Todays Workout - Sandbag Strength

Max Pull Ups followed immediately by max Heavy Sandbag Floor Press. Rest for 2-4 minutes and repeat for a total of 5 rounds.

Record your max weight and repetitions.

Train hard!

Todays Workout - 5, 10, 15

5 Pull Ups, 10 Sandbag Push Press, 15 Squats. 10 rounds.

Record your time.

Train hard!

Todays Workout - 10's

10 Sandbag Power Cleans, 10 Sandbag Back Squats, 10 Sandbag Push Jerks, 10 Box Jumps. 5 rounds.

Record your time.

Train hard!

Todays Workout - 10 to 1

10 - 1 of Pull Ups, Sandbag High Pulls and Sandbag Round-the-Worlds.

Record your time.

Train hard!

Todays Workout - Fifteen

15 Sandbag Deadlifts, 15 Sandbag Push Jerks. As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes.

Record your score.

Train hard!

The Paleo Solution

For those of you with an interest in the Paleo diet (the style of eating that I follow) please take the time to read the Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf. Robb is both a scientist and a certified strength and conditioning specialist.

The Paleo Solution incorporates the latest cutting edge research from genetics, biochemistry and anthropology to help you look, fell and perform your best.

Personalised Training Programmes

Due to demand I'm currently offering Personalised Sandbag Fitness Training Programmes. Head here for more details

Alternatively you can download the free 68 page Sandbag Fitness Training Manual

Train hard!

Matt

Todays Workout - Dude where's your sandbag?

3 Pull Ups, 6 Push/Press Ups, 9 Box Jumps. As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes.

Record your score.

Train hard!

Bobby Zuniga training with the Brute Force Sandbag

We just received this video from Bobby Zuniga, a Personal Trainer based out in Denver, USA. In the video he takes us through a metabolic conditioning workout with the Brute Force Sandbag.

If you're interested in getting yourself a Brute Force Sandbag then check them out here

To learn more about Bobby please take a look at his site

Sandbag Fitness - Popular Around the World

I've just been checking through the downloads for the free Sandbag Fitness Training Manual and I thought it would be pretty cool to see how far and wide the manual had made it. We've had downloads in the following countries:

USA

UK

Canada

Finland

Australia

Germany

Sweden

Netherlands

Singapore

Ireland

Argentina

Italy

Russia

Norway

Thailand

Hungary

New Zealand

Philippines

South Korea

Greece

UAE

Israel

Algeria

Spain

Brazil

Ukraine

Denmark

Switzerland

Austria

Belgium

Romania

If you've download the manual we'd love to hear from you and put a name to some of those countries. And we'd really, really love it if you'd send us some photos of video of you training with the sandbag. If you haven't yet downloaded the manual - what are you waiting for?!

Matt

10 Tonnes of Fun - Courtesy of Josh T

Josh T, one of our followers from Australia, seems to delight in recommending some pretty tough workouts for us to do. Here's the most recent one:

Lift a combined total of 30,000 kg using Pull Ups (your weight), Sandbag Back Squats and Sandbag High Pulls. Any weight allowed in the sandbag and you can break up the sets and exercises however you wish. But, you must lift a total of 10,000 kg for each exercise.

Something like this would be good:

5 Pull Ups,
10 50kg Sandbag Back Squats,
10 50kg Sandbag High Pulls.

Repeat for 20 rounds (or so).

Record your time.

Train hard!

Todays Workout - Minute By Minute

As many repetitions in 1 minute of each of the following exercises: Squats, Sandbag Push Press, Sit Ups, Sandbag High Pulls. No rest between each exercise, rest 1 minute between each round and repeat for a total of 3 rounds.

Record your total reps for each round.

Train hard!

Mastering Mastery

One of the most common themes I encounter as a coach is an individuals inability to stick at a particular training programme. I call this type of person a "serial switcher". They have tried practically every programme under the sun but never quite seem to get the results that they want. And they typically complain that they get bored easily and need lots of variety. My opinion is that this type of individual is unlikely to achieve what they want until they re-assess their goals and goal setting.

I think that fitness and performance are very simple things - we just need to focus on the elements of fitness that we want to improve on and apply progressive loading to these (make them harder as you get better). This is a principle that applies not only to fitness, but to many other things as well. The problem with fitness and performance is that there is an awful lot of conflicting information out there and this can make it hard to make the correct decisions all of the time. When I think of progression I'm often reminded of a (Greek, I think) tale of a young farmer...

This young farmer had a calf that he picked up every day. At first this was very easy as the calf was so light. But, as the calf grew, the young farmer continued to lift it every day. After a year or so, and with the calf now fully grown, the man was still able to lift it. The gradual increase in size had been small enough to allow the man to get stronger and adapt.

Now this story may or may not be true but it raises some interesting points about progression and the small increments that are sometimes needed to achieve this.

What happens when the increments are too big?

We get injured or we fail. And it is at this point that most people give up.

Life is full of stories about people who have managed to achieve great things with limited means by simply making small incremental changes to a programme, a skill or any other task.

Convict Conditioning - the story of a man who developed a training programme while in prison:

Convict Conditioning: How to Bust Free of All Weakness-Using the Lost Secrets of Supreme Survival Strength

And the Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, talks about a magical 10,000 hour rule to achieve mastery in any skill:

Outliers: The Story of Success

Read more

And Sandbag Fitness - the story of a man with a bag of sand is his garage is my own attempt to achieve a great level of strength and conditioning with nothing but a sandbag.

So, my advice to you is work with what you've got and work hard to get the best possible results irrespective of the options that you have available to you. Sometimes too many options are the problem so stick with the basics and aim for mastery.

Train hard!

Todays Workout - Inspired By Crossfit Bath

Inspired by the guys at Crossfit Bath

10 Sandbag Push Press, 10 Burpees. As many round as possible in 15 minutes.

Record your score.

Train hard!

Todays Workout

5 Pull Ups, 5 Knees-to-Elbows, 10 Sandbag Deadlifts, 10 Sandbag Back Squats, 15 Press/Push Ups, 15 Sandbag Round-the-Worlds. 3 rounds.

Record your time.

Train hard!

Todays Workout - Sandbag Strength Complex

Sandbag Deadlift, Sandbag Overhead Press, Sandbag Back Squat. Load up your bag with as much weight as you can handle and complete as many repetitions on each exercise before moving on to the next exercise. Take 2-3 minutes rest between each complex and repeat for a total of five rounds.

Record your weight and reps.

Train hard!