training. I knew I was going to have to give this much more thorough examination.

Over time I found single leg training, especially lunging to be far underrated. That is why I created this single leg blast complex. It combines multi-directional movements with some bilateral power generation in different planes. Sounds like the best of both worlds? Try it out and you will see what I am talking about!

Education is Most Important!

Education, no one can deny being more educated about a subject matter makes one more powerful. This was my ultimate goal with sandbag training, educate people on an amazing way to train and achieve higher levels of fitness. Yet, I also knew that trying to promote sandbags as a core means of fitness and performance was going to be challenging because there was a limited view of sandbags.

I feel as though we have been making a dent. More and more elite performance programs, top training facilities, and serious home enthusiasts have embraced the Ultimate Sandbag. However, just owning our top of the line sandbag isn’t enough. Using them properly and seeing the true versatility is my biggest concern.

That is why I decided to do more! We have been selling our DVDs and e-books even before I created the Ultimate Sandbag. I thought the concepts were the most important part of training and the need for a better sandbag came a reality much later. Writing literally a hundred programs and showing several hundred drills, I believe our information products can launch some exciting training goals.

So, with economic times being more challenging I wanted to give all of you, our loyal customers, even more! I decided that getting a sandbag wasn’t enough, now when you order any of our package deals you will get much more. You will now get FOUR e-books packed full of programs and drills. In addition you will receive a very special BRAND NEW hour long DVD.

The new Sandbag 101 DVD was shot while I was giving a clinic at the renown Results-Fitness training center in Newhall, California. Results-Fitness is home of Strength Coaches, Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove. Alwyn had asked to me to give his staff a special clinic on sandbag training. If coaches can benefit from a clinic on sandbag training, you know there is more there than most would imagine. However, you know get to see the whole thing for FREE!

Learn how to avoid the common pitfalls of sandbag training, how to progress successfully, and how to create some killer programs. So, I hope you will be as excited as I am with the new changes and feel even prouder to be a part of a program that is serious about making positive changes.

Click Here to See All the Free Stuff

In Strength,
Josh Henkin, CSCS

http://sandbagfitnesssystems.com