Not always a big fan of crowds, so when my neighborhood gets overrun with partiers I usually end up hunkering down and getting a lot of work done. The cost of this is at some point I need to really jump around and burn off some extra energy. Since I’ve been developing recipes I wanted to work up a good appetite to try them too.
This past week I had the opportunity to teach a very cool lady (out of town) how to use the DVRT system and Ultimate Sandbags, and of course this got me even more excited about them in the process. I could tell she would have REALLY liked to have bought one or both of them from me that day, but NOPE MINE MINE MINE!!! Besides, they’re both set up for “learning” right now, being not-so-sloshily filled with (glorious smelling) Thai jasmine rice (it was on sale in 50lb bags…). Readers of this blog probably already figured out I don’t eat much (if any) grain, but I will admit to the occasional sushi rice and if it’s been a particularly crazy day (or a workshop) I will eat at least half of whatever Thai jasmine rice is brave enough to sit on a plate with meat and veggies. It’s mainly the smell though.
I’ve been using a strength bag (matte black in the photo above) and a power bag (photo to the left. My power bag is a hilarious pink color, which is amusing when I use it, but I have also noticed that many people respond to that particular bag very positively. As a helpful side note, after I saw that the shiny pink material had somehow picked up some black paint from other equipment (not sure if a kettlebell or one of the maces is to blame), I was able to remove the black marks that previously seemed impossible to remove with a soft sponge and little bit of Goo-Gone. So, not only is the friendly pink sandbag friendly and pink, it also faintly smells of clean citrus. This means everyone will want to clean and press it. The strength bag is loaded to approx. 50lbs, and the power bag I loaded to about 25-26lbs. I found these sizes/loads to be a fairly good idea for beginners (myself included) who have a good bit of strength from other modalities like kettlebells, calisthenics, traditional weightlifting etc.
The following workout follows a fun protocol that I found myself just gravitating towards, and now I sometimes use purposely to create workouts for myself or others. Admittedly this will work best for intermediate/advanced exercisers who have some time on their hands…
Here’s the “protocol”:
- Warm Up
- Test Something Out (or go for a PR of sorts)
- Maybe warm up some more or work on a mobility challenge
- Practice technique and skill-based moves
- Strength work
- Spazz-out (intense circuit that includes some max cardio)
- Cool down with some skills and mobility
You may see how what I did basically fits into that pattern
- Joint mobility warm up
- Max rep set of pull ups – 10
- Pieces of PM + happy baby
- Bridge variations review
- Crow hold count to 100
Did this three times, chose a different bridge variant each time:
- Slow Hanging Leg Raises straight leg to bar – 6, keep holding bar and immediately perform hanging knee raises – 10
- Bridge variation (raised feet, walk down wall, one leg switch)
Did this 4 times because… just because:
- Kettlebell snatches 14kg 10/10
- Sandbag clean and press (big strength sandbag) 5x
- Sandbag Zercher front squat (big strength sandbag) 10x
- Kettlebell windmill 14kg 5/5
- KB heavy swings 10 (40kg, 32kg)
A brief break for some social stuff then…
20 sec work, 10 sec break for 4 minutes (similar to that interval named after Dr. “Tabata”):
4x:
- 20 seconds, alternating 14kg kettlebell snatches
- 10 seconds rest/transition
- 20 seconds Ultimate Sandbag (pink power sandbag) rotational lunges*
- 10 seconds rest/transition
*That smaller sandbag gets heavy fast with rotational lunges….
I ended with some more mobility work and backward rolling drills.
Here’s a random behind the scenes picture from a recent photoshoot, but it illustrates hanging knee raises:
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