Week 5

by Matthew Palfrey December 28, 2014 0 Comments

Welcome to week 5 of the Sandbag Fitness Mastery Course. If my statistics are accurate then you are in the 40% of those people still actively engaged with the course and that's a great thing! Drop out rates are generally far higher, especially in health and fitness, so I'm really happy with the course success so far. You should be proud that you are still sticking with it. 

You'll find the details for this weeks lessons below. Please use the comments field at the end of the post to include your performance for the workouts or share any feedback, advice or comments you might have.

Lesson 1

Sandbag Load Carry x 30m (carry your sandbag quickly, over a distance of 30 metres)

Sandbag Drag x 30m (drag your sandbag anyway you can over a distance of 30 metres)

15 Ground-to-Overhead Sandbag lifts

As many rounds as possible in 25 minutes. 

There is no weight requirement but I'd suggest you aim for something in the region of 35-40% of your bodyweight.

Pro-Tip: drags, done incorrectly, can be incredibly draining. To get the most efficiency in your technique you should aim to stay low and really drive with your legs, this will give you the power needed to cover the distance quickly. As in previous sessions, time under load is a very important factor. Therefore, completing both the Load Carry and the Drag as quickly as you can will make it easier to maintain your overall pace for the workout. Remember, it is often easier and more effective to see each round as being divided into sections of work rather than a continuous series of exercises. 

Lesson 2

Set a stopwatch for 4:00 minutes (minutes:seconds).

Start the clock and complete a total of 30 bodyweight Squats and 20 Push Ups as quickly as you can. 

Complete as many repetitions of Sandbag Shoulder Get Ups (alternating sides as and when you want) as you can for the remaining time on the clock. 

Take a 30 second rest between each 4:00 minute round and repeat for a total of 5 rounds. Your score is the total number of Sandbag Shoulder Get Ups you are able to complete.

There is no weight requirement for your sandbag but I'd suggest you aim for something in the region of 40-50% of your bodyweight.

Pro-Tip: although it's tempting to switch shoulders after each repetition of the Sandbag Shoulder Get Ups it can be very time consuming to do so. I'd suggest setting a repetition target (say 5 reps) before allowing yourself to switch shoulders. Alternatively you could only switch shoulders between rounds. 

Lesson 3

5 Sandbag Bent Over Row

10 Sandbag Overhead Press

15 Sandbag Front Squats

Complete 10 rounds as quickly as possible. 

There is no weight requirement but I'd suggest you aim for something in the region of 30-40% of your bodyweight.

Pro-Tip: the repetition totals here are no joke, especially at a challenging weight. The biggest challenge for most will be the transition from the Sandbag Overhead Press to the Sandbag Front Squats. Holding the sandbag at chest height for that amount of time will actually start to make it quite difficult to breathe properly so you should aim to keep the bag elevated away from the chest. Raising the points of your elbows upwards in the rack position can help to alleviate the pressure on the chest during the set. 

See you next week!

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