Posts Tagged ‘Sandbags’
Beef Up Your Training, Part II
Folks are always looking for ways to beef up their training. Whether it is muscle building, adding, strength, improving conditioning, or fat loss, chances are there is some aspect of your training you feel is lacking. Personally, I’m never satisfied with my training. Maybe I’m just hard on myself but I’m constantly trying to improve all aspects of my strength and conditioning. Hell, if you’re not trying to improve, you’re wasting your time. Below is part two of a three part series on my top 10 ways to beef up your training.
4. Bodyweight Training
I touched on bodyweight training briefly in part one. There I mentioned how valuable using your bodyweight can be for “cardio.” Don’t be fooled! Bodyweight exercise such as pushups, pullups, lunges, squats, dips, and the hundreds off others WILL add tons of strength and muscle to your frame. Think I’m wrong, check this dude out and tell me that bodyweight training isn’t valuable.
Herschel Walker never did anything but bodyweight training and that took him all the way to the Heisman trophy. When you can do a couple sets of 25 pushups and 15-20 pullups, add some weight by throwing on some chains and keep on pulling and pushing!
5. Sandbags
I started using sandbags in my training pretty regularly a few months ago. I don’t know if it will ever replace the barbell as my favorite training tool but it’s quickly becoming a close second. Sandbag training is nearly limitless. You can do just about everything you do with a barbell. Below is a list of my top 5 sandbag exercises.
1. Clean and Catch - Stand over the bag and rip it off the floor. Can you say explosive?
2. Clean and Squat – Again, stand over the bag, rip it off the floor, catch it in a front squat position and drop your ass! Remember to keep your elbow high, push you hips back, and drive through your heels.
3. Shouldered Squat – This one requires a ton of core stability and control. Clean the bag to your shoulder, keep those abs tight and chest up and squat!
4. Clean and Press - This one is much more difficult than it seem as you really have to rip the bag off the floor to get your hands in the right position to press the bag. How hard can it be right? Well, try pressing a 75lb. sandbag over your head and then press a 75lb barbell and tell me which one kicks your rear end more!
5. Shouldering - This one is an awesome conditioning exercise. Stradle the bag and get your hands underneath it. Rip it off the floor and take it straight to one shoulder. Take the bag back to the floor and repeat to the opposite shoulder. Rock 10 totals reps and your lungs will be screaming!
6. Take it to the playground or backyard!
I love backyard or playground training training. There nothing like getting out in the fresh air and sunshine and getting busy. The best thing about backyard or playground training is that you don’t have to follow any rules. You can get a killer workout with just using the jungle gym, monkey bars, parallel bars, etc. If you want to add a little extra to it bring your ropes, chains, tires, and sledgehammer and really get after it.
So, shake things up a bit and go to your backyard or playground and train. Get out in the fresh air! You’ll be surprised how it feels.
YOU DON’T NEED A GYM!
YOU DON’T FANCY EQUIPMENT!
Even the most seasoned and advanced lifters can benefit by taking it to the backyard. You can use your own bodyweight for a killer training session or you can use some simple homemade tools like in the video below to get strong and build slabs of fat burning muscle.
Check out these videos I put together in my own backyard!
Let’s hear those comments on how you like to beef up your training. I don’t know everything so I want to learn from you guys as well!
Real World Strength vs. Muscle Mag Bodybuilding
I admit, for a long time I was in to the pretty boy bodybuilding thing. I used to hit one body part per day, doing at least 20 sets, and keeping my reps between 8-12. After that I would spend another 45 minutes on the treadmill or ellipticall. I did this all with the hope of getting huge and lean.
You know what? All those workouts I followed religiously from Flex and Muscle and Fitness never got me anywhere! Growing up I trained like beast. My training was heavy pushing, pulling, and pressing and that was about it. It wasn’t until I got back to that type of training that I started making real gains again. That is why I think real world strength training beats the hell out of pretty boy bodybuilding any day of the week.
Don’t get me wrong bodybuilding has it’s place and still influences some of my training today. But, when you spend more time on isolation exercises and bicep curls than you do squatting, deadlifting, or overhead pressing, that’s a problem. Unfortunately I just described about 95% of the people in gyms today.
So, if you’re looking to bust through a training rut and get some serious results, start training for real world strength. Make sure you train heavy and hard with compounds movements like the squat and deadlift. Use different tools like sandbags and kettlebell. Under any circumstance don’t forget bodyweight training.
If you’re looking to find out more about real world strength go here now.
Zach Even Esh has a special sale going on for his Underground Strength Manual. Take action now as the sale only lasts for another 48 hours.
17 Strength and Muscle Building Tips
Here is quick list of strength and muscle building tips for you think about as you begin to plan out your training for next week or the next few weeks.
1. Lift heavy. Light weights get you nowhere.
2. Eat, eat, eat. You have to eat to grow. Heavy lifting requires more calories. Start by adding 400-500 calories a day to your diet.
3. Choose compound lifts. Here are a couple of my favorites.
4. Don’t do more than 10-15 sets per workout.
5. Beginners should do 3 full body workouts per week. Bottom line!
6. Full body workouts are always preferred but more advanced lifters can use upper/lower splits.
7. Keep lifting days to 3-4 per week. If you HAVE to do something on the other days choose conditioning and other recovery work.
8. Keep conditioning work short and intense. Too much cardio kills mass and strength gains.
9. If you’re trying to eat more, choose higher glycemic carbs. They don’t keep you as full as long.
10. You MUST squat and deadlift!
11. Squat and deadlift at least once per week. Beginners can get away with more than once per week as they are learning. But, more advanced lifters should only hit these two monsters once per week to allow for max recovery.
12. Don’t be married to the gym! Get out and throw around some sandbags, flip a tire, or drag a heavy sled.
13. Keep your workouts under an hour.
14. Make breakfast and your post workout meal your two largest of the day.
15. Plan your workouts. Don’t go into the gym with no idea what you want to do that day.
16. Get a good training partner. A good partner is invaluable.
17. Don’t neglect bodyweight training. Exercises like pushups, dips, pullups, and handstand pushups WILL get you strong.
Let me know your thoughts on this list. I’d love to keep this list going.
Leave me a comment and I’ll add it to the post.
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