Issue 050
June 2009
By Barry Gibson. I’ve written before about the benefits of training with this little ingenious invention. Those of you familiar with my ranting (I mean writing!) about strength and conditioning for fighters (and regular folks) will be aware that I like sandbags and powerbags for the simple fact that they provide resistance unlike any barbell you could pick up. They fight you every inch of the movement!
Here we’re looking more closely at powerbags, but any of the following exercises could be performed just as easily with a sandbag. Continuing with the theme of getting fit when you’re pressed for time, I’ve got a nice little complex to kick-start a flagging fitness program.
Let’s take a look at the movements. Some exercises you can do are:
- Thrusters
- High pulls
- Shouldering
- Zercher lunges
- Curls
- Slams
- Side Hops
So, how do we do it? Well, there are several ways. You could Tabata it (20 seconds hard work with ten seconds of rest, for five-minute rounds), or you could set a number of reps (e.g. eight) for all exercises apart from the side hops, of which you would do 30 reps.
If you choose the reps format you will need to perform a number of sets, or set a timer and try to get ten sets of it in a certain time frame. Add a set of sprints between exercises and you’re on your way to a great fat-burning workout as well as kicking your fitness into overdrive.
That’s it really, nice and simple, no fluff, no messing, just get busy! One thing to remember is that you aren’t allowed to set the bag down while you’re busy! That’s my only condition. This makes you work that much harder and will give your recovery a real hard time!
Barry Gibson is a kettlebell and fitness instructor based in North East England. A strength and conditioning trainer to MMA fighters, he holds a third dan in judo. Any questions or queries can be directed to [email protected]
...
