Thoughts on Sandbag Training
by Jan Dellinger
If you've been around strength training literature a while you have no doubt heard
the name Jan Dellinger -- he has written articles for the old Hardgainer magazine,
was the editor of
Muscular Development magazine and heck, even shared an office
with
John Grimek himself for a number of years while working for the
York Barbell
Company for over two decades.
When it comes to training, there isn't much he hasn't seen or done so when he
speaks, you can bet am listening. Check out his
series of articles on leg training if
you want to know more of what Jan is all about.
We are, in fact, working on a little project with Jan which will be ready in a few weeks.
In the meantime though, heroes something Jan recently sent me that should get you
thinking:
John:
It's interesting how the burgeoning sandbag training community has picked and chose its
favored adoptable movements from the standard barbell/dumbbell exercise repertoire.
Some from "Column A" and some from Column B.
Mimicking the Olympic lifts appears to be in: cleans (or shouldering), the power snatch,
doing squats once the sandbag is shoulders, etc. You know, traditional ground-based stuff
which gets the bag to the shoulder, on the back or overhead in one or two movements. Makes
perfect sense, given the nature of the resistance employed.
It's interesting, too, to see "sandbaggers" reach way back in history for movements like
the Get-up, and to gravitate toward repetition compound movements like the clean & press,
squat and press (held in front of the shoulders or behind the head) and combining burpees
and power snatch, for instance. All very old-school and productive, especially in terms of
muscular conditioning.
It appears folks are less apt to apply sandbags to more "isolated" conventional bodybuilding
exercises like curls, shoulders raises and the like. Still, I guess I'm a little surprised
that some guru somewhere hasn't endorsed bench pressing sandbags, given the popularity of
that movement.
Come to think of it, though, that notion isn't so far-fetched, or unadaptable to old-school,
ground-based combination exercises. Modify the exercise to the floor press movement mentioned
in
Alan Calvert's time-honored Milo Barbell Course and ponder the possibilities:
Arbitrarily, shoulder a moderately weighted sandbag, place it back on the floor, IMMEDIATELY
lie down flat on the floor, lift or roll the bag onto your chest and press it, replace it on
the floor and IMMEDIATELY stand up and shoulder the bag again. Keep this up for at least 10-15
continuous repetitions.
Guaranteed just about anyone would be breathing hard and pretty well pumped muscularly
(forearms, hands, arms, upper and lower back,and shoulders at a minimum).
Likewise, I'd think this movement would be a winner for those who want a good workout but who
are constrained by a lack of time. Other than the sandbag, you don't need any other equipment.
Perhaps modern day bench pressers would have trouble wrapping their minds around pressing from the
floor (sans bench), and, more so, how strenuously a "measly" 100 pounds ( of sand) would be
to handle in the aforementioned manner.
John, at your leisure, any thoughts or comments regarding my above outburst would be welcome.
Jan Dellinger |
Jan,
Great to hear from you and, as always, you're right on the money. It's true that the majority of training information
that we have seen tends to gravitate toward either traditional "free weight" movements (which is a good thing)
or heavier shouldering/carrying techniques mentioned frequently in
Dinosaur Training (also a very effective kind of training.)
Sandbag training offers many
more possibilities than many people give it credit for though. Every exercise you can think of is
different when performed with a sandbag. As you touch on, there can be much more to it than and a
sandbag can provide a style of training
that no barbell or dumbbell could ever match. One reason for this is simply the awkwardness of the sandbag
itself. A chunk of iron is dense and concentrated - thus easier to maintain its center of gravity as it
is moved through space.
A sandbag, on the other hand,
moves every which way causing you to have to make constant adjustments even on a rep-by-rep basis. I have commented many
times on just how "heavy" a 15-25-pound sandbag can feel for some movements.
Not to mention
the sequence/circuit training idea that you have lends itself more effectively to a sandbag than any other type of equipment.
Yes indeed, plenty of possibilities...
Train hard,
John Wood
<<< Back to Oldtime
Strongman Training Articles
|
