Hop on the Functional Strength Train

HOP ON THE FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH TRAIN

Have you ever had to move a load of rocks during a weekend landscaping project? Or had to cut some low hanging or diseased branches off that tree in the front yard? What you might notice as you complete these tasks is that they require a mixture of strength, balance and precise coordination. These skills can be learned and practiced within a solid functional strength training regimen.

The days of going into a gym and lifting barbells and dumbbells for hours on end are over. The trend in fitness is to take what you do in the gym and apply it to your life. This is how Crossfit and other "movements" were born. The revolution that has been taking place over the past several years is to make workouts directly adaptable to life.   Most of the population isn't working out to compete in a bodybuilding or strength contest, but rather needs the strength and endurance to weather ordinary life trials. Of course bodybuilding and intense weight training will always have a place, but functional training allows real world training to take place every time you train.

One area of functional training that is easy to dive right into is sandbag training. The idea is to lift a sandbag with as much weight as you can manage and eventually form will follow function. In other words, as your strength increases with the sandbag movements, that same strength will carry over into other aspects of your life. Part of the advantage of training with a sandbag is that it offers an ever changing and shifting workload. The shifting sand forces your body to adapt to the weight in real time, just like you do in your everyday life. Think about the last time you helped someone move to another house or apartment. Think about carrying that couch up or down a flight of stairs and think about how you had to change grips or re-position your body to carry the couch over a railing. You can help prepare your body and muscles for all those awkward movements in part with a solid sandbag training routine. That shifting weight inside the sandbag challenges not only your muscles, but your mind as you think about how to control and stabilize that bag of sand.

The idea behind any functional training regimen is to prepare and protect your body for all the challenges you come across in everyday life.  Of course if you already have a solid weight lifting routine, sandbag training can be added to fill in any gaps and also for the pure challenge it offers. Sandbags are a perfect entry point into a functional training regimen and also a great addition to almost any training program.

If you're looking for a quality sandbag that will withstand whatever you can dish out visit Brute Force Training has it.

Shop sandbags, kettlebells, and weighted vests here.

Article Courtesy of Bryan Goodland