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CB: Matt, we’ve both been posting away in blissful ignorance of each other for about a year now so it’s safe to assume that some of my readers won’t have come across you before.  Can you just give us a quick introduction to your background, to what you do and why you do it?

Matt: Hi Chris, firstly I’d like to say thanks for speaking with me – it’s always great to connect with others who have a real passion for training.  My background is principally in strength and conditioning and I’ve been coaching individuals and teams for around 12 years now.  I also run a Health and Wellbeing company Elevate Wellbeing.  We focus on delivering employee health and wellbeing programmes for organisations.

I love to see people improve in any aspect of health and wellbeing and I’d say this remains my driving motivation.

CB: That’s a great motivation to have and one that I certainly share.  But as well as all of that, you run a awesome blog dedicated purely to training with sandbags, Sandbag Fitness.  Why the focus on sandbags?

Matt: After returning to the UK after a year abroad I found I was struggling to get into the gym as often as I would like.  I had an empty garage so got hold of a couple of 25kg bags of sand and started training with them.  At that point my strength and conditioning was pretty low so it worked well for me.  I started the blog as a way to inspire others who perhaps didn’t have access to the traditional training options.  I’m a huge fan of ‘odd-object” lifting anyway so the sandbag was a natural choice.

The benefits of lifting unstable objects like the sandbag are not really mainstream yet – we have plenty of unstable surface options like wobble boards and stability balls but we still tend to focus on balanced “weights”.  In reality it is often the weights we lift that are unbalanced and not the surface we’re standing on.

CB: Interesting thoughts about unstable object lifting, I tend to keep my sandbags fairly tightly bound so I tend not to get that benefit.  Anyway, I had a skim through some of the daily workouts on your blog and I noticed a couple of things I wanted to ask you about.  I couldn’t help noticing, for example, the CrossFit T-shirt you wear in some of your videos.  Has CrossFit been a big influence on you?

Matt: I was one of the original guys to start Crossfit Bath back in 2008 before taking a year out to travel… and generally loaf around the world a bit.  I’m no longer directly involved in Crossfit but the guys at Crossfit Bath continue to run a great gym.

Crossfit has been great for a variety of reasons – not least bringing Olympic Lifting to the general public.  Like anything though, you need to find yourself a good set of coaches to work with.  I wouldn’t really say that Crossfit has had a huge influence on my coaching style – I’ve been focusing on both metabolic conditioning ands strength/power for a few years now.

CB: That’s pretty much exactly the same place I am in on CrossFit.  Great minds and all that.  Still thinking about training, what would you see as the key sandbag movements to master?

Matt: The sandbag is essentially a weight that we can all use for resistance training.  And like other modalities I’m a fan of big, compound movements that develop strength, power and agility. The added benefit of working with the sandbag is that it can be a harder object to work with (at comparable) weights that a traditional free weight. It moves around with you lift it so you’ll find yourself working hard just to stabilise the bag.  With this in mind I prefer to use it for overhead movements like the press, push press and jerk.   It’s also great for load carries – hill climbs with the sandbag are tough.

Matt in action with a sandbag

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At this point I’d say the following exercises would be my Top 5 (that could change next week though!):

1. Sandbag Clean and Jerk
2. Sandbag Zercher Squat
3. Sandbag Hill Climbs (over the shoulder)
4. Sandbag Push Jerks
5. Sandbag OH Walking Lunges

CB: Everything’s always subject to change!  Taking the whole sandbags thing a bit further, if someone is training conventionally with barbells, how could they add a little bit of sandbag training into their routines and get a lot of benefit without compromising their barbell work too much?

Matt: For pure strength I absolutely recommend that people keep up with their barbell work.  As an additional element, utilising the sandbag for it’s primary benefits i.e. odd object stabilisation, would be the best approach. Taking one day a fortnight to substitute in sandbag cleans and presses would work well.  Working hard for those sandbag lifts will definitely have a great transfer back into your regular barbell work.

CB: Cool, that sounds doable.  And you work closely with Brute Force sandbags.  Why are they such great sandbags?

Matt: The guys at Brute Force Sandbags sent me a bag late last year and I was very impressed.  I’m keen that the people who use my site know that it is possible to work out with both homemade sandbags and the custom made ones (like Brute Force).  Having handles on the bag make it far easier to do rows and pulls so they’re a great option for people who don’t have access to other weights.

Plus, the Brute Force Sandbag is virtually indestructible (well, so far at least) and the customer service is awesome. I’m now the official strength and conditioning representative for the company. This really just involves giving practical advice to those who want to incorporate sandbag lifting into their training programme.

CB: Hmm, indestrucibtle, I have some friends who might be able to put that to the test… Moving on, you’ve recently released an e-book all about sandbags.  I’ve had a quick look so far and I really liked what you’ve done.  What made you realise that there was a gap in the market for a resource like this?

Matt: Thanks for the compliments. It really makes these things worthwhile when you know that people are out there following and enjoying your work. There is always a gap for any resource that empowers people and that was really the goal with the e-book. You can follow the programme for free and get yourself a homemade sandbag for less than £5 – there is no excuse not to give it a go.

CB: Great answer, I am all for giving people the tools they need to get the job done.  Now let me ask you now about the health and wellbeing aspects of your work.  I note that you are a fan of Robb Wolf’s book, The Paleo Solution.  How did you come to the paleo way of eating and how beneficial have you found it for yourself and your clients?

I first tried a low carb dietary approach back in 2004 and it really clicked for me.  Bodyfat just dropped off and my energy levels went through the roof.  I have pretty much followed a low carb, un-processed diet ever since. This diet suits me but I’m not too far off your average caveman! I’m of Northern European stock – short, stocky and can live happily on meat.

For others I try to get them to try it and see how it suits them. But, whatever approach people follow, I’m always keen that it be based around un-processed foods.

CB: Sounds like we probably have similar ancestors, then.  Still on health and wellbeing, looking at your videos, I see that you clearly have an interest in good movement patterns and good mobility.  How important do you find this aspect of health and training is for your clients?  Do you find that the hip hinge, for example, is lacking in many less-active people?

Matt: I have a degree in Sport Science and Biomechanics and this is one of the areas I find to be lacking in much of todays coaching. The ability to move well is paramount as it is the base for so many different things. Coaching these days seems to be as much about motivation as correction and I find this to be a problem.

I always stress the concept of “freedom of movement” to my clients. This is particularly important when working with athletes who need to work at high intensity. There needs to be a balancing act between the intensity needed to achieve results and the preparatory work needed to be able to work efficiently. Unfortunately it is often the latter that gets neglected.

CB: I agree completely.  Outside of the internet coaches who seem to talk about nothing else, there are very few personal trainers who are spending any real time on movement preparation, in my opinion.  Finally, let me put you on the spot now at the end of the interview.  Can you sum up what for you are the key messages that we as health and fitness experts need to be advising (a) athletes, and (b) the general population to focus on to get the best results for performance and health?

Matt: My honest answer would be that athletes and the general population should actually be focusing on the same things, just not necessarily at the same intensity. I’ve been involved in the commercial fitness sector and it always baffled me how the “regular” people were training in a completely different way to athletes. We should all be able to do what athletes do – move with speed and agility, apply strength and power and perform with great skill. Whether I’m training athletes or not, all my clients learn to think and act like athletes.

The age old advice of “you get what you focus on” is so true. So turning up at the gym to “tone” up or “get some abs” isn’t going to cut it if you want to improve health and performance.

CB: Another great answer, Matt.  Thanks for the interview!  I hope your business and blog continue to do well and I look forward to corresponding more with you in the future.

If you’ve been bitten by the bug that gets some of us sometimes and feel the need to hoist a heavy weight without the safety and predictability of a barbell, then check out these tips that I’ve learned the hard way.

Tip #1: weigh your sandbag regularly

This applies most to those of us who keep our sandbags out of doors.  I use a piece of tarpaulin to keep it (mostly) dry but it still gets a bit damp occasionally.  The extra water in the material (I use an army surplus bag to hold my sand) makes it heavier and the amount that the bag can vary will surprise you.

Tip #2: use small weights plates to increase the load incrementally

There is nothing sadder than training with the same weight implement day after day after day.  For improvement to happen, we usually need to increase the load carried.

However, adding extra sand to your sandbag is both time-consuming and tedious.  I’ve found that it’s perfectly possible to use a few spare weights plates to bump the weight up by 5kg (10lbs) or 10kg (20lbs) before adding extra bags of sand.  That way, I can programme sandbags into my routine and steadily work the weight up from week to week.

One extra tip, though, if you are going to use weights plates as extra ballast.  Don’t forget where the plate is in the bag.  I tend to use quite tightly packed sandbags and if I put the weight plate on the side that I approach the sandbag to pick it up , it digs into my chest.  It’s an easy solution: just turn the sandbag around and grasp it from the other direction!  Not what you want, though, if you’re working to the clock!

Tip #3: decide what you want to use your sandbag for most and set it up to do that

I have used my sandbag for a number of different exercises, including:

• Lifting and carrying;
• Lifting and loading; and
• Cleaning to the shoulder

I found that I preferred the sandbag to be quite solid for lifting and carrying but I liked the bag to have a bit of material free to hold onto for lifting and loading.  On the other hand, for cleaning to the shoulder, it’s easiest if the bag is nicely floppy.  I decided that I probably benefited most from the lifting and carrying, since I could use most weight that way, so I’ve set my sandbag up so it behaves more like an oddly-shaped Atlas stone.

Wrapped tightly and tied off for easy lifting

Why sandbags?

• Sandbags are a good training tool for forcing your body to translate the strength you have built using a barbell into the real world: they are irregular in shape and difficult to pick up.
• Sandbags make you contract your core muscles forcefully to stabilise the weight in a way that seems much more effective than conventional barbell exercises.  I think this is because you can get away with using your lower back more on barbell movements, whereas with sandbags it seems harder to cheat.
• Sandbag training is fun.  There is more to think about.  You try one grip, shift a bit, look for a better grip, lift it, put it down again, lift it again, stagger across the way and dump it down. 
• Sandbags are cheap and easy to make (as I show in my article on how to build a cheap sandbag).

My sandbag programme

To make things interesting, I’m going to have two sandbag exercises (partly because I have two sandbags and partly because I am like the idea of a push and a pull).

Sandbag lifting (and carrying)

Quite simply, I lift the sandbag up and carry it across the garden before dropping it down again.  I use a small platform so that I don’t round my lower back too much.  I do allow a small amount of rounding, though, because of the depth of the squat and the fact that I have to come over the object (you’ll see from the photos what I mean).

I treat this as if it were an Atlas stone lift (not that I’ve ever lifted an Atlas stone before, I’m just imagining).  There is quite a lot of upper back involvement to pull the weight towards you as you stand up.

The real strain, though, happens in the abdominals.  I never feel my abs as acutely as when doing a sandbag lift.  The pressure feels like I’ve swallowed a beach ball and then started pumping it up.

I’ve started with a 60kg (135lb) sandbag and I’m hoping to work my way up to 100kg over the next couple of months.  I’m doing about 5 walks each workout of 15ft.

Sorry that I start out facing the right and end up facing left.  I did photos from both directions but these were the only ones that came out.  The weather was really bad and my cameraman (er… camerawoman) kept going inside at key moments.

Sandbag loading

I first saw sandbag loading at Gym Junkies and it captured my imagination.  The sandbag starts on the ground and I clean it to my chest before pressing it onto the shed roof (carefully).  If I slip and the shed shakes, I get shouted at…

You use a slightly smaller sandbag than for lifting and carrying.  I’m using just 40kg (90lbs).  I feel like I could put this up quite quickly but I want to groove form more on this exercise as it feels a bit wooden at the moment.  Great fun, though!  I’ll probably ease up to 50kg (110lbs) slowly and see how it feels.

Try not to hit your feet when you drop it like I did.  The next photo in the series has me hopping about swearing…

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What I did last summer

Here are a few articles I wrote about what I did last summer…

• How to build a cheap sandbag
• How to make cheap farmers’ bars
• Introducing farmers’ bars
• More interesting ways to do cardio

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What I want to do this winter

I want to keep using my strongman tools and homemade gym equipment.  I really like the farmers’ bars and the sandbag for building overall strength.  I like the way they teach my body to work as a whole unit and to exert maximum force by producing whole body tension.

I want to use the space I have outside.  I don’t have the world’s biggest garage so I can’t really do farmers’ walks or sandbag carries for any appreciable distance.  By the time I get started, I have to stop again.

I like being able to trudge up and down the patio with my homemade farmers’ bars swinging out each time I turn a corner.  I like pretending to be Mariusz Pudzianowski loading Atlas stones onto a platform when I’m moving my sandbag from one end of the garden to the other.  I know, I’m sad that way…

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But the weather is not delightful

But it can be really grim outside at this time of year in the UK.  Cold, dark, wet and windy.

(This picture comes from John Hee, with his kind permission)

The other day I caught myself trying to argue that I could drop the sandbag carries.  I rationalised that it was OK to do deadlifts or squats and then a few extra sets of one-arm rows, reasoning that the combination of the two exercises would be the same as sandbag carries.  No way.

***

Reasons I find training outside daunting

To help get over the problem, I jotted down the reasons I found training outside daunting during the winter.  I reasoned that if I could write them down and then think of ways to get around the problem, I could find ways to train outdoors again.

• It’s raining
• It’s dark
• It’s cold

 It’s quite a short list, really.  But when I thought about it, I reasoned that I can probably get round all of these quite easily.  For example, I could:

• Wear a waterproof coat
• Fit an outside light (or just open the downstairs curtains)
• Wear another jumper and a hat

So it’s not really the elements that are defeating me.

***

When we moved house I shifted gravel

When we moved in to our house 3 years ago, the back garden didn’t exist.  It was just gravel.  I took 3 days to wheel a couple of hundred barrow loads of gravel round to the front of the house, where I dumped them in a skip.

When I moved the gravel, it was a May bank holiday weekend and it rained for 3 days solid.  I used to set my watch for 45 minute intervals.  I’d do 20 minutes of shifting wet gravel followed by 15 minutes of sitting in the kitchen squelching my toes in my socks and drinking hot tea.  I did that 7 or 8 times a day.

Then I got up and did it again the following day.

Why?

Because I had a goal of getting all of the gravel shifted in 3 days.  I had motivation.

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Getting motivated

The real problem is that my sandbag carries are at the end of my workout.  They’re a distant priority to pushing up my main lifts (deadlift, squat, bench, dip, pull ups and chins).  Even though I do enjoy playing with my homemade gym equipment.

I’m seeing them as assistance exercises and I need to commit to them more.  I need to commit to putting the weight up every week: true linear progression with no cop outs.

***

My new sandbag programme

To make things interesting, I’m going to put two sandbag exercises at the end of each of my lower body workouts (because I have two sandbags and because I like the idea of a push and a pull).

***

Sandbag carries

I treat this as if it were an Atlas stone lift (not that I’ve ever lifted an Atlas stone before, I’m just imagining).  There is quite a lot of upper back involvement to pull the weight towards you as you stand up.  This is me at the start of the lift.  Once I’ve stood up, I then turn around and walk about 15ft and put it down again.  I’m aiming to do this about 5 times each workout.

Complete with smurf hat…

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Sandbag loading

I first saw sandbag loading at Gym Junkies and it captured my imagination.  The pressing element should be fairly obvious from the picture.  Bascially, I start with the sandbag on the ground, clean it to my chest (sort of continental style) and then press it (carefully) onto the roof of the shed.

 More of the smurf hat…

***

I’ll do a more detailed post on these two exercises later.  I’ve also got some more thoughts on keeping myself motivated to do them.

1. Climb stairs – a brand new article about climbing stairs with chains from Elite FTS, just when I need it.  The only problem is that I don’t have any chains.  Hmm, this could be tricky.  Plus, the stairs in my house turn two corners and there’s a big plant at the top which sticks out.
2. Combine running with circuits –Mike Mahler suggests combining running with swings and things.  I like it but I’m not sure I can think of anywhere locally where I could leave a dumbbell lying around and it wouldn’t walk off discretely while I was 200 yards away.
3. Hit things – Mike also gives advice on how to hit things with a hammer.  Sounds good.  I would love to take out some of my hunger-anger out on an inanimate object.  Now I just need a tire and a sledgehammer… damn.
4. Complexes – Chris Shugart has four complexes from four of the best strength coaches in the world.  I hate complexes.  My form goes to hell after the first one and then my joints hurt for days afterwards.  I am sure there are lots of people who are skilled enough to do these safely but I am not one of them.
5. Bike intervals – Dave Draper reminds me that 30s on 30s off for 12 minutes on the bike is as good as anything else these days.  Probably sage advice given the trouble I have finding a routine that I like.  I must confess, I really miss having a Concept 2 rower handy.
6. Hill sprints – Charles Staley recommends hill sprints, which is frustrating as there is a really great hill about 10 minutes jog away from my house.  Frustrating because if I jog there and back as well as running sprints for 20 minutes, it turns into the best part of a 45 minute workout once I’ve put my shoes on and off.  How is that a bad thing, I hear you ask… well, let’s just say I’m not really a cardio king and leave it at that.
7. Lift sandbags – Ben Hanson at ChasingKaz has a great selection of suggestions on how to make use of sandbags for conditioning.  I bought an army duffel bag online about a month ago for £5 and it’s been lying on my dining room floor looking at me accusingly ever since.  Fortunately, the two bags of sand I bought from the local DIY store are round the back of the house so I don’t see them so often…
8. Farmers’ walks – Matthieu Hertilus suggests that I just go and carry heavy stuff around.  Now this sounds promising.  I went through a phase of improvising farmers’ walks in the summer while the weather was nice.  A couple of laps around the garden (it’s quite small, really) and I was definitely feeling it in my upper back and forearms.  I used slings and carabiners to hold 20kg (45lb) plates on dumbbell handles.  Not pretty and they tend to swing around a bit and knock into your legs (especially when you turn corners) but better than nothing.  I’ll do another post tomorrow with some pictures.

Well that’s quite enough cardio for one day.  I need to go and relax on the sofa after all that hard work!