What The Experts Say.....

Everyone likes to know that people appreciate their work and creativity. Heck, everyone enjoys a good slap on the back letting them know that what they are passionate about and working hard on is quality. I believe that we all benefit greatly from such things and when it comes from the right people it means even that much more!

This past weekend I got to spend time with some great coaches...Alwyn Cosgrove, Anthony Diluglio, Mike Boyle, Rachel Cosgrove, Todd Durkin, and many more! You only get better as a coach by being around such great people, plus it really helps refine your own system and theories on training.

That is exactly what happened when Alwyn Cosgrove (Men's Health writer, published author, and National Presenter) asked me to do a clinic for his staff in Newhall, California. It was the first time I got to present exclusively on sandbag training, from the progressions to programs it was a terrific time to work with great coaches! I was surprised though to see that having these programs are so important as many of even the best coaches don't realize the potential of sandbag training.

This concept is exactly what Anthony Diluglio told me when I presented at his Punch Gym in Providence and he remarked again this past weekend he was surprised about the versatility of this form of training. Anthony put it beautifully, he says you don't lift kettlebells, you move them, but sandbags you can do both! I couldn't put it any better. No matter what the goals, from fitness to elite sports performance, you can quickly adapt sandbags to any training program.

However, my favorite part was when Alwyn introduced my program to the 200 people at the Perform Better tour. Alwyn spoke about the fact his brother came to his facility to train, Alwyn had him perform some log presses and he was able to knock out 170 pounds pretty easily. However, his brother couldn't press a 100 pound sandbag, YES, sandbags are truly the "least cooperative training tool" as Alwyn put it.

Fortunately I video taped my clinic at Results-Fitness and will be offerring it soon as a free DVD whenever you order our sandbag shells or packages, keep on the lookout! Till then enjoy some fun footage I took from this past weekend....

Jason Rhymer Interview

Thinking outside the box is a necessity for a good coach. It allows you to have your clients experience continued success and makes training fun! One of the most innovative coaches that I have met is Strength Coach, Jason Rhymer. Jason is constantly developing new ways to keep people motivated and successful in their training programs.

Today I was fortunate enough to interview Jason on some of his more creative workout programs. We didn't stop there though, we also discussed ways for trainers and coaches to effectively start their bootcamps, fitness classes, and/or team training. Lastly we dealt with a topic no one speaks about which is the mental focus and preparation for successful training. Don't miss out on this interview as it delves in deeper than just the physical components of training!

Listen to Jason Rhymer Interview Here

Putting Together The Puzzle

Training is far more than throwing together some cool exercises. In fact, the difference between a great training program and a workout is the rhym and reason to accomplishing specific goals. In today's video I wanted to demonstrate just that! What are some of my needs, goals, and objectives?

1. I want to bring up general conditioning, but more specifically my strength-endurance in lower body pulling and overhead pushing.

2. I want to add stability and strength to my hips and shoulder girdle.

3. Develop conditioning in specific events for strongman, in this case dragging.

4. Begin to implement isometric strength work to prevent injury.

5. Create greater core strength to help with injury prevention to hip.

Begin to analyze what is important to you and make the program accordingly! Don't fall trap to doing something because its simply hard.

Not Just for Carrying

I have to admit, I am surprised to how many people still think that sandbags are just for carrying. Sure, you can shoulder it maybe, but really how much can you do with them? Well to tell the truth that is why I made our Ultimate Sandbags the way they are! If I had just the typical homemade duffel bag I wouldn't be as inspired. Trust me, I had a bunch of them at one time!!

The reality is you can do a ton with a purposefully made sandbag. Used appropriately you can train different fitness qualities such as strength and endurance, you can train in all three planes of movement, you can focus on movement skills such as rotation, acceleration/deceleration drills. If all you think you can do with a sandbag is carry it you are truly missing out!

Another great benefit of my Ultimate Sandbag is you can start to combine some very cool complexes. Complexes often come in two different forms:

1. One drill followed immediately by another for a series of typically 3 to 10 drills.
2. One movement that flows immediately into another.

Today I wanted to show a few great complexes that are great for anyone looking to be fit, strong, and mobile!

Over 70 Videos and Counting

Yesterday I received an email that really struck home. With all the positive emails I receive it usually only takes one negative one to really get my attention. After all I am typically my own worst critic and really try to listen when someone has something that they believe we can improve upon.

Well, this gentleman told me that my recent release of Synergy was "aggressive marketing". Wow, I thought to myself, I have always thought of myself as a really bad marketer. I have never been one to write the long ad copy, must to the disappointment to my business coach. My efforts have always gone to try to be in your shoes, what would I want to hear?

I guess that is why I stepped back and really took a look at what we were doing and selling, the truth is I feel pretty good about things. We have never been one's to really push email after email of sales pitch after sales pitch. Our newsletters try to be content oriented and not talking about a nice walk that I had with my dogs like some.

In fact, one of my proudest things is that we have over 70 free videos for you to watch to learn new exercises or how to incorporate sandbags into numerous different training programs. My goal is to have over 100 in the next month and a half!

This doesn't mean that we couldn't do more and in the near future we will be doing just that! I hope to put up more videos and have teleconferences so you can ask the questions that you really want the answers to.

Meanwhile, check out one of the must see videos I did some time ago talking about how to start a sandbag training program and mistakes to avoid....




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

Sandbags + Kettlebells = Synergy

Many people still think of me as the "sandbag guy", hey, there are far worse things to be known for! In fact, I am very proud of the fact I have given people a fun and really powerful way to get back their athleticism and fitness. However, to say I am only the "sandbag guy" wouldn't be too accurate.

I have been in the industry for almost 15 years and have tried, seen, and experienced a lot. It wasn't a journey without many challenges including trying to fix many of my own injuries that were severe and limiting. One thing I promised myself though is that I would never be married to an idea simply because I thought it was cool or different. The only way I would incorporate a training concept is if I thought it gave real results, really fast!

There are many tools that could help a training program, however, not everyone wants to build a million dollar facility and the truth is you don't have to. When I began creating Sandbag Fitness Systems my goal was to introduce new training concepts and tools that even ventured outside of sandbags, but would be related in the sense they give fast results and are immensely versatile. I believe that my new training program "Synergy" is a perfect example of this.

"Synergy" is the first time anyone has put forth a training program focused around sandbag and kettlebell training. Both of these tools have been gaining steam as the most innovative and powerful training tools available today. Everyone from elite athletes, runway models, and every day people are using kettlebells and sandbags, but no one is sure how to put it all together. After an exercise by itself isn't too powerful. However, carefully combined in a structured model can yield some pretty amazing things.

This isn't just a dvd though, I wanted to give people more. So, I added two e-books as well. The "Synergy Manual" and "Synergy Diet Lies" gives you just that, more information, more programs to follow and keeps you from falling in the typical pitfalls. Here is a bit of what you can find inside these e-books:

• Over 40 training programs to follow
• The 10 best foods to drop fat
• Three methods to guarantee results
  
• What supplements to take and when
• How to make sure your routines never get boring!

In addition, for one week I am going to provide people with five one hour interviews with great coaches such as Jedd Johnson of the Diesel Crew, Underground Strength Coach Zach Even-esh, Dan John, Brad Nelson, and YES Pavel Tsatsouline! This is what I wanted to give, a complete program. Remember, this is just for one week though and the interviews will be gone!

Click on this link to get your Synergy Training Program Today!

You didn't think I would give you a program too, did you?

Revolutionizing Home Workouts

My favorite videos are those that I am sent on almost a daily basis from all of you! Showing me how you have taken the concepts I am trying to teach and apply them in creative and effective workouts is truly inspiring. The other day I received a great video from Adam Harmer. You can quickly tell Adam is serious about his fitness, but keeps it simple and at home! This is also a great example on how a few training tools can give you an infinite amount of challenging exercises. Check these out and in the upcoming weeks I will be posting far more from you guys and the awesome training programs you have come up with!