Sunday, November 23, 2008

Get powerful fitness results with sandbags

By Marcus Martinez

If you're looking to burn calories, increase functional strength, and build solid muscle, sandbag training could be a great addition to your fitness routine. Just like kettlebell training, sandbags require additional effort to control the weight being used, making them one of the most efficient training methods available.

What would be more intense, trying to lift a perfectly balanced bar over your head, or a shifting mass of weight? Controlling and moving a sandbag works out your core and increases workout intensity because of unrelenting motion of the object you're trying to move.

Take a simple exercise like the overhead press. You not only have to heave that unbalanced, bag of shifting sand overhead, you then have to grip it. Sounds easy enough except there are no solid grips. Your hands and forearms work overtime to get a strong hold on something that is fighting you to be on the ground. Then lifting it overhead when all it wants to do is collapse means you work that much harder. All of this energy translates into more muscles used and a much more demanding workout.

If you don't have time for an hour of cardio and you still want to shed pounds of fat, a basic sandbag routine could do the job. You don't need much space, and the only piece of equipment you need is a bag, and sand. Not too complicated.

Sandbags are great for athletes of all kinds, particularly those in the combat sports. Grappling, jiu-jitsu and any martial art that relies on the ability to grab a hold of someone makes grip strength vital to success in that field. These benefits are not limited to martial artists, but can be useful for those in law enforcement or the military, or just anyone who is looking to get stronger and burn so unwanted pounds.

You could build your own sandbag using a hefty bag, sand, and duct tape. If you're really going to get into it though, you might want to look for something created for sandbag training, like the products provided by Innovative Fitness Solutions. Their Ultimate Sandbag can put up with anything you can dish out.

With the Ultimate Sandbag, you get the versatility to train at home or anywhere you want, the variability to use new training protocols so the results you're looking for don't stagnate, and overall ability to train for power and strength as well as conditioning and fat loss. Working with sandbags has given me a great tool to add to my arsenal in increasing my strength and conditioning while developing a solid, aesthetically pleasing physique. Whoever said you have to do cardio 45 minutes a day to bun fat never tried sandbags.

Having some options for your training routine is a great way to keep your workouts interesting. Doing the same thing all the time could lead to injuries and boredom. If you're interested in getting started, I recommend the Ultimate Sandbag, but if you want to get started today, just fill a plastic bag with stand and start throwing it around. - 16004

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