Dvrt Sandbag Training.pdf

© Copyright 2014, Josh Henkin A Dragon Door Publications, Inc. production All rights under International and Pan-American Copyright conventions. Published in the United States by: Dragon Door Publications, Inc. 5 East County Rd B, #3 • Little Canada, MN 55117 Tel: (651) 487-2180 • Fax: (651) 487-3954 Credit card orders: 1-800-899-5111 • Email: [email protected] • Website: www.dragondoor.com ISBN 10: 0-938045-56-3 ISBN 13: 978-0-938045-56-4 This edition first published in June, 2014 Printed in China No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews. Book design and cover by Derek Brigham • www.dbrigham.com • [email protected] Photography by Don Pitlik DISCLAIMER: The author and publisher of this material are not responsible in any manner whatsoever for any injury that may occur through following the instructions contained in this material. The activities, physical and otherwise, described herein for informational purposes only, may be too strenuous or dangerous for some people and the reader(s) should consult a physician before engaging in them.

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CONTENTS

Foreword Introduction....................................................................................1 The DVRT Movements..............................................................29 The New Functional FItness .................................................135 Upper Body DVRT Drills ..........................................................143 Training with a Twist..............................................................187 Shoveling ...................................................................................199 Core Training ...........................................................................203 Building Muscle.......................................................................229 DVRT Programming ...............................................................243 Are You Excited Yet ................................................................269 About the Author ....................................................................273

Acknowledgements Changing the way we view and perform fitness is anything but easy. It would not be possible without the people in your life to help motivate and support your ideas. My beautiful wife, Jessica, who was my inspiration and driving force to create and push to innovate and stay focused no matter the obstacles placed before us, I can’t thank you enough. To my good friend and colleague, Troy Anderson, who challenged me to keep striving to do better and to think outside the box, I thank you for your great friendship and professionalism. This book would simply not be possible without John Du Cane and Dragon Door having an open mind and a willingness to keep evolving and pushing the fitness industry to move forward.

FOREWORD Robert dos Remedios

t may sound a bit cliché, but as a strength and conditioning professional for over 24 years I have literally ‘seen it all’. I have had the opportunity to meet and observe some of the best and worst fitness and conditioning professionals in the world. I have also had the opportunity to experience just about every ‘training tool’ or piece of equipment ever made. Another phenomenon that I have witnessed quite recently is the evolution of the ‘internet trainer’. These creatures are characterized by a few common traits: lack of real-world experience, a disregard for actual practitioners in the field and their experience, a disregard for the education process, and false promises based on false experiences. In my experiences hands-on hours in the trenches working with actual clients and athletes is where you BEGIN the journey to becoming a successful trainer. I have found that the best coaches and trainers are the ones who continually seek continuing education in an attempt to hone in and sharpen their knowledge base and skills. In this process, we are able to not only find what works for us but we can also objectively analyze what and why something doesn’t work for us. With the multitude of coaches and trainers out there you would think there would be a very large percentage of them that fall in this category of ‘lifelong learners’, sadly this isn’t the case. Most trainers and coaches don’t really want to learn new things; they simply want to surround themselves with information and people that validate the things they are already doing.

In the case of tools or training equipment I have found that we very often get caught up in the latest ‘cool’ training toy and often implement these tools for the sake of using them. The biggest problem is that most of the time the tools themselves are just that…tools. There isn’t any sort of educational system behind its implementation and use in a training program; therefore it’s easy for us to treat it as a toy or gimmick that can easily be eliminated from our training. So why am I pointing these things out? Enter Josh Henkin and his Dynamic Variable Resistance Training (DVRT) system. I have had the great fortune to become good friends with Josh and I cannot say enough about how much I have benefitted from his knowledge and his Ultimate Sandbags. Josh is, for lack of a better term, a ‘renaissance man’ when it comes to training and conditioning. His background as a former Division I athlete along with his academic preparation, host of other certifications and 20 plus years of experience has afforded him a great eye when it comes to analyzing and dissecting human movement and conditioning. Josh is the perfect example of the lifelong learner I described earlier. The DVRT system he has developed is based on sound movement and mechanics and more importantly, it is grounded in sound progressions and regressions based on individuals. This is a one of a kind training system that actually focuses more on movement than the tool itself. It is often hard to grasp this concept especially when we are talking about a training tool like the Ultimate Sandbag but in Josh’s system, the tool itself almost seems secondary to the sound message that his education conveys. They truly go hand-in-hand with each other like no other training I have ever experienced. Josh is constantly observing, interacting, and consulting with coaches and trainers all over the world, and by doing so, he has developed one of the most sound and effective/efficient training systems I have ever seen. Josh travels the world presenting and educating fitness professionals and has built a very strong group of DVRT certified trainers. In fact, Josh has revolutionized the functional fitness industry in a very short period of time. His DVRT program has became a cornerstone for elite programs like the US Army Special Forces Recruiting Battalion, SWAT teams, and top fitness facilities from around the world. Coaches from over 80 countries are now using the DVRT system worldwide…and this population is growing at a record pace. Why? IT WORKS. While Josh’s Ultimate Sandbags themselves are amazing training tools, without his DVRT system and his constant stream of updated education for its implementation, it would simply be a bag full of sand thus making it a tool that could easily be removed from any training program. With the combination of the tool and the education system, the

Ultimate Sandbag has become a vital piece of our training programs; I can confidently say that they will be a part of my programming for the duration of my career. I am very fortunate to have Josh Henkin as a mentor, resource, and friend. He is a selfless individual who is always ready and willing to help anyone, a master at creating amazing training methods and exercises, and he’s also one of the smartest people I know. Now you have the great fortune to be introduced to him and his training systems…. hold on, this is going to be an exciting journey!

Robert dos Remedios, MA, CSCS, MSCC Collegiate Strength & Conditioning Coach / Author 2006 NSCA Collegiate Strength & Conditioning Professional of the Year CSCCa Master Strength & Conditioning Coach

INTRODUCTION he current age of fitness is tough! It is more confusing, with more ideas, more concepts, and even better tools being thrown at everyone. In 20 years of being in the fitness industry, I can’t think of a time when people had so many options for programs and training tools. It’s enough to make your head explode! In fact, there is so much “stuff” out there that there has been almost a rebellion against new ideas and training programs. To be honest, it is hard to blame both coaches and fitness enthusiasts for their skepticism. That makes writing a book like this one even more difficult. Outwardly, it may appear that I am trying to bring back yet another “old time” strength training tool. I understand. We need a re-introduction of another “ancient” or “old school” training implement like we need another bad remake of an ‘80’s classic movie (why did they ever redo Footloose?). However, before you make a snap judgment let me assure you of one thing, this isn’t like any training program you have experienced before. If I told you I was going to teach you a system for getting people to move better within a matter of minutes, would you be interested? How about if I offered you a system that allows almost infinite progressional exercises to be created so not only can you have variety, but purpose in your training? Would you be intrigued? If I told you that this is unlike anything you have done before and that the feeling is totally unique, would you be willing to hear me out? If your cynicism tells you no, I understand, Maybe you will want to flip through this book another time. I must forewarn you, looking at pictures and trying to decipher our intent without reading the “whys” will only add to your confusion. Yet, if the answer is yes, I welcome you to come on a really exciting journey with me through a system that I have seen time and time again transform how people see exercise, movement, and overall fitness. Welcome to the world of Dynamic Variable Resistance Training!

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A Fancy Word for a Sandbag? You might have just jumped on guard. You might be thinking, “Oh man, he tricked me into reading a book about ‘sandbag training’?” Let’s address the elephant in the room. This is NOT a book about “sandbag training”. Why? There are many reasons that this is not a fancy way of trying to get you to read and learn about the benefits of “sandbag training”. First, an implement can never be a system. Probably the biggest mistake of many fitness professionals today is confusing a system with a training tool. The easiest example is something we see every day at the gym. The barbell is a training tool. I can’t remember ever hearing someone say that they were going to head off to the gym to do some “barbell training”. This would seem odd by most accounts because the barbell is seen as a means to an end. Bodybuilders have used barbells for decades to help build significant amounts of muscle and impressive physiques. Powerlifters have used barbells to create high levels of force in their three competitive lifts. Weightlifters have used barbells to gain Olympic glory, but their lifts are very different from what a bodybuilder or powerlifter might consider. In each example, the barbell may play a prevalent role, but the method and intent of the training is VERY different. That is why when people ask if DVRT is just “sandbag training,” I say absolutely not! You may still have some questions on why this is not a book on “sandbag training.” You might have noticed that every time I mention “sandbag training,” I use quotation marks. Simply knowing that you’re lifting a bag of sand doesn’t tell you much about the actual training process. We should be choosing methods and implements based upon their ability to deliver us specific results. Sandbags have been around for a long time, I certainly didn’t invent them. Some anthropologists believe that ancient Egyptians used sandbags for some form of physical conditioning. This may make sandbags one of the earliest tools for functional training, as the goal was probably to perform better in warfare rather than looking good for social media pictures. In all seriousness, ancient Egyptians probably used sandbags more out of convenience than any super scientific thought process. Remember, items such as metal were highly valuable and probably would not have been as accessible for such needs. How does this impact the modern fitness landscape? And more importantly, how is this STILL not a sandbag book?! One of the most damaging sayings that has become popular in fitness is, “a tool is just a tool.” You don’t have to have a Ph.D. in biomechanics to realize that both saws and screwdrivers are tools. Try using the saw to screw in something and see how far you get. Tools matter! They matter a lot! For some strange reason, fitness is one of the few industries that purposefully tries to downplay our tools. 2

Absolutely, there are those that try to define their training by the tools they use. This approach is just as faulty. However, many coaches fall into the trap of applying new training tools simply for the sake of variety or novelty. Many even try to rationalize using a different training tool by using vague goals of becoming “more powerful” or “stronger.” Isn’t this the goal of any training tool or method? The reason DVRT isn’t just about “sandbag training” is that “sandbag training” means absolutely nothing! DVRT is a system of implementing variable resistance tools to achieve specific outcomes. That may come in the form of getting you to master the squat pattern faster, teaching you how to connect your entire body in one synergistic manner, exposing you to true multi-planar training, increasing your inter and intra-muscular coordination, and so much more. That may all sound fine, but here is the even harsher truth. Sandbags stink! People often tell me that sandbags aren’t new, and they are right! The fact, however, that they have been around as long – or longer than – any other fitness tool and yet have never been a focal point of fitness training tells us one of two things. The most obvious is that using variable resistance tools doesn’t work. I don’t believe this, as we have seen too many cultures use variable resistance tools for many reasons. I think the concept would have died if it just didn’t work. The other possibility, and the one I’m advocating, is that we have lacked both the right vehicle to implement variable resistance training and a systematic means of using sandbags in strength training programs. I believe that people have tried to use the wrong tool for too many years. If you don’t have the right tool, it is hard to create the right outcome!

That Dirty, Dirty Bag Really, how important is having the right tool to do the job? I don’t know; ask surgeons, carpenters, computer specialists, military personnel, heck, even most athletes! The answer is that it’s VERY important! In order to really understand the difference in tools, let’s look at two very different practical examples. In the early days of the barbell, it wasn’t the 7-foot length that we see most often today. The first barbells were probably more like 4-5 feet in length. Why does this matter? Early lifters used the barbell very differently. Instead of focusing on a very small number of exercises that focused on how much weight could be placed on the barbell, athletes used all sorts of movement patterns with the barbell. Many of these great athletes’ feats of strength would be considered incredible by today’s standards. These great lifters wanted to add a challenge to all movements to build a more broad ability to be “strong”. From lifting with one to two hands to using different angles, positions, and postures, old-time lifters performed all sorts of exercises with the smaller barbell.

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The words of one of the first proponents of weightlifting in the US, Mark Berry, reinforces the idea of building the body up with a broad scope, rather than using very specific training. Berry believed that athletes only needed to specialize after performing a more broad scope of training. In 1925, Mark Berry was a National Weightlifting Champion, and he coached the US teams in ‘32 and ‘36. He wrote in one of his legendary barbell courses, “Actual lifting should be undertaken only after long and careful preparation in the development and training of the body.” When the barbell became larger and more focused on activities such as Olympic lifting, everything changed. As the length of the barbell extended, the focus shifted from movement to weight. Lifters began specializing in particular exercises rather than building a broad scope of drills. Add in the squat rack and other specialized equipment, and now the barbell’s use to seems reduced. That doesn’t stop some from romanticizing it though! “But Josh, it is just a bag of sand!” If that is what you think, then the kettlebell is just a ball with handle, stability balls are giant beach balls, barbells are long stick pieces of metal that you put weird cylinder pieces of metal upon. Dumbbells are the worst. They’re clearly a complete rip-off, given that they’re only a quarter of a barbell . Obviously I am somewhat mocking this thought process, but more importantly, I’m trying to bring to light that our focus first and foremost has to be upon what we are trying to accomplish. Secondly, these tools have intended uses that make them more or less valuable depending the goal of training. In all honesty, a homemade sandbag isn’t the same thing as the DVRT system. Not even close! This is because DVRT has a specific intent, with layers of progression and a purpose to your use of the sandbag. You can’t even perform 90% of what is used in the DVRT system with that infamous duffel bag. I want you to keep asking one question as we go through the DVRT system — “Why?” Keeping asking “why,” and it will change how you train and the results you achieve. If I don’t answer the “whys” for you, then I haven’t done my job!

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Answering the First Question If we are going to ask ourselves the “why” question, then we must start with the most obvious: Why are we using variable resistance tools? Are barbells, kettlebells, dumbbells, suspension units, body weight, or any of these standard fitness tools wrong? Not at all, but this is where understanding what tools can offer to your training is very important. At first glance, variable resistance tools could be classified under “odd objects.” For literally centuries, coaches and athletes used a host of odd objects for their fitness training. What is an “odd object”? Just as the name suggests, these are implements that are awkward, non-conforming, and anything but balanced. Examples of odd objects include stones, barrels, logs, and yes, sandbags. If the idea of lifting these objects causes you to cringe and get nervous, you have every right to be! Without going into a deep discussion of the technical benefits of these implements, you know one thing. They are darn hard to lift! In fact, one of the most legendary modern strongmen, Steve Justa, was asked, “What is the hardest kind of weight to lift?” He replied, “An awkward weight is the hardest.” (Dinosaur Training, p. 113) Barbells, dumbbells, and even kettlebells are static and predictable weights. They are perfectly balanced and tend to move in a specific groove, repetition after repetition. The sport of kettlebell lifting is even based upon this concept. During competition, athletes will snatch, clean, and jerk kettlebells for ten minutes straight! I guarantee you aren’t going to see the same type of events with odd objects. The fact that odd objects are “hard” doesn’t really justify their use though. There has to be more benefit than just outwardly appearing “hardcore.” Fortunately, the use of odd objects goes much deeper than this superficial first appearance. Renowned strength coach Alan Hedrick explains some of the more relevant benefits to odd objects: “...applying the concept of specificity, it makes sense that training with a fluid resistance is a more sport-specific method of training as compared to lifting exclusively with a static resistance because in most situations, athletes encounter a dynamic resistance (in the form of an opponent) as compared to the static resistance. Further, because the active fluid resistance enhances the need for stability and control, this type of training may reduce the opportunity for injury because of improved joint stability.” (NSCA Journal, Vol.25 Number 4)

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The benefits more modern coaches like Coach Hedrick have witnessed training groups such as the Air Force Academy are the same benefits that the old strongmen got from these tools. In the legendary Brooks Kubik’s book, “Dinosaur Training,” he relays the same sentiment: “A barbell cannot approach a heavy barrel or a heavy sandbag when it comes to developing the type of rugged power that is required in any form of physical combat or contact sport. It is too easy to control a barbell...objects that by their very nature never fall into any sort of lifting groove.” (Dinosaur Training, p. 112) In both the case of serious strength training and that of athletes, both these gentlemen identified the role of hitting the stabilizers of the body. What are stabilizers? These are the smaller muscles of the body that help support our joints and allow the big muscles to do their jobs. In many cases, it is the stabilizers of the body that fail far before the primary muscles are exhausted. This is the very reason we rarely see people who can press overhead a pair of kettlebells of the same weight they could on a barbell. It’s also the reason people fail to bench press a pair of dumbbells the same weight as a barbell. Why? The barbell is more stable than either implement, removing much of the instability dumbbells and kettlebells provide. It stands to reason that objects that shift, move, and do not have a consistent movement pattern would work the stabilizers to a higher degree. You might be thinking, though, “But will this make me strong?” Great question! When we see lower weights on these odd objects than we would normally see on the barbell it leads to the question of whether or not obtaining great levels of strength is possible. Understanding how the body produces strength becomes increasingly more important. The nervous system, not just the muscles, is the primary means for increasing strength. With the nervous system we have two ways the body can improve strength. One is intramuscular coordination. According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine, intramuscular coordination is “the ability of the neuromuscular system to allow optimal levels of motor unit recruitment and synchronization within a muscle.” Huh? This basically means that, the more efficient your nervous system is at recruiting muscle fiber, the stronger you’ll be. It is estimated that untrained individuals can really only access 60% of their muscles’ capabilities, while highly trained weightlifters can reach 80% or higher. Improving intramuscular coordination is very powerful, but doesn’t really relate to our use of odd objects. The other form of neural coordination is intermuscular coordination. With intermuscular coordination, we teach the muscles how to more efficiently work together to produce force and movement. Think of intermuscular coordination as riding a bike. At first we can often be shaky when we get on a bike. But over time, we smooth out our riding as our muscles learn how to work together more effectively and efficiently. The same process happens during exercise, and is why most programs will work, but for a limited period of time. 6

Intermuscular coordination is very relevant to the lifting of odd objects. Barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, and even bodyweight exercises tend to develop a specific “groove” as the body learns how to perform the exercise better and better. The way we then must challenge our body is often by adding more of a stimulus such as more weight or more repetitions. However, odd objects offer a very different approach. By their very nature, odd objects never repeat the same exact movement. In the 1990’s, coaches were starting to pick up on the idea of improving stabilizer strength as a primary means of improving both performance and health. While there had been a large move toward free weights, many coaches who were promoting the new idea of “functional fitness” weren’t satisfied with using free weights in the style of bodybuilding, powerlifting, or even weightlifting. They believed these other iron sports had a poor carryover to everyday activities and sports. In order to address the idea of more “functional” forms of training, they used unstable surfaces r to improve stabilizer strength as well as intermuscular coordination. Unfortunately, science would later show that unstable surface training did very little to improve strength and in fact did not activate areas of the body such as the “core” any more than standing on more stable surfaces. A 2009 study by Willardson, et al in the Journal of Applied Physiology, stated definitively, “Therefore, fitness trainers should be advised that each of the aforementioned lifts can be performed while standing on the stable ground without losing the potential core muscle training.” The inability of these surfaces to produce better gains in many of the body’s stabilizers may be attributed to the fact that the surfaces were TOO unstable. Like other training variables, instability may need to be more progressive in nature. In a 2006 National Strength & Conditioning paper reviewing various forms of instability, David Behm and Kenneth Anderson discussed why too much instability can be counterproductive for strength and performance gains: “....found force deficits of approximately 60% when performing an isometric chest press action with an un- stable base (Swiss ball). On the one hand, these deficits might promote the essential point of instability training: that because forces have been demonstrated to be lower with unstable conditions, training in that environment is of utmost necessity to ensure action-specific strength adaptations.” That doesn’t mean that we need to turn all exercises into stablity-based training. Beginning in the 60s, and increasing through the 70s and 80s, machines became very popular in fitness training. Although they were initially believed to be better and safer than free weights, we found that machines were the exact opposite! Because machines offered so much stability and a predetermined movement pattern, we began to see our bodies become 7

dumber! They no longer had to stabilize the joints and coordinate the entire body as much. The specialized pattern that was determined by the machine caused all sorts of overuse injuries. Internationally recognized corrective exercise expert, Paul Chek, calls this issue “pattern overload.” Why can pattern overload lead to injuries and plateaus in your training? Chek explains pattern overload as: “...injury to soft tissues resulting from repetitive motion in one pattern of movement, or restricted movement in one or more planes of motion. Although pattern overload is much more common in an environment such as machine training, which restricts freedom of motion, I’ve also treated numerous cases of pattern overload in workers and athletes who were unrestricted in their training movements.” The issue of pattern overload makes free weights a far better alternative to machines. However, the natural evolutionary trajectory of free weights leads to odd objects. We begin to see that odd object training is not about being hardcore or underground. It is instead a very important means for preventing injuries and improving the health of your body.

Before You Go to the Junk Yard... There may seem to be no end to the benefits of odd objects. They can hit more muscles than any other form of training. Odd objects teach our bodies to work more efficiently. They burn more calories. They are just brutally effective! However, before you go out scavenging for a wide array of odd objects, there are some issues to consider. When I began to use odd objects, I fell in love. I was using them to help rehabilitate a low back injury that ended my collegiate athletic career. Focusing on the benefits mentioned above, I was both inspired and intrigued to see for myself the results of odd objects. I used everything from tires, kegs, stones, and yes, homemade sandbags. For a period of time, I saw the results that I had read so much about. However, just as quickly as I experienced these benefits, I hit a plateau. It dawned on me, “If everyone knows the power of odd objects, how come they never became the foundation of strength training?” It would make sense that with all these positives, the use of odd objects would be commonplace. As I began to ask myself these questions of “why,” I started to understand why my results had plateaued.

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One of the biggest epiphanies for me was my discovery that what made odd objects great was also what made them a problem. The fact that odd objects were so unstable, so hard to manage, made it difficult to both introduce odd object to people as well as to make proper progressions. Part of my inability to create progressions and programs was based around two dilemmas. The first was the fact that I treated odd objects like barbells. I created my exercises to replicate barbell lifts and programmed them in the same manner. Odd objects obviously do not behave like barbells. This means going up by small increments is almost impossible. Treating odd objects like barbells also meant that the programming was all wrong. The exercises were far more fatiguing and stressful, but I didn’t adjust training variables such as sets and repetitions accordingly. Not appreciating these differences created overtraining and injury. Trying to use odd objects to introduce people to specific barbell type lifts was also a problem. Since odd objects were so difficult to lift, most people weren’t provided the opportunity to learn the movement within the exercise because they were so overstressed by working with a “non-cooperative” implement. I quickly realized the instability made using odd objects almost impossible for most general fitness clients. Between the immense amount of stress that odd objects provided to the body and the huge challenge of coordinating the movements, I found myself relegating odd objects to specialized phases in training for a limited time. That is till it dawned on me! What if odd objects were not programmed and implemented just like our more common strength training tools? What if odd objects had to be treated differently? What if we had to program more because there were more variables to consider? Quickly, I began my hunt! I went on to read as many current and old-time strength training books as possible. I found myself quickly becoming disappointed time and time again. While I would find mentions of odd objects, finding more than ten pages was an extreme rarity. This told me that most coaches and athletes had probably run into the problems I experienced. Seeing the consistent theme of a belief of odd objects, but a decision to never make them foundational made me reconsider the whole genre. Eventually I began to understand the fault in odd objects existed in two primary issues. We needed to make odd object training far more progressive. This meant that odd objects had to have the capability of being stable or unstable. In order to have people learn and become introduced to this form of training, odd objects couldn’t be brutal all the time! How do we create this when many of the implements themselves prohibit stability?

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The second issue proved to be a larger challenge. The tools themselves had to be changed. Change odd objects though? Isn’t that sacrilegious? When we look at the evolution that the barbell, dumbbells, kettlebells, and even suspension units have gone through to match the current training mindset, it made sense that odd objects might have to go through the same process. We had to make our tools work for us and not fall victim to their limitations.

Enter the USB Trying to change things that have been around for centuries seems like a recipe for disaster. Who am I to change how things have been done forever? My goal was simple, I believed in odd object training, but knew unless I could make it more progressive, more accessible to myself and my clients, they would end up sitting in the corner as they had for centuries. Where do you even begin? I decided that I would have to focus on one odd object — the one that I believed to have the greatest potential to change how fitness was performed. This odd object that could offer the most diversity and benefits. It would be the sandbag that grabbed my vision. Why the sandbag? Even with my homemade duffel bag, sandbags seemed to offer more versatility than any other odd object. They were unlike any other training tool I had trained with in the past and, I thought, with a little engineering and forethought, I could solve some of the limitations of the sandbag.

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Problems? What were problems with homemade sandbags? After all, they have been used so long by some of the strongest athletes in the world. Why change? I realized that the sandbag was more than just an unstable training tool. When I examined why I had problems having my clients progress with my duffel bags, I realized that I was only focused upon two variables, yet, there were far more that had to be considered. First and foremost I focused upon the weight of the sandbag. Isn’t that how we gauge anything we do in the world of strength training? I obviously assumed that between the weight and unstable nature of the sandbag, my clients just had to get stronger and more used to the movement of the sandbag. The truth is that I had not considered the impact of two very important training variables that would become foundational principles in my new system. One day I was making a new sandbag for my clients’ training when it hit me! When I looked at the sandbags I had lined up (at this point I had made quite a few), there was something so obvious I was almost embarrassed by the fact I hadn’t seen it earlier. They were all VERY different sizes. Since I didn’t bother making sandbags in five pound increments, there was at least a 10 pound jump in weight in most of my sandbags. This caused them to appear significantly different. It hit me! Sandbags weren’t just difficult because of their weight or shifting internal load, but also because the change in their dimensions changed stability and perceived load. In order to test my theory, I began to fill some bags not with sand, but other filling materials such as dry rice. Using other fillers gave me the dimension without as much weight. This began to completely change how we trained with the sandbags. Now I had the option of not only changing just the weight, but also the dimensions of the sandbag. This made sandbags more stable. In the past I had neglected this important aspect of sandbags because I wasn’t able to control the dimension of a homemade sandbag, Lighter ones would actually shift and move more than heavier sandbags. This is a big reason that lighter sandbags seemed almost as difficult as heavier sandbags. The idea of changing dimensions is not anything we see in most other strength training tools. The barbell does not change its dimensions at all. This means it moves in the same path, in the same manner, no matter what the load. This static variable makes it easier to progress to heavier weights. Kettlebell athletes, however, recognize the role of dimension and deliberately control it. In kettlebell sports, all of the weights are exactly the same dimension. The purpose of keeping all the kettlebells the same size is that they are able to groove such a specific technique that doesn’t have to change no matter the weight. Since kettlebell sport is based around strength-endurance, it makes sense to make yourself as efficient as possible.

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Understanding the role of dimensional weight training opened up a very powerful door for me. I didn’t want to make people efficient at lifting. I could make very subtle changes other than just the weight they lifted to stimulate very powerful results in their training. However, in order to use dimensional changes, we would have to begin a process of standardization. Having too little control was just as bad as not being aware of the role of dimension. That is why the first job was to create a sandbag with strategic sizes. Each size would have a role. Smaller sandbags would be more compact and rigid. They would be more stable overall and easier to use when we performed more complex exercises. Larger sandbags were obviously capable of holding more weight, yet, more important to me was the fact they would be more unstable at similar loads. With a very simple and purposeful change, we now had the option to make sandbags stable or unstable. This would increase the number of people we could expose to sandbag training and make it far more progressive. The next change would absolutely rock the very foundations of sandbag training.

Getting a Grip Odd objects like sandbags have long been considered one of the most powerful means for improving one’s grip. Brooks Kubik raves about the power of lifting such objects for grip training, emphasizing, “They give your hands a tremendous workout just by holding them!” Using sandbags is a great way to build what Kubik calls “Herculean” grip strength. Why are sandbags possibly among the very best tools for grip strength? As grip expert John Brookfield explains, there are several types of grip strength. In order to build great grip strength you must possess crushing, pinching, and wrist strength. Most forms of strength training only develop one or two of these. Even lifting thick bars will build crushing and some wrist strength, but completely misses pinching strength. Sandbag training allows the development of all three.

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Understanding grip strength and its role in training will also help explain why I did the most unthinkable thing possible. I added handles to the sandbag! What? Why? The questions came in droves. People wanted to lynch me, accusing me of ruining the very essence of sandbags. Before the pitchforks come out and torch-wielding purists show up at my house, let me explain why this was the most powerful and important addition to sandbags. Although I am a fan of grip training (strong hands were a necessity for classic strongmen), I also understand its limitations. It doesn’t take an anatomy book to realize that the hands are not the most powerful area of the body. Many points, especially the legs, are far stronger than our hands. If we couldn’t work around the limitation of grip, we could never train other areas of our body. Many powerlifters and old time strongmen knew this, as they developed a mixed grip to perform very heavy barbell lifts like the deadlift. I They realized that they would have to place their body in a position where their hands did not limit them in order to lift the massive poundages for which these athletes are known. The mixed grip allows a stronger grip that makes it possible to lift more weight. Weightlifters found something similar in their use of the “hook” grip. Gymnasts use very specific hand positions on the rings to perform their amazing strength feats. If other strength athletes could find ways to avoid being limited by grip, why couldn’t we do the same for the sandbag? When I ask strength coaches why the sandbag has never been a foundational strength training tool considering so many of its unique benefits, I rarely get a solid answer. Truth be told, in trying to stay “true” to sandbags, we also made them very limiting. We couldn’t develop the same power and strength we aimed to achieve with the other strength training tools. It just made sense to me – why not give us the option of either? By placing the right handles on the sandbag, we didn’t take away the opportunity to train our grip. Instead, we added the ability to train more strength qualities than ever before! Placing handles on the sandbag didn’t necessarily decrease our grip strength training, though. Handles allowed us to increase strength in two important ways. For us to really appreciate these more subtle grip factors, I need to address an important limitation in grip training. When I trained for competitive strongman competitions, I was not unfamiliar with handling heavy weights in my hands. Heavy cleans, deadlifts, and chin-ups had been part of my athletic training programs for many years. Strongman, though, challenged my grip in whole new ways. As I began to train with other strongman athletes, I began to realize that my grip was relatively weak. The demands of strongman placed some pretty unique stresses upon one’s grip.

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Realizing this was a pretty significant weakness, I did what any good athletes does. I made it a priority. EVERYTHING quickly became about grip training. Thick bars for deadlifts and clean and presses. Farmer’s walks as far as I could travel. Sandbags, stones, you name it, I included it into my training. But in less than a month, I felt one of the most debilitating pains I have ever experienced. Pretty soon gripping even a jar hurt very badly! Forget holding onto a weight bar of any sort, I was in pain! Again, like any good athlete, I had overtrained my grip and created such a bad case of elbow tendinitis that it almost completely prevented me from training! The moral of my story is that grip training, like any other form of training, must be done progressively and cyclically – and of course, wisely. If you don’t take my word for it, you could be stuck with same horrible pain that forced me to wait months to recover from. That’s right, our body often gives us harsh lessons about pushing too hard and too fast. It took probably at least triple the time to recover from the injury I had incurred than it did to cause it in the first place. This also means that if sandbag training were only about grip, then we couldn’t use it that often. It would appear in a cycle here and there, but again, it wouldn’t lend itself to foundational forms of strength training. My goal is not to scare you away from grip training or to deter you from using sandbags. However, it is smart to consider all aspects of what this form of training provides. It also means that we need to see how grip training occurs in less obvious forms with the use of the handles. One of the most exciting opportunities handles provided to me as a coach was to introduce more movement-oriented training. More specifically, I got the opportunity to build rotational strength in my clients. Rotational strength is very important and I will cover it later in this book, but it requires very fast moments of relaxation and tension. During sandbag rotational movements, the sandbag itself builds great amounts of speed and force. Think of a gymnast on the uneven bars. She begins to move slowly, and as she picks up speed, she must constantly change how much tension she applies through her body and the bar. It’s the same with the sandbag — the hands have to work “smarter” to coordinate efficient movement, and we get a far more dynamic form of grip training. The addition of handles also completely changed the form of gripping for exercises like clean and presses, snatches, and rowing. Olympic lifters and kettlebell enthusiasts can tell you that when you perform many of these dynamic exercises you don’t clench down on the weight and hold on for life. Instead, we see another dynamic grip, a moment where we have high tension to almost no tension. Gripping too tightly during more dynamic exercises actually prohibits the lifter from performing the exercise optimally. Alternating between tight and loose grips allows us to move athletically with sometimes very high loads. 14

This dynamic grip doesn’t occur with exercises such as rows though, so why bother? The change in leverage may at first seem subtle, but as we learn to appreciate leverage as a considerable training variable, we see how impactful it can become. With the barbell, the center of mass is right where we grip. By adding the handles to the sandbag, we now grip a good distance away from the center of mass. This makes any weight feel heavier. If you don’t believe me, try this: Grab a dumbbell and kettlebell of equivalent weights. Chances are you are going to find the kettlebell heavier, even though the dumbbell is the same weight. This is because the grip of the kettlebell is further from the center of mass than we’re used to with a dumbbell. However, with sandbags, this is even more impactful because unlike the kettlebell, there is almost no weight in the handle itself. The sandbag’s entire weight is further from our gripping point. During exercises such as rows and curls, this is what makes the sandbag feel more challenging, even though there is not much weight shift to the actual sandbag. That will also begin to help explain one of the most misunderstood benefits of adding handles to the sandbag. Many think that adding handles to the sandbag would take away from the instability aspect. The truth is the exact opposite! When I looked at how we grabbed the duffel bags I made, I realized a few things. In general, we would grab on the outside of the sandbag, much closer to that of a barbell. We were holding closer to the center of mass and actually increasing the stability of the sandbag. Even grabbing on top of the sandbag, we were actually holding relatively close to the most stable point of the sandbag. What I really learned was that what made the sandbag so challenging was NOT the shifting and moving of the sandbag, but the fact that most people were simply limited by their grip. Since the duffel bag forced people to grab directly onto the sandbag, people were always limited by their grip strength, and never really got to experience the instability of the sandbag. For a better illustration of my point, let’s look at a classic sandbag exercise, the clean and press. Watch a video on YouTube or pull out an old time book and look at the recommendation for the sandbag clean and press. During the clean, the lifter will grab the outside of the sandbag, making the sand all move to the same point in the middle — if it is loose enough to even move! Upon bringing the sandbag to the chest, many will either continue to hold onto the outside of the sandbag (in the case of more loosely filled sandbags), or shift their hands so their palms are underneath (typical of more tightly filled sandbags). Either scenario actually increases the stability of the sandbag. However, with the addition of specific handles, the weight during the clean is far more free to move and shift. Upon reaching the challenging fist position for the press, the load is rarely caught with an even amount of weight upon either arm. Now we can handle more unstable sandbags as we press in this position, and not only have a challenging weight, but true instability of the sandbag. 15

The opportunity to re-invent the sandbag was exciting and intimidating, actually making the sandbag specific for strength and fitness was motivating. Yet, I also knew that some would be scared of the change, we all know people can often be fearful of what they don’t understand. However, I believed so strongly in the unique benefits the sandbag could provide. Of all the issues to resolve with the classic idea of a sandbag, I began to favor one among all other. By attaching handles, I went from having a handful of barbell-like exercises available (never seen more than about 20 ever described) to building a progressive training system that had well over 400 purposeful drills. That is NOT an exaggeration, I could use my sandbags to create over 400 exercises!. I am absolutely convinced there is no system that could replicate this type of versatility and progressive nature. None. What I had created wasn’t just a sandbag anymore; it was the “Ultimate Sandbag”. I wanted to call what I had created very simply what is was. The Ultimate Sandbag wasn’t just the very best sandbag. Now that I had the right tool, I could start seeing the training and programming of fitness goals in a whole new light. The more I began to use the Ultimate Sandbag, the more I began to have a growing disdain for the old duffel bags. I had wasted so much time and energy in working with such an inefficient tool. I finally realized that I never really had a plan or purpose with the training that I had been putting both my clients and myself through. The programming that was taking shape made me want to distance what I was doing with the Ultimate Sandbag from the same issues I knew so many other coaches and fitness enthusiasts were experiencing with odd objects. That is why I knew we had to call this something different. This was no longer just sandbag or odd object training; this was becoming a whole new system of fitness and performance training. It was becoming the foundation of Dynamic Variable Resistance Training (DVRT).

The System In creating a whole new system of training, I wanted to change how people looked at the exercises they selected, the way they structured their programs, and how they saw the entire landscape of strength training. Not a lofty goal at all! The only way to accomplish such an ambitious goal is to have a system. A lot of people get scared of systems. They believe that having this type of structure will take away creativity, versatility, and fun from training. Having a system of training doesn’t do any of this. In fact, it allows us to build so much more in all these areas.

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Think of a system simply as a map. The goal of a map is to provide us direction and purpose. I can wander along a trail for quite some time only to learn there was a far more direct path to my end. Most people right now are wandering in their fitness journey. They know where they want to go, but the map is so confusing that they train in a constant state of being lost. If we don’t have a plan, a map, then we can’t problem, we can’t definitively know we are making true progress, and we can’t continue to build toward even larger goals. The truth is that systems allow us to be creative. They are organic, and they allow us a lot more freedom than we usually realize. On the other hand, not having a plan causes us to feel like we are throwing darts against the wall, HOPING we are doing something that will get us closer to our goals. It is the lack of a map that holds many back from ever achieving their fitness goals. Have you ever heard of anyone of any level of success getting there because they just did random things? You think top 500 companies don’t have a plan? You think military generals don’t have a plan? You think that even sports coaches don’t have a plan? What is the DVRT map? Let’s begin the journey.

P R I N C I P L E 1: P R O G R E S S I V E O V E R L OA D At first glance it may not seem as though DVRT is a new form of strength training. In some cases this is true. We see that the following concepts are based upon the traditional concept of “progressive overload”. Many are familiar with this idea of building upon more weight over time. We can think to the ancient tale of Milo and his bull. In order to gain the classic strength of the ancient Greeks, Milo carried his young calf. As time went on, Milo continued to carry his calf, but of course as the calf aged it became larger and larger. Eventually, Milo was carrying the full adult bull, something he would have not been able to do if he started his training by beginning with the bull. This simple tale is an easy way to illustrate that we need to incrementally challenge our bodies over time to make them stronger and more fit. As helpful as the story of Milo is in conveying the message of progressive overload, it can also be misleading. Milo’s journey was rather incomplete. With his carrying of the bull, we only see one means of becoming stronger and more fit, and that is increasing the weight we lift. The truth is that progressive overload should be known as progressive stress. The 17

whole point of stressing the body with weight is to challenge its normal state. Author and professor John Jesse wrote in his book, The Encyclopedia of Wrestling Conditioning: “Gradualness and progression are the keys to the body’s physical and psychological adaptations to the stresses of greater training and loads and increased levels of competition. It should be remembered that the body or its system do not adapt to increasing demands at a steady non-ending pace...The body reacts to the new stress immediately, but takes a certain time to adapt to the stress. Once it adapts to the added stress then the load can be increased.” (p. 36) There are several things we can learn from Jesse’s point. The first is that if we focus solely on load we will hit plateaus at a much faster pace. This is especially true in DVRT where the weight of the actual implement cannot be changed without rather large jumps in weight. It was not lost on old-time strength athletes that the body can only handle very small jumps in weight. In fact, one of the biggest fears in moving from the classic globe barbells and dumbbells to the current plate-loaded versions was that the jumps in weight were too large. Great strongman and author Alan Calvert wrote about his dislike for the first plate loaded weights: “The principal defect of bells that load only with plates, is that they cannot be increased in weight except in jumps of 5 lbs or more. In order to practice weightlifting safely and successfully you must have a bell that can be increased one ounce at a time if necessary—and this alone makes it unwise to use a bell which loads only with iron plates.” (Alan Calvert) The Milo System of Heavy Weightlifting (Philadelphia: Milo Barbell Company, n.d, 13). The idea of such tiny loads being added may seem silly to us today, but it shows us why these great strength athletes became great. They knew how far a little stress could go in altering the body. Another point in Jesse’s writing was the idea of a singular stress being applied to the body. The reality is that the vast majority of training programs, whether deliberately or not, apply multiple stresses to the body at once. Either applying too much stress or not being aware of the amount of stress we are using can cause early plateauing or even overtraining of the body. If load or weight is not the only variable for us to consider, then what other aspects of training cause stress upon the body? Below I have listed the training variables that actually make up the progressive overload that we THOUGHT we all knew. Once you see this extensive list, you will quickly realize how often we only program a very small portion of what is possible and necessary in physical training.

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PROGRESSIVE O V E R L OA D VA R I A B L E S • Weight

• Body Position

• Density

• Speed

• Range of Motion

• Plane of Motion

• Holding Position

• Volume

• Implement Stability

Seeing these nine variables of progressive overload can seem quite overwhelming and cause most coaches to simply ignore them. The idea that “ignorance is bliss” is definitely one reason so many training programs fail. If we do not appreciate what and how these different training variables apply to our training then can truly create a great training system. In many of my DVRT educational programs, I joke with coaches that the great side of DVRT is that there are a lot of options and the bad side is that there are a lot of options. You have to want to become a better coach, whether you’re coaching yourself or training others. My job at this point is to take you through the process of how you can simply organize these variables to create some of the best training programs you will experience.

Weight While it may seem obvious that weight is an option, some may misconstrue this book and think I am anti-weight. This couldn’t be further from the truth. I want to load and progress all our movements. The key is I want you to see beyond weight ; it’s not the only or even the most important variable. Realizing this will open a huge door to continually successful training programs. Because weight is generally the first variable that people focus upon, I believe it is worthwhile to address first. In our DVRT system, increasing an Ultimate Sandbag by 5 or 10 pound increments is unrealistic and, truthfully, unproductive. While microloading is definitely valuable for long and short-term gains, we can do so by using all of the progressive overload variables together.

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Is this a shortcoming to the DVRT system? I don’t believe so. As far as I know, only one training implement is loaded in the smallest of weights — the barbell. Kettlebells, dumbbells, and even bodyweight don’t progress in the same tiny increments that we would see in the barbell. In fact, one of the primary reasons I was initially drawn to kettlebells was the fact that kettlebell programs offered training beyond simply going up in weight. You may say that dumbbells and kettlebells do go up by 5 or 10 pounds. Not quite. Most times when you see these implements in the gym you simply see more of them. The actual implement itself is rarely incrementally loaded like a barbell. Would this not give the barbell a major advantage? No. In fact, this makes many coaches short-sighted in their programming. I recall when kettlebell training regained popularity in the US. Initially the primary weights were 16, 24, and 32 kg. The idea was that you had to learn how to more intelligently manage the progressive overload variables learn how to make lighter weights feel heavier and heavier weights feel lighter. I found myself becoming more creative in my problem solving with my programs, and gained a better appreciation of how these variables can work together to make more productive workouts. Learning how to combine all these variables at once takes time, especially if they are somewhat new to you. That is why I am going to provide you with a host of programs for different fitness levels that you can use as a template to help you upon your journey.

Speed I trained quite some time before I began to appreciate the impact of speed in a program. I recall being absolutely blown away in the late 1990’s with the innovative writing of a strength coach name Charles Poliquin. Poliquin was a big advocate of altering tempo within an exercise to create very specific outcomes. His recommendations made sense, but actually applying his concepts made me even more of a believer. In the gym, I couldn’t believe the impact of changing the speed of different portions of an exercise. Weights that I thought were quite easy were all of a sudden incredibly challenging. Weaknesses I never knew I had exposed. Most of all, I was breaking all sorts of strength plateaus. Unfortunately, the contemporary fitness scene has more and more coaches ignoring this very valuable variable in favor of “sexier” very fast movements. I admit, it is quite amazing to watch someone who has fantastic control of their body and weight to move seemingly effortlessly with high weights in an athletic motion. However, this approach also creates several issues.

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Faster speeds, especially downward, put significant force on the body. While this can become a benefit over time, it can also cause injuries. Biomechanics and Soviet sports training expert Dr. Michael Yessis finds that high speeds produce more stress on the body than heavier weights moved at slower speeds. “When the shift is ultimately made to explosiveness training, the forces created in these exercises reach as much as twenty times your body weight. To withstand such forces, you must already have concentric, eccentric, and isometric strength.” (Yessis, 2008) Does this mean you can never move fast and you shouldn’t? Not at all. In fact, I am going to share with you when and why moving fast is most appropriate. However, as renowned strength coach Chris Frankel says, “You have to EARN the progression.” Using the DVRT system takes discipline, focus, and patience. This isn’t unusual in the development of any athletic ability. Growing up, my sport was basketball. I lived and breathed it for almost 13 years of my life, and had the wonderful privilege of playing at a relatively high level. Yet almost no coach had a bigger impact upon me than my high school varsity coach. A devotee of the Bobby Knight approach in many ways, he was emphasized the development of fundamentals and believed that you could beat raw talent with discipline. He was right, as we beat quite a few teams over my high school career that were far more athletic than our own team. One even had a future NBA player on their team, while ours had none. I see my coach’s teachings coming out in some of the ways that I create training programs. I remember one of his rules of practice was that you could never be found shooting three point or other trick shots right before practice. He gave us a very specific routine. If we arrived early, we were to grab a basketball and sit about two feet from the basket. We were to shoot at least 20 one- handed shots from only two feet away. Once we shot 20, we were to move back about a foot and do the same. This practice would continue and would feed into other fundamental drills. I know some of my teammates were frustrated by this routine. They wanted to practice the cool moves we saw NBA players doing during games. However, our coach was trying to teach us what made the great players truly great. They wanted us to be disciplined enough to work on our foundational skills so that we could not only be good, but great. He often spoke about the fact we would run into an opponent that was faster, more athletic, taller, etc. At that point we had to rely on the skills that we had practiced, the fundamentals that we could perform better than anyone else. Training for fitness and performance is much the same. You can run out there and do some of the “cool” movements that you see on television, message boards, or YouTube, but you will never be truly rewarded with the results that you are looking to achieve. Do not forget to EARN the progression. 21

Is speed training, then, all about just making you have patience and discipline. Absolutely NOT! I often ask coaches I teach, “When you are uncomfortable, do you move faster or slower?” Inevitably everyone says faster! Moving fast has a time and a place. It is a great skill to develop over time. However, there are some tremendous benefits to both alternating your speeds and focusing specifically upon slower speeds. The primary reason that many people choose to move fast in their training is that they believe they are creating more of a metabolic or conditioning type of training effect. The reality is quite different. A 2012 study by Christopher Scott, in the Journal of Applied Physiology, looked at three different types of tempos used during exercise. Fast, moderate, and slow tempos were used to see which caused the greatest change in post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPO) and calories burned. Surprising probably many, the group that had the biggest changes in these energy expenditure measures was the slow tempo group! Why would slower tempos be more effective for burning calories and having a positive change in EPOC? There are probably two primary reasons. Slowing down tempos increases the time under tension (TUT). Coaches like Charles Poliquin believe that TUT is a vital training variable for increasing strength, building functional muscle, and decreasing body fat. While weight and other more popular variables of training are important, Poliquin theorizes that the actual “tension” on the muscle produced by weight and training causes the changes that we all aim for in our workouts. The second reason that slower tempos might be related to such positive changes is the fact that people are able to actually integrate the right muscles to a movement. Learning to lift heavy or fast weights is a definite skill. The nervous system – and not just the muscles – plays a key role in training. Since most people have certain dominant muscles and muscle actions, they can easily skip over the most important muscles without the correct training patterns! A highly skilled lifter has built the ability to turn on the right muscles at the right time, enabling him or her to perform incredible feats of strength without having a large body weight. We can learn to build this type of control and strength, but we have to learn how to move slowly before we can move fast. Using slower tempos will help us learn how to coordinate the right muscles at the right time within an exercise. Slower tempos will help us learn proper position and alignment during our movements. Utilizing slower tempos will help us build a solid base to tolerate heavier weights and higher forces. Adjusting the tempo also helps us build functional muscle to help prevent injury during more challenging programs.

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Is Slow Only for Beginners? It’s easy to think the above recommendations only apply to new trainees, but alternating speeds can help athletes at all experience levels. Alternating speeds is important depending up the goal. Using specific pauses, for example, allows us to challenge areas of the body that we may find weak. For example, using a pause at the bottom of our squatting sequences will eliminate momentum. Coming up from a squat with our programmed pause will give us important feedback about whether we are truly able to use our hamstrings and glutes. Initiating the drive out of the squat with a forward lean of the trunk gives us feedback that we may have a weakness in this area of our body. Using pauses at specific joint angles allows us to introduce some of the great benefits of isometric training. One of the primary weaknesses of isometric training is the fact that we only have a carryover of this type of strength for 15 degrees above and below the joint angle we are training. In other words, we don’t necessarily get strength throughout a joints full range of motion during isometric training. Realizing this issue with isometrics, Dr. Yessis suggests the Soviet idea of “dynamic isometrics”. During the downward phase of a push-up, for example, we can stop at different points in the movement and hold the position – something along the lines of one-third of the way, halfway, and two-thirds of the way down. Then we try to create a great amount of force to accelerate our body back to the beginning. Such training is incredibly intense and should not be used all the time. Using varying forms of isometrics and pauses is a great example of how alteration of speed can have very positive effects for any fitness level.

Speeding It Up When can you go fast? The reality is you are going to introduce speed very early in your training. One of the best and most subtle benefits to the DVRT system is that you have to lift the weight from the ground every single time. It can be easily argued that one of the worst inventions ever was the squat rack! Lifting weight from the ground requires us to accelerate the USB into any one of our holding positions. Therefore, from a functional perspective, learning how to create force quickly is necessary. We don’t lift every day objects slowly either. However, the trick will be in how this is introduced and how much we emphasize faster forms of training. One of the easiest and most beneficial times for introducing faster speeds is during the lifting of a weight. Focusing on trying to accelerate even heavier weights faster has been to shown to stimulate more of our fast-twitch muscle fibers. University of Oregon State professor of exercise and sports science, Patrick O’Shea, states “at 100 percent maximum effort, however, the percentage of slow-twitch fibers involved is only 5%, while fast-twitch 23

fatigue resistant is 15 percent, and fast-twitch fatigable is 80 percent.” This can stimulate the muscle fibers that have a high potential for strength, power, and hypertrophy by going slower with heavy weights. Trying to stimulate these muscle fibers is very important for overall health as well. As we age, our fast-twitch muscle fibers are among the first things to go. Possessing great strength and the ability to demonstrate power may even reduce our risk of common sources of injuries, such as falls, as we age. Coaches and fitness professionals often make the mistake of focusing on the cardiorespiratory development of older people rather than progressive training of power and strength. Big mistake! Hopefully we now have a greater level of appreciation for the role of speed within an exercise. To making managing these various tempos and other training variables easier, we aren’t going to prescribe specific counts. Instead, I will provide you guidelines depending upon the movement and goal. Of course, there are certain exercises for which no speed alteration is necessary. Those more closely related to the classic Olympic lifts cannot be safely or effectively performed at altered speeds.

Holding Position One of the most unique aspects of the DVRT system is the emphasis on various holding positions of the USB. Most training programs pay little attention to this very important training variable. Overall fitness and performance training programs almost never specifically address the holding position of the weight. Too appreciate the role of holding position, let’s look at a famous sport that develops great strength with this very concept. In gymnastics we see athletes perform amazing feats of strength, all without any external load. Most gymnasts build their strength and body control without ever adding any external resistance to their training programs. How could this occur and how does this help us better illustrate the role of holding position? Gymnasts use a very simple technique time and time again. They alter the body position to give an exercise the feel of increased load. Leverage is key and is relevant to external load strength training as well, but outside of gymnastics, gymnastics, athletes rarely apply the concept. The placement of the USB can completely change the outcome and feel of an exercise. As we go through the foundational DVRT exercises, you will find that load can increase or decrease stability. The same weight can be used in a different holding position to stress different segments of the body or even planes of motion. Therefore, by simply changing how you hold the weight in relationship to your body, you can make an exercise more or less difficult. 24

A big reason that holding position has never been a big part of programming is that our classic tools haven’t offered enough variation to make it a primary focus. For example, a barbell typically can be held in five different positions (hips, front rack, zercher, upper back, overhead). Dumbbells and kettlebells typically have about 5 holding positions (outside hip, inside hip, front rack, goblet, overhead). The Ultimate Sandbag, however, offers us at least ELEVEN different holding positions to more effectively stress this training variable. This isn’t just about creating variety or theoretical hype. A study by Gullett et al., directly compared front and back squatting. The researchers concluded, “The front squat was as effective as the back squat in terms of overall muscle recruitment, with significantly less compressive forces and extensor moments.” The study was performed with lighter loads used during the front squat. The moral of the story here is that we can stress the right muscles and take pressure off sensitive structures of our body if we realize the potential of holding position. In the later chapters describing our DVRT exercises, you will see how holding position is easy manipulated to make incremental changes in weight. In most cases, in lower bodydominant DVRT exercises we will change how we hold the weight before we change how we stand with the weight. This rule takes us into our next concept — body position.

Body Position Most coaches and fitness professionals are very careful about the load increases they recommend to their clients. It would be unusual to find people increasing weight by more than five or ten pounds at a time. If I suggested that we should move people up by increments of fifty pounds, many of you would think I had lost my mind. Yet, trying to progress people with very unstable forms of body position poses the same issues that adding large amounts of weight would provide, therefore demonstrating how some important training variables are neglected during the development of our fitness programs. We see it every day at gyms and training facilities around the world. We squat, deadlift, or maybe even clean. Then, if we are believers in functional training, we add in exercises such as lunges, step-ups, even pistols. However, moving from a squat to a lunge or a deadlift, and then to a single leg deadlift is anything BUT progressive. These are quantum leaps in body position for people. Yet because we never see body position in this manner, we drastically increase the level of intensity of a workout or exercise and never understand why the program begins to fail. As in my example with gymnasts, body position can be very progressive. We should try to make the most minimal jumps in our lifting postures and positions. Slightly adjusting 25

how we stand when we perform an exercise begins to tax our body in new ways. Breaking our most stable positions, we force different chains and systems in the body to work harder to maintain correct alignment. You will find that even modest changes in body position can quickly lead to signs of significant weaknesses in different areas. For example, when we move from a stable overhead pressing position to our staggered stance, the body wants to shift as we press. All of a sudden we feel our stance leg trying to create more stability by driving into the ground. The hip begins to contract harder to avoid any compensation, and our core braces to help build that stable foundation. The concept of body position probably makes sense to you, as most of us have experienced some variety of the above example. But how much of a difference does it really make? A 2012 study in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research by Saeterbakken, et al, actually compared the differences between pressing overhead from a standing or seated position as well as the use of dumbbells compared to barbells. This study found that the upper body was engaged differently depending upon whether a lifter was standing or sitting. The standing position used more muscles, as did the use of dumbbells over barbells. What does this tell us? As the researchers in the study state, “In conclusion, the exercise with the greatest stability requirement (standing and dumbbells) demonstrated the highest neuromuscular activity of the deltoid muscles, although this was the exercise with the lowest 1-RM strength.” Such studies validate what we see all the time in the gym — that the use of unstable implements and progressively challenging body positions allows us to stimulate more of the body, even at lower loads! The great part of DVRT is that I have systematically laid out both lower and upper body drills using the concepts discussed in this book. As you get more proficient with the proper use of body position, you will find that you will discover new ways to add small layers of progressions to your training programs.

Range of Motion Determining appropriate range of motion – which is by no means exclusive to the DVRT system – is vitally important for both safety and obtaining the desired training effect. Exercises frequently must be modified to meet individual needs. Training from a compromised position is a very advanced training technique that is only appropriate when the lifter has spent extensive time preparing and needs to compromise his or her position to meet training goals. When we start changing body position and planes of motion, we often see a very large alteration in levels of stability. Range of motion can be subtly changed to introduce more advanced movement and training concepts and to add more layers of progression. 26

A great example is during our lateral lunge deadlifts. The lateral lunge deadlift is a powerful DVRT exercise that teaches us how to perform a foundational movement pattern in a different plane of motion. However, changing from the more stable Saggital plane to the less stable Frontal plane requires a very large leap in both coordination and stability. To manage the new stress we are applying to the body, we can do something as simple as taking a small lateral step. While this may seem obvious, I have often seen trainees try to perform the “ideal” motion. The result is that they create too much instability to properly perform or benefit from the exercise. Altering range of motion makes adding progressions and variety to our training relatively easy, but keeping training purposeful. Range of motion can make an exercise feel easier or harder. We can use this strategy to increase perceived load of an exercise and weight.. A great example is one of our favorite foundational DVRT exercises, the Bear Hug Squat. Because of the loading position of the Bear Hug Squat, we often see lifters achieve much deeper squat positions than they are typically accustomed to. When people go deeper into the squat position, they are extending the range of motion and increasing the level of difficulty of the Bear Hug Squat. This is another way we can make the same weight feel heavier, by progressing people to greater ranges of motion. A very different example is using range of motion to achieve specific goals. In the world of Olympic lifting, athletes lift from different levels to train very targeted angles and qualities. For example, non-weightlifters will use higher lifting positions in the Clean and Snatch to improve what is known as rate of force development. This is simply the speed at which an athlete can create force. Since most sports have forces occurring at almost milliseconds, just being able to create a lot of force is not enough to be a great athlete. One has to be able to generate force as quickly as possible. In DVRT we can create a similar focus by changing the dimension of the Ultimate Sandbag. As Ultimate Sandbags get heavier, their dimensions change. As the Ultimate Sandbag becomes larger, the range of motion decreases in exercises like Cleans and Snatches. This means that we don’t necessarily to go heavier to make a DVRT exercise more challenging or to focus on developing specific qualities. Simply changing the dimension of Ultimate Sandbag can offer us a similar opportunity with some additional unique benefits.

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Stability of Implement One of the goals in developing the Ultimate Sandbag was to create a tool with immense versatility. This also meant facing the challenges odd objects pose. The greatest challenge may have been about the level of stability of the implement itself. Because all of the traditional strength training tools are static in nature, people often misuse unstable objects. The new training apparatus is so exciting to many lifters that they don’t program or introduce this concept appropriately. Excitement quickly fades and is replaced by frustration and eventually abandonment of the idea of unstable implements. People can become very excited about the concept of unstable objects and quickly find themselves trying to employ objects such as kegs, slosh pipes, etc. These types of training tools are ALWAYS unstable, and because of the drastic changes in stability, it’s only possible to do a very limited number of exercises. This challenge in programming also makes it virtually impossible to create appropriate progressions to introduce and succeed with these implements. While most think sand is always unstable, we can actually achieve a wide variety in levels of stability. Sand, is not as unstable as other mediums such as water. In fact sand is a far superior means in providing a better intermediate point in progressive instability. As I discussed in the previous section, changing the dimension of the Ultimate Sandbag used is the primary method for altering its stability. That means that in our DVRT system, we can alter the stability of the Ultimate Sandbag not just by adding weight, changing body position, or altering range of range of motion and speed, but also by changing its dimension. Using the SAME weight in a different size, the Ultimate Sandbag will alter the feel and movement of the weight. Therefore, we need to know how to control this variable and decide what we want to emphasize with the Ultimate Sandbag – load, stability, or a combination of both! Standardization means we can have more control in our program. We can periodize and plan stability in the same way we periodize and plan load and volume. When we see ourselves progressing to more unstable body positions such as lunging, we can add stability to the implement. Combining the stability of the implement with the right holding position makes complex movement patterns accessible to more lifters.

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THE DVRT MOVEMENTS ow that we have some of the principles of the DVRT system laid out, we can discuss the progressions of the DVRT exercises. Understanding the principles of DVRT will provide a much deeper meaning for all of these valuable drills. Throughout the descriptions, I will refer to these principles so that you may see how they play out in real examples. You will find that we are going to refer to exercises in the category of “movement patterns” and not necessarily exercises. One of the most important differences in the DVRT system is the focus upon the different movements we can perform instead of getting married to any one specific exercise. Of course, there is a preferred method for progressing people through these different movement patterns, but these are guidelines, not stone tablets. Understanding the rules is important, but as Oliver Wendell Holmes points out, “The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.” Begin by trying to follow the progressions I lay out for you, but over time build the confidence to break the rules when appropriate. Remember, you don’t have to perform any one exercise, you have to find the “RIGHT” exercise for your goals.

Foundational Hip Hinging It may seem a bit unusual to begin the exercise portion of this book with a discussion of hip hinging. The reason for this is practicality more than deep science. You see, one of the worst inventions of the modern fitness era had to be the squat rack. In old time strongman days, lifters had to bring the weight from the ground into various positions in order to squat. We saw everything from the unique Steinborn lifts, to Ed Zercher’s squats, to more accessible lifts like the modern Power Clean. Each had the similar intent of just getting the weight into position to squat or perform a host of other exercises. 29

Lifting heavy weight from the ground became one of the main qualities of a true strongman. The measure of a true strongman was often gauged by how much weight they could lift overhead, how much they could carry, and how much they could lift off the ground! Of course, the invention of the squat rack gave many future lifters the ability to slowly move away from this highly valuable training concept. In fact, we now have squat racks that you don’t even need to walk out of to get into your squatting stance. What a shame! Learning how to perform what we call the “hip hinge pattern” is vital to properly lifting weight off of the ground. After I herniated several discs in my low back, doctors were adamant about not “bending over” to lift anything off of the ground. Instead, they encouraged me to squat to pick up items . While they were not wrong in telling me not to “bend over,” the advice to squat was poor advice. Hip hinging refers to our ability to load the hamstrings and glutes to produce what is known as hip flexion and extension. While bending over at the back makes the low back the main contributor to lifting, hip hinging in this manner allows these powerful muscles to take the majority of the load and spare the low back. The reason that the back sides of many athletes are large is because the hamstrings and glutes are your power center. Not using them is not only inefficient, but places the low back at great risk. Why is squatting not the better answer? It’s simple: someone who can’t hip hinge usually has an even worse squat. While the squat does have elements of hip flexion and hip extension, the hip hinge relies less on the quadriceps and places greater demand upon those powerful hamstring and glute muscles. It is also often easier to get people into a proper hip hinge than it is a great squat because the hip hinge requires overall less range of motion in the hip. When I refer to hip hinging, many people may instantly believe I am referring to the deadlift and can’t understand why I don’t just talk about the deadlift already! The truth is that the deadlift is one of many hip hinge movement patterns. As I often remind coaches at our educational programs, a deadlift is a hip hinge, but a hip hinge doesn’t HAVE to be a deadlift. Remember, we have to perform the right exercises for our fitness goals and abilities. Now, to become a total hypocrite, I am going to talk about the deadlift first. What?! Before you shut this book in anger and disgust, let me explain the differences and why we will touch on the deadlift, but not stay there. The deadlift is a great foundational hip hinge drill because it provides us both the elements of a stable body position and load position. Having the Ultimate Sandbag in the deadlift position allows us to handle more weight and to have the weight serve as a means of determining correct alignment and posture. In a moment we will cover how to perform this exercise correctly, but I must make a quick detour to explain why the deadlift is not a long term exercise in our DVRT system. 30

Take a stance just about hip width apart.

There should be very little space between the forearms and lower body, you shouldn’t find one running into the other.

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If we were to only focus on load in the DVRT system, we would see that the deadlift quickly becomes a lift of diminishing return. As the weight of the USB increases, so does its dimension. This results in the USB becoming larger and actually decreasing the range of motion in the deadlift. Focusing only on the weight and the deadlift would allow us to reasonably assume we have used the USB to the full extent in the hip hinge exercise progressions. The reality is much different. Using the deadlift in the DVRT system is simply a means of establishing correct hip hinge patterning so that we can continue to stress our body in its ability to perform a hip hinge under many conditions and stressors. The deadlift at this point in our training is going to allow us to identify improper movement patterns so we can establish correct training habits early in training. You will find the USB acts as a great tool in seeing these compensation patterns in the hip hinge and particularly the deadlift. There are two common compensation patterns we will see in the deadlift. The most obvious is when the lifter performs more of a squatting pattern rather than a hip hinge. How can we see this with the USB? If the USB or your forearms run into your knees when performing the deadlift, this is a clear sign that you are squatting and not hip hinging. While there should be very little space between the forearms and lower body, you shouldn’t find one running into the other. The other simple way of determining compensation in a squatter is right at the beginning of the lift!

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During the set-up of the deadlift we take what we call a neutral grip position on the USB. This is different from the grip position used with a barbell . When the lifter gets set to lift, if the knees are going in between the handles this means he is immediately set to squat and not to hip hinge. Many lifters will try to compensate for tight hamstrings and go wide with their stance. Don’t fall for this trick. Take a stance just about hip width apart! The other most common compensation happens at the upper back. It is safe to say that our legs are stronger than our upper back and we should see the smaller muscles in our upper body fatigue before the muscles of our lower body. Yet there is a major problem with allowing this to occur in real life. Try this little experiment for a moment. Round your shoulders like you are slouching. Once your shoulders are rounded try to round your low back, pretty easy isn’t it? Now, let’s try the opposite. Try to hold your shoulders down and back like you were trying to get into your best posture. Now hold this position and try to round your low back. Almost impossible! This simple demonstration illustrates to anyone the importance of the upper back dictating what happens at the low back. Many lifters lose their position in their upper back and yet continue to perform heavy exercises like deadlifts. Now their low back goes from becoming a stabilizer to a prime mover, which it does NOT like!

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Before you start writing to me that this is a technique elite powerlifters or strongmen use, I want you to ask yourself a very important question. Are you an elite powerlifter or strongman? If the answer is no, then I will ask you to trust me in the technique I am about to show you. I alluded earlier to the fact that we grab onto the This is neutral grip handles on squatting, the USB when we deadlift not hinging. or perform most of our hip hinge exercises. Why do so when we don’t do this on the barbell? The neutral grip hand position allows us to open the shoulder joint and makes it easier to set our shoulders “down and back”. When you get into this position in your upper body, you should see that the lat (or underarm area) and space between the shoulder blades become tense. These muscles are going to help “lock us” into the correct alignment so that we decrease the likelihood that we are lifting with our low backs. If this is a preferred gripping method how come we don’t do the same on the barbell? Well, hopefully it is obvious that we don’t do the same because it is not possible! That doesn’t mean that powerlifters and weightlifters don’t try to use the same concept. Coaches of these athletes often use the idea of “trying to break the bar” before they even lift the weight off the ground. This coaching style is used to try to simulate the same concept. However, the barbell has more of a closed shoulder joint position, which makes it more challenging to get into the same good lifting posture. 34

My point is that this is both a safer and easier position to attain when lifting, so why not use it? Plus, if we tried to use the concept of “breaking the bar” on the snatch grip handles, it wouldn’t work! The handles would move and change the dynamics not just of the lift, but the movement of the USB itself. So, don’t try to use the USB like a barbell. Realize the nuances that make it both highly effective and versatile. Many of the actual concepts of the deadlift stay true once the correct lifting posture is established. We want to focus on pushing through the heels and keeping the movement of the hips in line with the actual movement of the USB. If the hips rise up too fast and are above our shoulder position, we are going to again end up lifting with our low back. We want to get as “tall” as possible when we are pulling the USB off of the ground while holding the shoulders in that “down and back” position the entire time. The way down from the deadlift pull is where again we see the difference between the DVRT system and other methods. It is not uncommon to see great lifters simply drop the weight from the top of the deadlift or to quickly follow the weight down. In both cases the thought process is to avoid “wasting” unnecessary energy while lowering the weight and to avoid injury. Since most injuries occur during the lowering or deceleration phase of a lift, many lifters simply decide to avoid it completely. In DVRT we think a bit differently! By adding layers to our training, we’ll have many opportunities to safely and effectively train the deceleration phase. Since we have already established the fact that the weight on a USB deadlift is not going to be the same as the weight associated with elite barbell lifts, we can safely employ a deceleration phase. This is where we are going to see tempo play an integral role in the performance of the deadlift. Instead of just dropping the USB or quickly dropping with the weight, we are going to do the opposite! I often start people with the deadlift by taking a 5-second count in the lowering phase. Right off the bat, we will see people that struggle to hold their shoulders in the correct position. The isometric strength — which many people lack in the upper back — can be problematic when we start trying to perform very dynamic lifts or holds that require such strength. The slow lowering phase also allows us to find compensation patterns in the hip hinge. Can people connect the hip hinge pattern with holding tension in the lower body? Believe it or not, this can be counterintuitive to many people, creating tension at one segment and movement at another. However, this is very important in establishing a base for more athletic types of training.

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Because of the tempo associated with this form of training, we have to make sure the repetitions are appropriate. Even though the actual weight may not be heavy, using high tempos can accelerate fatigue. Repetitions of 5-6 are definitely on the high side of such training. It may appear that the deadlift is really only a basic teaching exercise. Isn’t it something we would outgrow in a matter of just weeks? I realize most lifters exposed to the deadlift continue to use it as a core lift even though the only means for progressing the exercise is to add more weight. While that may not seem like a bad idea, usually this is at the expense of improving other qualities they need to improve at the same time. What other qualities? They might need to work on stability, improve muscle weaknesses, and much more!

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The slow lowering phase also allows us to find compensation patterns in the hip hinge.

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What are we to do if weight with the USB decreases range of motion and going heavier doesn’t yield our ideal goals? We can start to use other DVRT principles to add layers to the deadlift. Typically, in lower body-based drills, we will change the holding position before we change the body position. However, the deadlift is the exact OPPOSITE! To continue to stress the deadlift and set a great foundation to our hip hinging patterns, we will actually alter our body position. The key will be doing this as progressively as we would add weight or repetitions to an exercise. This is where we first introduce our “Staggered Stance” to DVRT exercises. As much as I would love to take credit for the Staggered Stance, we have seen this pattern in many different sports arenas over the centuries.

Most athletes actually use a staggered stance when they are in their sport.

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Most athletes actually use a staggered stance when they are in their sport. The staggered stance may improve leverage, make it easier to change position and direction more quickly, or improve the ability to react to an opponent. In the Olympic press, the staggered stance was used for leverage. Before barbells expanded to the now-standard 7-foot length, strongmen used a staggered stance to stress the legs without adding more weight to their bodies. We are going to use it for ALL of the above reasons, plus a few more! Before we delve too deeply into the staggered stance, let me be clear in defining the position. Staggered stance is simply taking our standard lifting position and sliding one foot back so that the toes of the back foot line up with the heel of the front leg. The key is to not allow the back foot’s heel to touch the ground. This small detail changes the entire dynamics of all exercises performed in staggered stance as well as the stability of the movement.

The staggered stance may improve leverage, make it easier to change position and direction more quickly.

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...this changes the entire dynamics of all exercises performed in staggered stance as well as the stability of the movement.

The key is to not allow the back foot’s heel to touch the ground...

The subtle difference in stance will change how we move, how stable we feel, and how heavy a weight seems. It also makes our compensation patterns more obvious. All of the principles of the deadlift will hold true, but we will all of a sudden notice some significant changes. Whenever we feel unstable, our body will work toward creating stability. In the case of the staggered stance deadlift, this first occurs when we move back toward a squatting position instead of a hip hinge. Such a compensation often occurs as the body tries to leverage itself in what it perceives to be a weak position, or tries to overcome more isolated flexibility issues in the hamstring — issues that are often masked in the bilateral position.

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What are the key compensations we are going to continue to watch for? • Lateral sway (usually to stance leg side) • Loss in shoulder position and tension • Rounding in low back • Rotating the hips

Don’t sway laterally.

Don’t round the back.

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Staggered stance is not a true single leg exercise. The rear leg is active and provides around 30% of the total effort. You want to “dig” into the ground of the rear leg to create some stability and help counteract some of the rotational and lateral forces acting upon the body. You will be amazed how what was a relatively easy weight to lift with great form all of a sudden becomes more challenging by working in this staggered stance position. The theme of decreasing stability will continue as we move to the rear step deadlift. Since it is not realistic or practical to keep moving a few inches back at a time in our deadlift, we will eventually take a more drastic route with our body position by using the rear-step deadlift. Unlike its more advanced cousin, the single leg deadlift, the rear-step deadlift has a small segment of true single leg stance as we step back, but then uses the back leg to create some stability.

The rear leg is active and provides around 30% of the total effort.

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As with the staggered stance, we look for similar compensations when we move to the rear step deadlift. The benefit of the rear step deadlift is we can use the DVRT variable of progressive range of motion to vary the level of instability the lifter encounters. We can introduce the movement with a relatively short stepping action and over time increase the length of the stride. Obviously, as we continue to lengthen the step, the lifter’s position becomes less stable and he or she spends more time in the single leg stance.

The Rear Step Deadlift. The rear-step deadlift offers many of the same challenges as the staggered stance, but because of the increased intensity of this unstable position, we have to watch for some additional compensations. • The lead foot pointing inward • The knee of the front leg pointing inward • The back leg stepping outward rather than in line with the hip

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I have to forewarn you at this point. It is easier to take the route of just staying with what is comfortable and easy. I ask you to think of the words of Jean Vanier, “Growth begins when we begin to accept our own weakness.” Accept that there are things we need to improve upon, and even embrace them! Focusing only on your strengths will allow for results for a little while. But results eventually stall because we aren’t addressing our weaknesses and may even end up with injuries. True growth in our fitness goals will come when we spend time on and even prioritize the drills we don’t feel as strong or confident in performing. It’s easy to argue that these deadlift progressions are more functional than just banging out deadlift after deadlift. Whether it is picking up your child from the ground or competing in a sport, movement while lifting real world objects is rarely perfect. The gym is really the only place we see very sterile movements. Usually there are a multitude of actions happening at once, as we apply forces and forces are applied to our bodies. As you can see, these types of progressions reinforce that “real world” type of training and strength!

DVRT Deadlift Checklist • USB begins against the shins. • Hold onto the neutral grip handles. • As you descend to the lifting position, if the knees run into your elbows you are squatting and not hip hinging. • Pull the shoulders down and back. • The crease of your elbows should pointing almost straight ahead. • Drive through the heels and stand as tall as possible. Begin lowering the USB by sliding it down the thighs while keeping the arms locked and maintaining tension between the shoulder blades. • Take a 4-6 second lowering phase. • As you move to different body positions, look for changes in posture and lateral movements.

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Two Steps Forward, One Step Back The goal of DVRT, which I will reiterate time and again, is to provide challenges to our movement skills that are as incremental as possible. It is easy to get caught up in novel exercises while forgetting the process of moving and feeling better and stronger! But to make these concepts as incremental as possible, we need to understand why and how we expose people to different stresses through these DVRT progressions. We just covered three foundational DVRT hip hinging exercises, all focusing on progressively increasing levels of instability. Many at this point would expect us to move into the popular single leg deadlift. However, going to true single leg is a quantum leap for many people, especially if they want to perform this exercise well! Do we want to get to the point where we can perform true single leg exercises? Absolutely! However, we have room to layer better exercises to get people to the point where they can demonstrate true control in these more advanced movement based drills. In describing the hip hinge foundations, I touched on the concept of the upper back and its importance in proper hip hinging. The upper back is part of the equation in maintaining proper alignment and posture. However, the trunk muscles also play a critical role in making sure we don’t compensate during the hip hinge. Lack of strength through the trunk muscles will cause our midsection to flex and begin to inappropriately load the low back over the hips. The hip hinge position is similar to the front plank, during which we try to hold our body stationary for a specific period of time. The goal is to avoid any collapse in our body’s alignment. The hip hinge pattern is very similar, except the stress upon the trunk is changing as the joint angle is altered. Gravity still plays a role in the lifter’s ability to hold this stable trunk position, but now load adds in additional stress. Therefore, we can see the hip hinge pattern not only as what happens at the hip or the upper back, but also as a core stability exercise. Typically, heavier loads will continue to challenge the upper back and core stability, but there is a point of diminishing returns as you go heavier with USBs. Time to shift focus away from the USB right? Not quite! We used body position, range of motion, and tempo in the first three DVRT drills for the hip hinge.. Now we can alter load position to change the dynamics of the exercise once more. Because we are changing one variable, we need to regress one of the more intense variables, body position. Therefore, we will begin to use load position in our more stable bilateral base position.

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This new holding position becomes known as our Front Loaded Good Morning. The good morning exercise is not a new drill. Weightlifters have used it for years to help improve specific portions of the clean. However, because of the weight placement on the upper back, many lifters notice that the exercise takes a toll on their low backs. By simply changing the holding position to the front, we change all of the negatives of the good morning – minimizing low back stress and reducing the shoulder mobility required to benefit from the drill. The Front Loaded position begins by looking very similar to a standing plank. When the USB is held in this position, the trunk muscles must fight the tendency to flex forward. Many people mistakenly assume the Front Load position is the same as the Front Squat holding position. While at a quick glance they could look similar, the reality is they are significantly different! In the barbell front squat, the barbell sits in the crevice of the shoulders. The entire frame of the body absorbs the weight, not the shoulders or arms. Weightlifters can often front squat with their arms extended out in front of their bodies due to this specific positioning. Therefore, more weight can be applied to the body in the front squat position. Front Hold is closer to the classic Zercher position.

The Front Loaded position begins by looking very similar to a standing plank.

When the USB is held in this position, the trunk muscles must fight the tendency to flex forward.

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The Zercher position comes from the 1930’s strongman Ed Zercher. He’s known for many feats of strength that would incredible by today’s standards, most notably his very unusual lift stance. Ed Zercher would squat so low that he would scoop his arms underneath a barbell laying on the ground. From here, he would set his body and actually squat with the barbell in the crooks of his elbows. He didn’t perform this exercise with casual weights. Instead, Ed Zercher was known for performing this exercise with weights exceeding 500 pounds! If you look at pictures of Ed Zercher performing his namesake exercise, you might be a bit horrified by the positions he would achieve in performing this exercise. Zercher was an unusual weightlifter as he performed many unique lifts and obviously built a very specific tolerance to such training drills. However, understanding why he performed this lift may be a bit more enlightening. In the 1930’s, squat racks or stands were still not commonplace; therefore, lifting such loads required a bit of ingenuity and yes, risk. Because squat racks and stands would eventually become standard in weight rooms, this could explain why the Zercher squat eventually became rather obsolete. Some hardcore lifters would still continue to practice the Zercher squat, but it dramatically decreased in popularity. So, why bring it back to the DVRT system and is it truly a Zercher position?

The holding position of the USB versus the barbell encourages a more upright posture during the squat, making the arms more active in the lift.

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There are a few different reasons I prefer to call this the Front Hold position rather than Zercher – none of which are intended to dishonor to this great strongman! The most profound and least obvious to many people is the difference in weight distribution and dimension. In the classic Zercher barbell squat, the weight sat at a position very close to the umbilical of the body. Because the dimension of the barbell is quite small compared to the USB, the weight is very concentrated in this region of the body. Placing the weight in this position causes several changes in movement. The first is that the barbell is very close to the center of the body’s mass, allowing more weight to be handled compared to the USB. This position additionally creates more stress in the upper back, and the inability of the upper back to maintain its position – rather than the strength of the trunk muscles – becomes the limiting factor in the exercise. The USB, due to its dimension, will sit higher upon the body, placing more stress on the anti-flexor muscles of the trunk. Therefore, the upper back doesn’t fatigue as quickly, allowing more stress upon the legs and trunk muscles. This small difference in holding position of the USB versus the barbell also encourages a more upright posture during the squat, making the arms more active in the lift. Again, because the barbell has such a small dimension compared to the USB, the upper arm has nothing to work against and creates more stability through the body by integrating the upper back to a higher degree. I don’t know if Ed Zercher really ever thought of his lift as an “anti-flexion” trunk exercise. Maybe, maybe not. In order to convey the role of the trunk in these exercises I like to make a direct comparison to the front plank. Changing the intent of a drill helps bring to light some that the drill is about more than just squatting! 48

Now that we understand the whys, we may have a whole new respect for the Front Loaded Good Morning. Will this still stress the hamstrings and glutes? Absolutely! However, the most profound impact you will feel is in the upper back and trunk. Our ideal position is to achieve a horizontal trunk position with no rounding of the low back. We still want to see the weight shift back upon the heels and the hinging at the hips. Lack of strength in the upper back and trunk will be shown by early flexing of the torso as you begin to hinge into the exercise. Because of the placement of the USB in the Front Hold position, we must provide a means for the body to create stability against what will feel like a heavier load. As we hinge during the Front Loaded Good Morning, the weight will begin to feel significantly heavier. Therefore, the action of the upper body is very important. We want to use the dimension of the USB to our advantage and actively pull the weight into our body causing the shoulders to stay “down and back” easier and for a longer period. During the Front Loaded Good Morning, we see how changing body angles can have a profound impact on the perceived weight we are lifting.

Use the dimension of the USB to actively pull the weight into the body causing the shoulders to stay “down and back” easier and for a longer period.

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One of the most common mistakes during any of the Front Loaded exercises, especially the Front Loaded Good Morning, is that lifters will allow their elbows to slowly extend. If the angle of the elbow starts to increase, the lift won’t last much longer as the exercise will turn from a whole body movement into a biceps exercise. Sorry, those biceps will be no match for the weight in this position and often lead to poor postural alignment. If your biceps start doing all the work, it’s a good sign you need to take a break and come back to the exercise after you’ve recovered.

If the angle of the elbow starts to increase, the lift won’t last much longer as the exercise will turn from a whole body movement into a biceps exercise.

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Once we establish proficiency in the Front Hold Good Morning in our base stance, it is very easy to begin to use the same progressions in body position we utilized in the deadlift. One of the great benefits of using DVRT is that once you become comfortable with the progressions you quickly see where the next movement lies and how easy it is to create what feels like limitless progressions for your training the training of others.

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DVRT Front Hold Good Morning Checklist • Pull the USB into the body by actively pressing into the USB with the forearms. Pull the shoulders down and back by pulling into the body. • Have a slight bend in the knees. • Begin to push the hips back while keeping the USB pulled into the body. The chest should remain tall. • As you become closer to horizontal to the ground, the need to increase the pull to the USB and keep the chest tall increases. • Only go to parallel to the ground or the point prior to the low back beginning to round. • Drive upwards through the heels to a tall standing posture.

Busted! While I may have just done a dissertation on the value of the Front Hold position, there’s a very obvious question here. How did you get the weight in this position?! Since we are not going to borrow the very creative and risky idea of Ed Zercher, we need to use a different approach. That means we need to teach how to accelerate off the ground with the USB. Before we delve too deeply into accelerative lifts with the USB, it’s important to note the difference between using these lifts early in training as positional exercises and later in training as exercise in of themselves. Because learning how to accelerate the USB into the various holding positions is necessary, we introduce the speed component of lifting rather early into training. We do so with the understanding that it is used first as simply a means to getting the USB into position to perform other lifts. Such an understanding will be reflected in the programming. For example, we may perform one Power Clean followed by six Front Loaded Good Mornings. A ratio of 1:6 (one accelerative repetition to six stability repetitions). Why do we have to be so cautious about introducing accelerative lifts if they are necessary? The hip hinge progressional drills lay the foundation for accelerative drills to be used more commonly in training. We can’t do quickly what we can’t slowly. Learning how to maintain position and posture under varying conditions and understanding how to absorb and decelerate force are principles critical to the proper performance of accelerative lifts. 52

Ignoring them will give us some temporary satisfaction in using novel drills, but the progress will be stalled quite quickly when injury or improper technique come around. So, I share with you the DVRT accelerative foundational drills with the hope you will follow my recommendations and promise yourself to always follow safe and sound training principles.

The Bear Hug Clean I am going to get a bit off course here and follow the DVRT principles rather than tie in simply back to our Front Loaded Good Mornings. I do so in order for you to continue to get more and more comfortable with the principles of DVRT. As I mentioned earlier, in lower body dominant lifts other than the deadlift, we will focus on changing load position before body position. In lower body dominant lifts, that means we begin from a stable holding position and progress into more challenging holding positions. The first of our accelerative progressions is the Bear Hug Clean. What is a Clean? Especially a Bear Hug Clean? Some people look at the following accelerative DVRT drills that have the word “Clean” in them and think they aren’t true to the name. This is because most people think of the Olympic Clean when they first think of the term “Clean”. The Clean came about as a way for old time strongmen to get the weight from the ground to their shoulders. Clean referred to doing so in one “clean” motion – meaning the weight did not rest on any segment of the body before getting to the working position. Therefore, the Clean can be performed to many different levels and with different implements as long as it does not stop at any point along the movement. 53

The Bear Hug Hold.

Bear Hug refers to our end holding position. As will be discussed in the squatting section, the Bear Hug position is our most stable of the lower body dominant holding positions. The Bear Hug works so well because it keeps the weight in line with our center of mass. Consequently, we are able to handle more weight and feel more stable in this holding position. The Bear Hug Clean is not an overly complex movement, but possesses several nuances that often get overlooked by even more seasoned lifters. One of the most common mistakes of lifters and coaches is not being aware of the extended range of motion that occurs in the Bear Hug Clean. While the barbells, kettlebells, and sometimes USBs will allow lifters to start the load at about mid-shin height, the Bear Hug Clean requires the lifter to assume a much deeper position. To lift the USB in the Bear Hug Clean, we must “scoop” our hands underneath the USB. This instantly creates a deeper lifting position that we must adopt to have the ability to get in without rounding of the back. Don’t worry if you find yourself unable to assume the Bear Hug position from the floor. There is rather simple solution; simply elevate the USB. By using a step or another USB, you can elevate the weight into a position you can more safely attain. What is important is being aware of this change in the range of motion so that you can appropriately adapt the starting position to your current mobility level.

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Once we are able to obtain the correct lifting posture, there are some additional subtle techniques we must explore. The most crucial is the placement and action of the arms. With USB exercises such as the Bear Hug Clean, we don’t have a direct handle to grasp. This can throw people off, as almost everything in the weight room has a handle! Instead we want to “scoop” our hands underneath the weight.

Don’t This position is very similar round the to the strongman technique of back. lifting Atlas Stones. I remember this technique very specifically from my days competing in amateur strongman competitions. At first, lifting stones was so awkward – there was no good place to hold the weight! Novice lifters often make the mistake of trying to compensate for the lack of a handle by overusing the upper arm. It doesn’t take long to know you made this mistake. I recall – and not fondly – having horrible bicep pain for almost ten days after my first Atlas Stone session! After the pain subsided, I decided to try again. After all, it only ALMOST killed me the first time! This time, though, I was a bit wiser. I was fortunate enough to be training with pro strongman Kevin Nee at the time. When you are surrounded by people stronger and more experienced than yourself, it’s smart to pick their brains. Kevin explained to me that my error was in trying to lift the Atlas Stones with my arms instead of my body. I didn’t understand what he meant. He explained to me that most people try to compensate for not having a good grip on the Atlas Stones by actually using the arms more. Instead, he went on to tell me, you want to think of your body as a machine crane. Use the arms simply as an extension of the body. I was pretty ashamed of myself for not thinking of this simple, yet profound technique myself! After all, it is the same concept that I teach in deadlifting and Olympic lifting drills. But because I felt awkward, I had forgotten a lot of these same sound lifting concepts. Don’t repeat my mistakes! Don’t forego sound lifting principles just because the USB is a unique implement!

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The body, much like a crane, needs a stable foundation from which to operate.. This foundation includes important motions such as such as actively locking the arms, rotating the shoulders “down and back,” and actively sticking the chest out. If we begin the movement by bending the elbows, we have just destabilized our entire foundation! The action of the Bear Hug Clean is so fast and so many things must happen at once, that the line between a really good repetition and one that never leaves the floor is thin. One of those key differences is how you align yourself with the USB. When you assume the lifting position for the Bear Hug Clean, if more than half of the USB is in front of you when you are ready to lift, the Clean will never happen!

If more than half of the USB is in front of you when you are ready to lift, the Clean will never happen!

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Your ideal setup will place your body right over the midpoint of the USB with the broad side facing up toward you. Assume a hip hinge position, and as you reach your end point, begin to bend the knees. As you bend the knees, don’t allow the torso to become upright; maintain that hip hinge. Slide the hands underneath and spread the fingers to create a larger base and cover more surface area. Lock the elbows, rotate the shoulders, and stick the chest out. At this point you are ready to lift! Realize that you are actually bringing the USB a relatively short distance. Therefore, you don’t need to lift with maximal effort. Doing so causes many to “over pull” and get out of control with the USB. The lift is quick, and if done correctly, the weight is actually released from the arms and caught in the Bear Hug position. This means the Bear Hug Clean is a vertical pull and it is crucial that the arms simply direct the weight up the body, not out and away. The elbows must come directly up the body and not extend out in front. This is where you instantly get feedback if you are moving fast enough in the lift! If, during the performance of the Bear Hug Clean, you can’t lift the weight into position or catch it less than 50% above your arms, you didn’t move fast enough! A perfect lift means that the arms felt no tension and the hips created such great speed that the weight “popped” up into the arms at about 50/50 weight distribution above and below the arms. Practicing the Bear Hug Clean is important because it teaches us two important skills. First, we learn how to create speed and assume our base holding position for squatting. . The second, more subtle point is mastering the manipulation of speed. Great athletes have the innate ability to gradate force rather than just going from 0 to 100 mph. The Bear Hug Clean helps us learn this important skill that will help us understand how to be efficient and purposeful with our movements.

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DVRT Bear Hug Clean Checklist • Begin by standing over the middle of the USB. • Scoop the hands underneath the USB. Make sure the low back is not rounded. • Lock the arms and pull the shoulders down and back. • Don’t squat. Instead, set the hips so that the chest is pointing closer to the ground than it is pointing ahead. Sit the hips back where the chest is closer to pointing towards the ground rather than pointing straight ahead. • Explosively drive the hips, and direct the USB straight up the body. • Create enough force from the hips to release the USB just prior to chest height, and clasp the arms around the middle of the USB. • Make sure you are set in, absorbing the force, and then drive the hips back and release the USB to the ground.

The Power Clean Why talk about the Bear Hug Clean first? Especially when we consider I was talking about Front Loaded Good Mornings? If we are going to create and follow a system, then we need to understand how different lifts change the variables of our system. Introducing the Bear Hug Clean allows us to accomplish several goals at once: • Assess mobility • Teach foundational principles of creating a stable foundation • Understand how to produce force • Learn how to gradate force production The Bear Hug Clean has a shorter distance to cover than the other accelerative USB drills. Therefore, we are going to progressively learn how to create and absorb more force. The Power Clean is a perfect bridge for learning these concepts.

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Most people will be familiar with the Power Clean from the world of Weightlifting. The Power Clean is a variation of the standard Clean. In the Power Clean, the weight is caught in a quarter squat position. In the Clean, however, the weight is caught in a front squat position. Why is there a difference between the movements? In the more competitive Clean, the weight is pulled and then the lifter jumps “underneath” the weight. This means that the distance the weight actually moves is shorter than the Power Clean. This is important in the world of weightlifting because lifting heavier weights is the goal of the sport. More weight can be lifted when the distance the weight has to travel is reduced. In the Power Clean, the weight must travel a greater distance, so more force needs to be created. Learning to create more force is one thing, but learning to absorb force is quite another. Absorbing force doesn’t just happen with the lifting of the weight, but also as the weight comes down. Since we see the majority of sporting injuries occur during such deceleration, we need to be aware that lifting in the Power Clean means also learning how to absorb force from a higher positions. Don’t get me wrong, the DVRT Power Clean is relatively easy to teach and learn. Yet different lifters can face different obstacles. In beginners, being fearful of the “catch” can make it difficult to fully commit to the Power Clean, resulting in a less than optimal lift. Creating a lot of force that you can actually control is challenging for some people. Unfortunately, for the accelerative DVRT exercises we are describing, we can’t change speed incrementally like we would some of the other variables. Trying to go “kinda fast” usually results in poor technique development and actually places the lifter at a greater risk for injury. That is one of the big reasons we spend so much time on the progressive movements mentioned earlier in this section – to build some of the base qualities that will be used in these exercises. Probably one of the most difficult concepts to get across to people that are new to accelerative lifts is to avoid lifting with the arms. Just like in the Bear Hug Clean, the arms are simply an extension of the hips. Because we have a very upper body-dominant culture, developing this concept can be challenging and we may have to use another exercise to help remove the tendency to use the arms.

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A Detour In over 20 years in fitness, I have learned there is no such thing as the perfect exercise. Instead, the right exercise is one that helps you meet your individual goal. Very honestly, the Power Clean may not be an ideal exercise for some at the beginning. Again, we are teaching it as a positional lift, but we can use another very powerful drill to teach many of the components of the Power Clean – the High Pull. Before we delve too deeply into the High Pull, let me remind you coaches of something. If I ask you the purpose of coaching, most might say something like, “to teach,” or “to get results,” and you would be right! However, we are also in the experience industry. I have seen many very smart and qualified coaches frustrate clients because they are not being flexible enough to find the right exercises for their clients. If you or the client become frustrated, chances are good that you won’t stay on this or any program for very long. So, I ask that you try the methods I am going to share with you even if you feel as though you can teach the Power Clean to anyone! Taking the time to learn such strategies allows you to problem solve when necessary. The High Pull will be a powerful tool in your toolbox. It’s something you can go to quite often, but on occasion you won’t need it to teach the Power Clean. Even if this is the case, I will explain why the High Pull is a very useful exercise and can enhance your experience and your clients’ learning. The High Pull has many advantages, according to former US Air Force Strength Coach, Allen Hedrick: “The movement pattern used when performing the clean high pull is very similar to those commonly seen in many sports. The majority of the power developed in either the clean or the snatch occurs during the second pull phase (the movement from just above the knee until the bar reaches approximately sternum height)... As discussed, one advantage of the clean high pull over the full clean is that the athlete doesn’t have to catch the bar. As a result, you can typically use heavier loads. This is especially true for athletes with technique issues in the catch phase where a lighter than optimal load must be used because of their inability to catch the bar correctly. This heavy load, combined with the fast bar velocity seen in this movement, is responsible for the high power outputs that occur when performing this exercise (an average of 52 watts per kilogram for male athletes).” (Tnation.com, 2012) 60

Coach Hedrick also cites the lower injury potential of this exercise as the perfect lift for those wanting to develop power. We want to use the High Pull for all the reasons that Coach Hedrick mentioned, as well as some others that are rather unique to the DVRT system. One of the other main advantages of the High Pull is that , because there is less emphasis on technique compared to the Clean or Snatch, we can spend time focusing on key principles. Our primary goal in the High Pull is to teach people how to make the weight weightless as it comes up the body. To remove fear and enhance the technique associated with pulling weight explosively up the body, we need to learn how to create powerful extension through the body. Using the arms too early in these accelerative lifts often causes the body to create flexion versus extension. Flexion in the body shows itself with the biceps flexing, the shoulder rolling forward, the chest dropping downwards, and the trunk rolling in. When this occurs we cannot create the power and position that is required to perform these more dynamic lifts.

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One of the primary reasons athletes use Olympic lifts in their training is to stimulate what is known as triple extension. That is the rapid extension of the foot, ankle, knee, and hip. We see this type of synergistic action when we run or jump. If you want to experience the impact of this chain, try this: Get ready to jump as high as you can. Before you leap, point your toes upward Now JUMP! Chances are you are going to feel almost glued to the ground and be unable to produce much force. This shows you how to just altering the foot/ankle in the chain can greatly change the amount of force you can create.

Before you leap, point your toes upward.

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Don’t worry, I am not going to have you focus on these three components. They happen as a byproduct of applying the right amount of force in the right places. This chain, though, will help the weight in your High Pull appear weightless in the arms. If you are feeling an arm pump or as though you did a set of upright rows after performing the High Pull, you know you aren’t doing it quite right! The High Pull is rather easy to learn partially because it’s easier to identify common mistakes. The setup is identical to the deadlift (making it even more important that we feel proficient in the deadlift), and the movement of the weight is the same . However, the difference is in the amount of force and speed we use in the High Pull. Instead of just trying to “stand tall” with the deadlift, we are going to think of EXPLODING, almost like a jump with the High Pull. Upon starting the High Pull, the USB should travel straight up the body, reaching right about chest height. When the USB reaches chest height, the elbows should be higher than the USB and not pointing downward. Position of the elbows will ultimately help determine whether we get that great full body extension we are looking to achieve, or fall into more of a flexed posture. The elbows can tell you a lot about the quality of the High Pull and should be one of the first things we key on in the movement.

When the USB reaches chest height, the elbows should be higher than the USB and not pointing downward.

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What happens next is very different from what happens in many Olympic lifting circles. After this explosive pull that occurs in the High Pull, many Olympic lifters will “dump” the weight. Meaning they don’t try to come down with the weight, as that is often viewed as very risky. In DVRT we actually will teach you how to come down with the USB. But why risk it? Eccentric forces happen all the time in real life situations – when we run, jump, and even in every day activities. I remember many years ago performing hill sprints on a rather rocky hill. The somewhat unstable surface of rocks seemed to create a pretty cool training effect when I was running upward, but was more than a bit nerve wrecking when I was jogging back down. All of a sudden I lost my footing, and one of my legs started to fly out in front of me. As soon as this happened, my other leg INSTANTLY caught me! I remember this so vividly because I was shocked at how one leg caught my body in the matter of an instant! My hamstrings and glutes had to contract within milliseconds to ensure I didn’t fall. While most coaches and programs will talk a great deal about producing force, the truth is we can’t be close to complete unless we know how to stop or decelerate efficiently. Even in this book we have discussed the power the hamstrings and glutes can develop, but these muscles also spend a great deal of time acting as decelerators and resisting forces acting upon the body. Why is training the body eccentrically and learning these deceleration components important?

The elbows should not be lower than the USB and not be pointing downward.

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Scientists have known for some time that these movements contain both concentric and eccentric actions. Together they produce more efficient movement. A 2003 article in the Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy: “Muscles operate eccentrically to either dissipate energy for decelerating the body or to store elastic recoil energy in preparation for a shortening (concentric) contraction. The muscle forces produced during this lengthening behavior can be extremely high, despite the requisite low energetic cost.” As with all other forms of training, though, the eccentric training must be performed incrementally and with great purpose. The primary reason that these DVRT accelerative lifts are taught after a foundation of hip hinging has been established is because of the high forces they create not only upon lifting the weight, but also while lowering the weight. The first series of hip hinge progressions is very powerful because it allow us to slowly learn how to move and absorb much lower eccentric forces. There are three reasons that people can experience injuries during very fast deceleration: 1. Poor Flexibility/Mobility: In quickly lowering a weight, you simply do not have time to consciously think about how you are moving. The body relies on more pre-programmed (feedforward neural loops) training and capabilities. If you don’t move well from a specific area of your body, another area is bound to take up the work and can become excessively loaded. Poor flexibility and mobility can make it almost impossible for you to attain a good lifting posture that can efficiently dissipate large forces. 2. Lack of Strength: It is easy to become enamored by how “cool” a lot of these accelerative lifts look. However, because we are dealing with much higher forces, we need not only strength in developing high levels of force, also in absorbing them. As biomechanics and strength training expert Dr. Michael Yessis, states, “When the shift is ultimately made to explosiveness training, the forces created in these exercises reach as much as twenty times your body weight. To withstand such forces, you must have already concentric, eccentric, and isometric strength.” (Yess, p. 149) 3. Improper Movement Patterns: If we don’t know how to get into the right postures and positions, we can quickly overload the wrong structures of the body. This is why we teach the slow tempo deadlift before drills like the High Pull. A common error in decelerating the weight from the High Pull is occurs when the shoulders to round forward during the descent. Working on the slow tempo deadlifts (and their variations) prior to such explosive lifts teaches people how to “catch” their shoulders in the right place. By learning to maintain the tension in the underarm during the hip hinge progressions, we are starting to pattern this for use in other drills, such as the High Pull. 65

That is why I need to reinforce to you that DVRT isn’t about just teaching you more exercises, but a system of progressive movement! Being aware of what we are trying to accomplish in these lifts allows us to not only gain the benefits we desire, but also avoid some of the common pitfalls. More than anything, the purpose of this discussion is developing awareness, as the whole point of using the High Pull prior to the Power Clean is that it is a relatively easy lift to learn. It’s ideal for a relative beginner.

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When you focus on what you are trying to achieve and how to do it safely, you start to see how powerful the High Pull can become. The primary goal of the High Pull is to teach the lifter how to make the weight feel weightless in the arms and how to remove some of the fear of the USB coming into their body. Within a few sets of performing the High Pull, the lifter should be able to perform the Power Clean with much more confidence and proficiency. In fact, I love to use the simple combination of High Pulls to Power Cleans that Senior DVRT instructor Troy Anderson created. You can use either a 2 or 3:1 ratio of High Pulls to Power Cleans for this drill. The idea is to take advantage of the “groove” you get by performing a few High Pulls to then hit a great Power Clean. From a coaching perspective, this allows our clients to practice very specific concepts. However, from a client or lifter’s perspective, we get to both train important attributes and get a workout! The only precaution here is that you must make sure the set terminates once technique in either lift appears to be deteriorating. An ideal starting point is to perform a cycle of two High Pulls and one Power Clean three to four successive times and then rest.

DVRT High Pull Checklist • Begin in the same position as the deadlift. • Explode by trying to “jump” the USB to chest height. • Drive the elbows upward, pointing them toward the sky. • Open the chest. Don’t collapse and flex as you pull the USB upwards. • Quickly drive the hips back and catch the USB with the upper body, and don’t let the shoulder round forward. • If done properly, there should be little to no sound upon the USB returning to the ground.

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Back to the Power Clean With some quick work we can get people performing the Power Clean in a short amount of time and feel accomplished in the process. I would still caution against making the Power Clean a core exercise until some additional time is spent developing quality in the High Pull. Especially in light of the new era of strength-metabolic training, the High Pull would be able to be performed with more quality for a longer period during fatigue than the Power Clean. Use the Power Clean for some time as a more technical lift until the lifter demonstrates proper proficiency in the drill. What makes for “proper proficiency”? Since 2005, I have had the opportunity to work with a lot of different populations and develop some standards I look for lifters to obtain to prove they have built the skill to use the Power Clean as a primary exercise.

Performance Keys of the Power Clean—the lifter must perform 10 repetitions while doing the following • Proper starting alignment on every repetition with the hips and shoulders in the correct position without any bend in the elbows. • USB starts close to the shins. • The USB stays close to the body on the entire lift, with the elbows never extending in front of the body. • Upon receiving the USB in the catch, there is no impact upon the chest. Instead, there’s a “scooping” action of the arms underneath the USB. • USB is lowered by simultaneously driving the hips back and unwinding the arms with the elbow never moving forward from the body. • The USB is received back in the start position with minimal impact on the ground. Sound is a good gauge here. A loud “thump” is indicative of losing control of the eccentric.

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Proper lowering of the Power Clean.

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Proper performance of the Power Clean.

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Handles in wrong position.

Wrong handles.

Over using arms.

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But What About the Olympics? Discussion of the Power Clean cannot be complete without distinguishing the differences between the Power Clean and Clean. While Olympic lifting has seen quite a rebirth in recent years, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding regarding the “whys” of specific lifts and their place in various fitness programs. The primary goal of Olympic lifting is to lift the more weight. The Clean we see in the Olympics allows the lifter to pull more weight a shorter distance. The Power Clean is usually used by non-Olympic lifting athletes as a means of improving what is known as rate of force development (RFD). What is RFD? Most sporting actions occur at incredible speeds. In some of these situations, athletes can be very strong, but if it takes them too long to express their strength then they may never be able to us their potential in the sport. RFD looks at taking that strength and teaching the athlete how to use his or her strength faster. Below is a little example illustrating who may actually be the stronger athlete. Athlete A can squat 500 pounds. It takes Athlete A .2 seconds to develop 200 pounds of force. At .4 seconds Athlete A has almost 400 pounds of force, and at up to .8 seconds can develop the full 500 pounds. Athlete B can squat 350 pounds. It takes Athlete B .2 seconds to develop 250 pounds of force and only .3 seconds to develop the full 350 pounds of force. If we were looking at the speed at which most sporting and every day activities occur, we should expect Athlete B to actually perform at a higher level. Why? Even though Athlete B cannot develop as much total force as Athlete A, Athlete B can produce force more quickly. A full second is actually a very long time in the world of sports, so an athlete needs to be strong and fast. The Olympic lift variations are thought to help the development of this type of speed. The Olympic lifts themselves don’t usually develop actual strength. Instead, strength comes through a host of assistance exercises that these lifters perform over their careers. Since RFD is the primary goal, we need to only really focus on the Power Clean and not the Clean. Performing the actual Clean provides very little or no additional benefit compared to the Power Clean. In fact, Strength Coach and Olympic lifting expert Will Fleming states, “I teach hang power clean exclusively to my athletes. Equal RFD, and a much faster rate of acquisition.” If we can get the same benefit and avoid unnecessary risk and frustration, it seems like a win-win.

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Shouldering There is definitely something primal about grabbing something from the ground and tossing it over your shoulder. We can easily envision cavemen grabbing their kill and tossing it over their shoulders to carry it back to their camp. While this action may be primal, a lot that has changed in our ability to safely reproduce these “primal” actions . Squatting and pull-ups are quite primal, and yet we struggle in our modern society to perform them well. Shouldering has far more complexity because of the nature of the both the implement and the movement. Just like the Bear Hug Clean, Shouldering requires us to assume a very deep position if we choose to lift the USB off of the ground. The same precautions should also be taken to ensure that you – or your client – are able to maintain the proper lifting posture. I realize some people actually encourage a rounded back posture, which has been noted to help athletes in combat sports. In John Jesse’s 1974 landmark book, “The Encyclopedia of Wrestling Conditioning,” he writes, “The use of heavy sandbag and their large circumference forces the lifter to do this lifting with a round back instead of the traditional straight back lifting with a barbell...It develops the low back and side muscles in movements that are identical to the lifting and pulling movements of wrestling.” (Jesse, p. 204) Ironically, Jesse points to a tragic end in the same book, emphasizing that the athletes he was seeing in his more modern era didn’t posses the same conditioning or work ethic he once observed in previous years. “...the English speaking countries, particularly America and Canada, were faced with cultural problems. With machines doing most of the work the majority of young men entering athletics were not drawn from a background of labor work in the mines, on the farms, in forests or on the docks.” (Jesse, p. 65) While it is easy to want to implement very elite method that Jesse suggests in rounded back lifting, we have to be even more cautious and aware of the fact that most athletes shouldn’t be placing themselves at such risk. Over 30 years later, Western cultures have not become more progressive in their health and fitness training. Instead, the decline has continued. Take home message? Lift with the suggested postures in this book! The set-up to Shouldering is the same as the Bear Hug Clean, and now it should be evident why we discussed the Bear Hug Clean as a precursor to Shouldering. Because it requires far more force to get the USB over the shoulder with the Bear Hug Clean, learning the Bear Hug Clean prior to Shouldering establishes a great foundation. We can even use our starting point in the performance of the Bear Hug Clean as our base for Shouldering.

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Correct Shouldering set-up.

Incorrect set-up.

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The primary difference with shouldering is that the weight will be brought to one side of the body. Shouldering is the first time we see the role of asymmetrical loading in the form of weight versus body position. During the earlier hip hinge progressions, as soon as we exposed the body to asymmetrical loading as soon as we began to split the legs. However, the weight remained balanced and evenly in front of our body. Shouldering places a great deal of emphasis and stress on the asymmetrical loading position. Even though the weight begins in the same position as the Bear Hug Clean, as soon as the pull begins the weight starts to be transferred to one side of the body. The motion of the weight moving as it is being lifted has several profound effects on our training. The primary goal in all our asymmetrical loading patterns is to challenge the body’s ability to maintain its alignment and posture while producing force. The body experiences a great deal of complexity in movement, even though this seems like it would be a relatively simple activity. We see asymmetrical loading all the time in every day activities such as carrying groceries or holding a child. Yet people who regularly do these activities tend to be prone to experiencing low back issues because we rarely prepare our bodies for these unique stresses. What is so different about asymmetrical loading? It requires a synergistic balance of production of force from one area of the body and resisting forces from another. Leading spinal expert, Dr. McGill, writes in his book “Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance”, about how unique this movement is to the body. In his study of elite competitive strongmen, the body actually uses stability to help create force and balance: “Curiously they needed more hip abduction strength to succeed in events such as Super Yoke and the Suitcase carry than they could create in their hips. How could they perform a feat of strength that was beyond what a joint could produce? We quantified asymmetric carries such as the suitcase carry and found that quadratus and the abdominal wall were challenged to create this unique but essential athleticism.” (McGill, http://www.craigliebenson.com) The “core” seems to be greatly elevated during such asymmetrical loading positions due to this need to create force and stability at the same time. However, this concept has largely been relegated to carrying weight, and ignored in many of our strength lifts. Coaches and athletes alike tend to skip asymmetrical loading during their strength training. This probably traces back more to a battle with ego than with any sound scientific principles. Upon what do I base such a strong comment? Most coaches and athletes are quite humbled by what asymmetrical loading does to their ability to use weights. Unfortunately, we get caught up in a numbers game rather than focusing on the value of these lifts. Asymmetrical drills take far more coordination, 75

stability, and varying types of strength than their more stable relatives. Dr. McGill even points out such stable drills don’t address the full needs of athletes: “World-class strongmen (who carry heavy loads) nor professional football and soccer players who run, plant the foot and cut are trained with the squat, as it does not emphasize the quadratus lumborum or the abdominal obliques (which these athletes use). Have clients spend less time doing squats, and redirect them to asymmetric carries, such as the farmer’s walk or bottoms-up kettlebell carry which build the needed athleticism in a much more “spine-friendly” way. In great athletes, power is generated in the hips and transmitted through the stiffened core.” (McGill, 281)

DVRT Shouldering Checklist • Assume the same starting position as in the Bear Hug Clean. • Get the body set before lifting and begin with a fuller USB. • Create more force, as the distance required to get the USB into position is more than required with the Bear Hug Clean. • Proper Shouldering should create little “hard” impact upon the shoulder. • Hold the USB on the shoulder for a few seconds to learn how to absorb the asymmetrical lifting position. • Upon descending, place the opposing arm upon the USB to help decelerate the weight downward.

Compensation laterally.

• Quickly drive the hips back and keep the USB close to the body.

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The Snatch You may have been wondering, are we going to talk about the Snatch? You may have already been eyeballing the workouts wondering, “Where are we going to Snatch?” As recently as 2005, the Snatch was a nearly forgotten exercise. Fast forward a few short years and you can find some form of the Snatch as much as you can a squat. Thanks to the increased popularity of kettlebells and the re-birth of Olympic lifting by groups like Crossfit, the snatch has come back full force! Some derive a lot of mystique from the Snatch, and in some ways, they’re right to do so! The snatch is one of the more athletic-looking lifts, and requires the entire body to sequence just right to make the movement appear effortless, powerful, and athletic. However, in terms of the DVRT system, the Snatch is simply another holding position. Yes, there are some unique benefits and considerations to the movement of the Ultimate Sandbag, but really we are just hitting a higher end point. Believe it or not, many old time strongmen saw the original form of Snatching in a very similar way. Where the Clean was simply getting the weight from the ground to their shoulders in one “clean” motion, the Snatch was viewed as a means of getting the weight overhead in a quick motion. Instead of stopping at the shoulders and then pressing the weight overhead, the Snatch required the power of the hips. Even then, strongmen realized the hips is where power really began. One and two-arm snatches were quite common. Dumbbell, barbell, or kettlebell, the goal was the same. In order to get the weight quickly overhead, the entire body had to work together to lift great loads. As the sport of Olympic weightlifting grew in popularity, different versions of the Snatch evolved. Most of the techniques we see today are based upon the sport of Olympic weightlifting, where the goal is to lift as much weight as possible. Therefore, we see the adoption of specific techniques centering around this goal as well. This is perfect for those that wish to be accomplished in the sport. However, you don’t have to be an Olympic weightlifter to benefit from the Snatch. Understanding that the Snatch is a higher holding position, we then understand that it is the most explosive hip hinge. In order to get the Ultimate Sandbag to the catch position, we have to create more force considering the height of the catch. The actual act of Snatching the Ultimate Sandbag is a combination of the barbell and kettlebell. We don’t, and shouldn’t, swing the Ultimate Sandbag between our legs, so we can’t get the preload that many often achieve with kettlebells. The start more closely resembles the barbell because the Ultimate Sandbag begins right against our shins from a dead stop. But this is where the similarities to the barbell end! 77

Many lifters become confused because the handles of the Ultimate Sandbag in relationship to the weight are much different than with the barbell. That is why I like Cleaning the Ultimate Sandbag. Snatching can feel quite unique as well. The handles can start the weight a bit higher than the barbell (especially in larger Ultimate Sandbags), and by changing the start position we change several dynamics of the Snatch. First, we have to move faster to get the weight overhead. We don’t have the range of motion in the legs to build up the speed. Secondly, many lifters feel as though they have to create even more extension through the entire body because the center of mass is further from the handles. In other words, you can get a very explosive movement with an Ultimate Sandbag Snatch even though the weights will be lower than that of a barbell. The rotation of the USB over our hands is very similar to standard kettlebell movements. If you have good kettlebell technique, you should be able to rather quickly adapt to the Ultimate Sandbag. There are, however, some differences that can provide a very different feel. These include the fact that the Ultimate Sandbag has no weight in the handles, and that all the load is at the bottom of the Ultimate Sandbag. This means that we have more weight coming over the top of our arms and have to be more exact with the movement.

Holding the USB with improper Thoracic Extension

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The biggest mistake in Snatching either a kettlebell or Ultimate Sandbag is very similar. Most people don’t feel strong, but can anticipate the need to move fast. Consequently, they over-grip the USB handles. The problem with over-gripping is that it doesn’t allow the Ultimate Sandbag to rotate properly. Like the kettlebell, it can cause a rather violent swinging of the weight and an unhealthy impact upon the forearm. A rather loose grip is required to allow the rotation of the Ultimate Sandbag over the arms. The key is to think of driving the Ultimate Sandbag’s weight straight up and not to swing the weight out away from the body. All the components of the DVRT accelerative drills stay true and have to come together to get that perfect feel where the lower body drives the Ultimate Sandbag upwards and the arms explosively dive underneath to receive the weight overhead. It’s a beautiful thing to watch. I have heard one common complaint with the USB Sandbag Snatch. This is that the weight feels like it sits longer on people’s heads. Is this a defect with Snatching Ultimate Sandbags? I began to wonder, until I watched more and more people perform the lift. I found that it wasn’t the Ultimate Sandbag at all; it was the fact that people didn’t have enough mobility and flexibility in their upper bodies to get the Ultimate Sandbag into the correct position. The barbell’s wider grip and the fact that the kettlebell is a singular implement make it easier to hide compensations. However, they are exposed with both arms in a narrow position. If you have the right amount of movement in the upper body, even a Burly Ultimate Sandbag caught overhead won’t come into contact with your head. You will feel the shoulder blades tightly contracting and absorbing the weight. If you find yourself being a bit tight, don’t worry. Stay tuned for some solutions I introduce in the overhead pressing series. 79

Correct holding position and Thoracic Extension.

The Snatch progression.

DVRT Snatch Checklist • Keep the Ultimate Sandbag as close to the shins as possible, with the broad side of the USB facing you. • Grab onto the snatch grip handles and lock the arms.

• Allow the Ultimate Sandbag to rotate through the hands, and catch the weight by squeezing the shoulder blades together and locking the arms overhead.

• Pull the shoulders into the “down and back” position and don’t unlock the arms.

• Coming down requires the simultaneous motions of driving the hips quickly back and unwinding the arms.

• With the weight of your body through your heels, explosively pull the Ultimate Sandbag, with the elbows driving toward the sky.

• Do not let the elbows or the weight swing out away from the body.

• As the Ultimate Sandbag reaches forehead height, begin to slightly dip and drive with the arms locked overhead. 80

• Make sure to “catch” the Ultimate Sandbag in the start position by locking the arms and holding the upper back in place.

The Snatch top position.

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Squatting Progressions A fitness book that quickly transitions from the exercise section with a discussion on squats. How innovative, right? Most people misunderstand how squatting progressions fit into the DVRT system. If you expect me to launch into a discussion about the squat being “the king” of lower body exercises, you’ll be disappointed. Is the squat pattern important in our DVRT system? Absolutely! Is it more important than many of the drills we are going to discuss? Probably not! The squat serves as a perfect example of a series of movements with a stable body position designed to develop foundational skills. Because we are well-balanced compared to other more dynamic lower body exercises, the squat serves as a wonderful base to teach people some fundamental movement skills that will help them eventually progress to some of these more complex movement patterns. Why is the squat NOT the king of all lower body exercises? There are several issues whenever we give a singular exercise such distinction. When we make such claims, they are often tied to the load that can be applied to an exercise. Have we ever seen someone lunging or performing step-ups, or any more unilateral exercise with the same weight as we see in the squat? Not unless these people are hanging out with Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster . It makes sense that we can load the squat more than most other lower body exercises. We are in a stable body position and oftentimes we are using a position (i.e. on the back) that is a very stable and strong loading position. However, does more weight equate to better results? According to one of the top researchers in spinal health and performance, Dr. Stuart McGill, the squat may not be the dominant exercise we make it out to be in training. “Retraining the gluteals cannot be performed with traditional squat exercises that utilize a barbell on the back. Performing a traditional squat requires little hip abduction. Consequently there is little gluteus medius activation and the gluteus maximus activation is delayed during the squat until lower squat angles are reached. It’s a quadriceps exercise. In contrast to the traditional squat, a onelegged squat activates the gluteus medius immediately to assist in the frontal plane hip drive necessary for leaping, running, etc. together with sooner integration of gluteus maximus high in the squat motion.” (McGill, p.224) Learning to squat is important – very important. However, if we stop at squatting, if we always prioritize squatting as our dominant lower body exercise, we are going to become limited in our training. Let’s examine why squatting is so important to learn and why it serves as a foundation for training. 82

The squat does have a ton of benefits that we do want to optimize. Squatting integrates lots of of muscles (especially using the loading patterns in our DVRT system), which is important for functional strength, fat loss, and better performance. As performance and rehabilitation expert Paul Chek states, squatting is one of our “primal movement patterns.” (Chek, 2001) Squats are very natural and utilize fundamental movements. Unfortunately, our current lifestyles of sitting in chairs and such has definitely changed our abilities to squat well. We have lost our ability to squat well, but how does that really negatively impact our health and performance? Physical therapists such as Gray Cook use deep squatting as an assessment tool to measure mobility in the thoracic spine, hips, knees, and ankle. This kinetic chain is important for both squatting and more advanced movement drills. Lack of movement in one or more of these areas can make us more prone to injury or inhibit our ability to develop force or strength. More times than not, injuries begin to form before we ever actually “feel” them. Why? When one segment of our body does not function well, the next link in the chain begins to absorb higher than normal forces. All of a sudden a structure becomes excessively loaded because one of its “teammates” isn’t doing its part. For example, sometimes knee pain can be traced to problems in the ankle or foot. Low back pain can be related to lack of movement in the hips and so on. Remember the classic saying, “We are only as strong as our weakest link!” We are probably also only as injury-resistant as our least mobile area. Learning the foundational squatting patterns does allow us to build a great base of strength and, as mentioned, movement skills. These principles in the squatting pattern will serve as the basis for more complex skills.

The Bear Hug Squat Our hip hinging patterns taught us how to bring the USB into our Bear Hug position. As I explained in the Bear Hug Clean, this position is our most stable holding position for lower body dominant drills. In the squatting patterns, the Bear Hug is especially important because of the counterbalance the weight of the USB provides. There has been no shortage of well known strength coaches that have insisted, “Learn to use bodyweight before moving to weight.” Such statements assume that we are always using weight to make movements more challenging. The truth is that we can use weight to help provide us feedback in performing the correct alignment and posture for our exercises.

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Bad Bodyweight Squat.

We see this in real life training all the time. When we ask novice trainees to perform bodyweight squats, they tend to have all sorts of compensation patterns. One of the most common occurs when trainees lean forward as they squat. At first glance this might seem like an issue with the hip flexors. While that might be the case, something very interesting happens when we suggest slight changes such as placing some pressure on a post or another stable object. By simply gaining a little stability, the squat of the individual usually improves by leaps and bounds. Did this person just become more flexible? Probably not. Instead, what likely happened is that we reduced their body’s own braking system. Our body naturally tries to protect us when it perceives danger. One of the most common means for doing so is creating flexion in the body. Ever noticed when you try to balance on what feels to be an unstable surface, your body tends to clench more? We see tension in the jaw, the biceps, and other standard flexors of the body. This is part of our early infant response to danger and is an attempt to protect 84

our bodies and gain stability. If we can remove fear or, in the case of squatting, the stress of an unfamiliar movement, the body can start to use the right muscles and patterns. The Bear Hug Squat functions in much the same way, except instead of holding onto an object for balance, the weight of the USB will provide a counterbalance to help the lifter stay in a better squat position. The Bear Hug position is so powerful that we will even see more seasoned lifters able to obtain more upright postures via the Bear Hug Squat.

The Bear Hug Squat.

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Why is this upright position important? As a 1989 study by Russell et al, found, “....low back injury risk was influenced more by trunk inclination” (University of Maryland, Department of Education). The more we “lean forward” during a squat, the more pressure we experience in the low back. We must ask ourselves the true goal of the squat. Is it to load the legs or the low back? I would imagine most of you answered the legs. The upright posture in the Bear Hug Squat will begin to become the more standard position in bodyweight squats. This means we are getting stronger, but also patterning a healthier and important movement skill. A more upright torso has two other benefits that are important for our health and performance. Most people will find being upright in their squat allows them to squat much deeper. An increased depth during a squat will help create mobility in the ankles, knees, and hips, but also, as McGill states, “...gluteus maximus activation is relatively low until quite deep in the squat position.” (McGill, p.244) The trouble with getting into the deep squat position is that most people do not possess the ability to do so without rounding their low back or pelvis as they assume the deep squat position. The idea is to be able to squat deeply without losing the position of the low back or pelvis. Again, the counterbalance of the USB in the Bear Hug position helps people get much closer to obtaining this deep squat position. The strategies are something that top strength coaches like Eric Cressey have found to be very valuable to teaching their athletes the RIGHT squat. “If you give these athletes a counterbalance out in front of their body, though, their squat patterns ‘clean up’ very quickly,” Cressey says. One of the most important features of the Bear Hug Squat is that it teaches us to integrate the upper and lower bodies. Just as we discussed with the hip hinge progressions, the upper back and body can determine a lot of what happens to the low back during the squat. In fact, Eric Cressey again hits on one of the major mistake a lot of lifters make in performing the squat: “Your athletes will also never transfer force correctly to the bar if it’s not solidly positioned on the upper back. Activating the lats and pulling the bar down into the upper back immediately tightens the entire upper body. Also, given the lats’ attachment on the thoracolumbar fascia, it increases core stability as well.” Using the barbell in this manner is very important for safety and strength. However, it is absolutely impossible to do with any other object in this position other than the barbell. Holding the USB in front of the body in the Bear Hug Position allows us to create this same type of contraction and action in a different manner. The result is the same, though, creating stability and strength.

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Holding the USB in the Bear Hug position requires us to have an “active” upper body. We DO NOT want to casually hold the weight. Rather, we want to focus on trying to rip the USB apart with our forearms. Trying to focus on this action, we see our elbows start to drive towards our ribs, which creates tension in the underarm (lats) and between the shoulder blades. This position usually determines the quality of the squat and the ability to perform numerous repetitions. In order to optimize the Bear Hug Squat’s potential, we have to understand some of the mistakes people make when using it. The Bear Hug Squat is both an easy exercise to coach and one for which it’s easy to identify very glaring compensations. Let me briefly cover some of these common mistakes so that you can ensure you safely benefit from the Bear Hug Squat.

Too light of a weight When we start a new exercise, we often assume using a lighter weight is safer. While using too light of a USB will not hurt you, the light weight will also not provide the counterbalance that allows you to benefit from the Bear Hug Squat. It is a classic Goldilocks challenge – not too heavy, not too light, but just right. How can you tell the difference? The upper body can’t support a weight that’s too heavy. A very obvious sign of the USB being too heavy is the shoulders shrugging upwards. In essence, the body is trying to use the dominant (although they shouldn’t be) upper traps instead of the lower lat and trap in the upper back. The shoulders should be able to remain “down and back” if the weight of the USB is appropriate. How about if the weight is too light? We should be able to notice a difference between our ability to bodyweight squat and our posture in the Bear Hug Squat. If you are finding that you don’t balance more on your heels and you are not finding yourself in a more upright posture, you may want to try to use a heavier USB.

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Excessively small USB Remember, the dimension of the USB will sometimes impact the outcome of an exercise. Why would the dimension of the USB impact the Bear Hug Squat? The answer goes back to weight distribution. Part of the reason that the Bear Hug Squat is so effective is that the weight below the midline of the arms that helps “pull” the body into position. If we use a small USB then we don’t get any of the weight distribution below this midline and we don’t receive the help in grooving that better squat.

Squatting with different dimension USBs.

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Excessively flexible USB Very early in this book, I spoke about the problem with how many people saw odd objects was that they were always unstable. I went on to state that my goal in developing the DVRT program is to address the fact that this doesn’t make these tools progressive. Let’s use the Bear Hug Squat for a great example. If I am using a very loosely filled USB, as I assume the Bear Hug Squat position I am likely to notice one of two things. The most profound is that the weight will fold over and the top half will be moving away from my body. This creates a longer lever from the arm to the trunk and upper back and makes the same weight feel MUCH heavier. A loosely filled USB may also have the weight shift towards the bottom as one holds it in the Bear Hug position. This means that as we are performing repetitions of the Bear Hug Squat the weight is getting heavier. Obviously we don’t want to handle the most amount of weight as we are fatiguing. Therefore, you will want to select a more densely filled USB.

Folding over USB.

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Relaxing the upper body As previously mentioned, the upper body will do a lot to determine your position throughout the Bear Hug Squat. Tension applied into the USB is going to make the difference in being able to maintain that more upright posture as you fatigue or not.

Sitting back first In most traditional back squatting techniques, we are taught to “sit the hips back” as an initial cue. This is done to get the pelvis moving in the right direction and to somewhat counteract the load upon the upper back. Because the weight distribution is different in the Bear Hug Squat, I recommend cuing “knees out” first. This cue helps create space for the pelvis to move, and then we can sit back into the motion. Otherwise we can create an unnecessary lever arm on the low back.

Because the weight distribution is different in the Bear Hug Squat, I recommend cuing “knees out” first.

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How the Bear Hug Squat differs from the Goblet Squat.

DVRT Bear Hug Squat Checklist • Wrap the arms around the middle of the USB.

• As you descend, work to maintain greater tension in the upper back.

• Pull the shoulders down and back, elbows pulling into the ribs.

• Descend into the lowest position possible, trying to sit back upon the heels.

• Begin by pushing the knees outward and slowly begin to sit the hips back after the knees begin to bend.

• Pause for a brief moment and drive through the feet to accelerate the body upward.

• Try to push the knees outwards without allowing the feet to rotate excessively outward.

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Front Loaded Squat A good DVRT Power Clean will set you up to succeed at the Front Loaded Squat. Just as with all drills performed in the Front Loaded position, the squat is going to tax the trunk as well as the lower body. Those that have a weak trunk will find the Front Loaded Squat very humbling. The Front Loaded Squat truly makes the squat a full body exercise. Yes, the lower body is still very dominant, but we can see weaknesses through the trunk and upper back that make it an overall body exercise. Unlike the Bear Hug Squat, the Front Loaded Squat inhibits how much the weight is helping us move and starts to stress our movement skills to a higher degree. However, with the load placement in the Front Hold position, we are still able to maintain a more upright posture than with most other forms of squatting. Since the many benefits of the Front Loaded position have already been covered, let’s address how to optimize the Front Loaded Squat and how to avoid some of the more common mistakes.

Making Front Loaded Squat into a Front Squat Whenever I am in front of fitness professionals and ask them what exercise the Front Loaded position reminds them of, the answer is almost always “Front Squat.” The differentiation between the Front Squat and the Front Loaded position is not just a matter of semantics. As discussed earlier, the Front Squat has the entire body support the weight. Even though it appears as though the weight is resting upon the shoulders, the entire body gives strength to the exercise. If we treated the Front Hold Squat like the Front Squat, we would not be able to support much weight or for any type of duration. The fact that the USB would have to literally be supported by the shoulders makes it impossible to appropriately stress the lower body. The Front Loaded Squat is somewhere in between the Zercher and Front Squat. The weight of the USB sits higher than that with a Zercher and lower than with a Front Squat. Consequently, we don’t want to begin with the body in the wrong position. The incorrect lifting position would appear with our elbows much higher, as is typical in the Front Squat (the upper arm parallel to the ground). Instead, we want to see our upper arms tucked into our ribs and our forearms more perpendicular to the ground.

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The Front Loaded Squat should have the upper arms tucked into the ribs and the forearms more perpendicular to the ground.

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Being lazy in the upper body I see it all the time, more so with Ultimate Sandbags than you would see in barbell Zercher Squats. The dimension of the Ultimate Sandbag requires more activity from the upper body to maintain proper posture and alignment. To avoid this, after you clean the USB and tightly press into your chest, you should not see your arms extend during the exercise. If the elbow starts to extend, then you are done for in the lift, as your biceps are not going to be able to support the weight and this will pull the upper body into a bad “crunch” position.

Don’t flare elbows out.

Don’t round upper or lower back.

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An active upper body is absolutely critical for postural alignment, but it will also be tremendously helpful to have your body over the right base of support. A lot of times, as the weight of the USB pulls people forward, their body feels as though it is shifting more towards the toes. We want to be more mid-foot to heels when we are squatting. As you descend into the squat, the more you pull the USB into your body, the more you will find yourself staying over the mid-foot/heels, rather than moving toward the toes. This simple strategy will make you feel stronger and definitely save your knees!

The right elbows at the right time I just stated that you should have your elbows tucked into your ribs. That is true to start the Front Loaded Squat and a good general rule of thumb. However, the reality is that as you squat, your elbows will come slightly upward. Your elbows should never obtain the position you would find in the classic barbell squat, but slight elevation forward is appropriate. In fact, cuing the elbows is very important for coming out of the bottom of the position without flexing forward. The transition from the bottom to rising upward should be done with control. No bouncing to use momentum. Using the bottom position appropriately, we can gauge the use and strength of our hamstrings and glutes while teaching great body control. The reason most people cheat during this section of the squat is because it is very challenging and humbling. However, we can use strategic cuing to really help with this process. Upon reaching the bottom of the Front Loaded Squat, pause for a brief moment, and simultaneously drive through the heels and try to drive the elbows upward. The action of the elbows creates extension in the upper back and helps stay you tall rather than flexing forward in this weaker position.

Not enough time under tension If we are going to make the comparison of the Front Loaded Squat to that of the Front Plank, then the programming needs to match. Some people use the Front Hold Squat but choose to move very quickly through all portions of the lift. This is partially due to an attempt to use momentum to overcome a challenging position, and it can also be due to a lack of control. In either scenario, we can clean up a lot of these issues by slowing down the movement, predominately the lowering phase. In training of the Front Plank we will generally use extended timed intervals to build trunk endurance. We can do the same thing in the Front Loaded position in two different ways.

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1. Slow Down the lowering phase: Focus on lowering yourself from anywhere from a four to six second count. Once at the bottom position try to accelerate to the start without flexing forward. 2. 1 1/4s: One of the most challenging types of training 1 1/4s accomplishes a few goals at once. We extend the time under tension of the set and we emphasize the hardest portions of the lift. Descend slowly (about three to four seconds) into the bottom of the squat. Pause for a one to two second count. Then rise only a quarter of the way and pause for another one to two count. Slowly descend back into the bottom position without bouncing, and pause for another one to two seconds. Then accelerate all the way to the start position. That is one repetition! With these changes in tempo and time under tension, you may quickly find yourself adjusting the weight of the USB you are using and the number of repetitions you are planning for in your training. The benefits of such training will definitely reward your patience and better programming.

The Front Loaded Squat executed with good technique.

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DVRT Front Loaded Squat Checklist • After cleaning the USB, pull in to the body, trying to bring the USB as closely into the body as possible. • Pull the shoulders down and back; keep a tall chest. • Begin to squat by slightly pressing the knees outward. • The elbows will slightly elevate as you descend into the squat. The elbows should not have to rise to parallel to the ground. • Once the bottom position is reached, “DRIVE” the elbows upwards and push through the feet to help create extension in the torso.

Shoulder Squat You can always tell when a training tool has a long, storied history. It doesn’t take more than looking at the signs of many different gyms to see a variety of training silhouettes that are integrated into a gym’s logo and the member’s consciousness. You can see images of deadlifting with a barbell, kettlebell snatches, sprinting, etc. I would say if you had to think of the same in the world of DVRT, many would jump and say “SHOULDER SQUATS!” The image of Shoulder Squats is definitely a byproduct of the long history of sandbags and other odd objects. We may be able to attribute this to the fact it is one of the positions, like the upper back in barbell training, where we can expose the body to a great deal of load. After all, it would be far more efficient to carry a heavy odd object on our shoulders than on our backs. We can imagine ancient civilizations carrying heavy objects to build their houses and structures by heaving them upon their shoulders. Primitive cultures are often imagined carrying their kill over their shoulder. In fact, the idea of carrying a weight upon one’s back are a more modern result of the agricultural era. Odd objects would have been awkward to carry on the upper back. Just getting them onto the upper back would have been a feat in and of itself, and probably very inefficient. However, just because it was done once upon a time doesn’t mean we should do it in more modern programs. In the DVRT system, the Shoulder Position is one of the most important and under-appreciated holding positions. Many lifters actually misuse this exercise and holding position because they don’t attempt it with the right intent. Understanding why we are using the Shoulder position and Shoulder Squat will give us 97

insights into what makes the exercise so important, why we see compensations, and how we progress in the movement. When discussing the Front Hold position we used the holding position that parallels the principles of the Front Plank. Understanding the relationship of holding position with our DVRT holding positions we could use a similar comparison of the Shoulder position as a relative of Side Plank. The difference in body positions during these planking sequences changes the emphasis from training muscles to developing kinetic chains. What is a kinetic chain? Whenever our body produces movement, we don’t see one muscle operating alone. Rather, a specific sequencing of many muscles is producing force, resisting force, and creating stability. In physical therapist Diane Lee’s book, The Pelvic Girdle, she identifies four “sling systems” of the body. These different sling systems are chains of the body that help us produce motion. Dysfunction in one area of the chain can create an imbalance of certain muscles and/or problems with other slings. In the performance of Shouldering the USB, we discussed exposing the body to asymmetrical loads. The value became quite obvious, but we also saw that most coaches had relegated such training to the end of a workout, and only to exercises such as various carries. In fact, McGill’s greatest concerns about the squat are that it does not typically train the quadratus lumborum and obliques. These concerns can be addressed by using the Shoulder Squat. Combining the benefits of both movements creates a type of “super hero” exercise.

Don’t shift laterally.

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Of course, like most DVRT drills, the Shoulder Squat is more than throwing the USB up on a shoulder and squatting. The Shoulder Squat is one of the most difficult exercises because the squat already challenges our movement in key areas of the body. Adding the asymmetrical load that we find in the Shoulder Squat just amplifies the challenge of having good movement. How do you know if you have the ability to perform the Shoulder Squat with good technique? I’ll give you two ways, one with a coach and one assuming that you don’t have the luxury of a coach or even a training partner. We do want to be careful with the Shoulder Squat. While it can yield very powerful results, the unique stress we have spoken so much about can tax areas of the body that are quite weak and ill- prepared to absorb this training.

Don’t elevate

In our DVRT certifications, we shoulders. spend a great deal of time breaking down the compensations of the Shoulder Squat. Having a coach or training partner watching your movement can be of great help. Once the USB has been shouldered, have the coach watch you squat from behind. Ask them to imagine a line vertically dissecting you into two equal halves. The ultimate goal is that you are able to squat with the USB upon the shoulder and have your body move relatively the same on both sides. What we are watching for are large deviations from one side or the other. Our general rule is that if you feel as though you need a tape measure to see the difference, then the squat is good! We are looking for LARGE noticeable changes and you will know them when you see them. 99

If the hips look relatively even during the Shoulder Squat, you are not home free yet. You will then want to walk around to the side of the squat and see how the feet appear. Compensation through the feet is extremely common as they move to alter leverage and position of the pelvis. The body is very creative in getting around movement issues. By altering the position of the pelvis to compensate for tightness, the feet shift. We can see one foot become more externally rotated (turned outward), while one foot shifts back from its original position, and/or actually steps outwards from the midline. The foot position is one of the easiest ways to self-assess your Shoulder Don’t move Squat movement. Upon Shouldering feet. the USB, use a line in the ground (many gym floors have small lines in the ground that you can use), or use a dowel rod by your feet. After performing a few repetitions of the Shoulder Squat, look at the feet prior to lowering the USB to see if any shift has occurred. Many lifters are quite astounded how their movement has changed, even though they don’t feel any active movement by their bodies. Again, we aren’t looking for microscopic changes in one’s movement, but rather very distinct changes in position. Am I trying to dissuade you from using the Shoulder Squat? On the contrary, I want you to appreciate the complexity that the Shoulder Squat provides. My sincere hope is that you transform how you see this valuable DVRT exercise and have the patience to work through the DVRT system in order to improve in such core movements. Of course, such a discussion on movement begs the question, “If I see these compensations, how do I get better?” We have to appreciate the fact that complex movements such 100

as the Shoulder Squat do not allow us to pinpoint a specific muscle. Rather, we look at a chain and pattern of muscles in the system. The reason for the various compensations may vary. We can use my own body as a great example. My herniated low back discs actually are pushed more to the right than straight back or the left. When I load the right shoulder during the Shoulder Squat, I have a much more challenging time avoiding compensation because the discs have disrupted the chain on the right side of my body. Knowing someone’s health history can definitely give you insight into the compensation patterns you might see in the Shoulder Squat. In the case of orthopedic issues, you may never actually see a true balance between the two sides. However, we can definitely expect to see improvement in the deviations and a decrease in the amount one side alters its movement. The other reason that we see such compensations in the Shoulder Squat is that we have not patterned the squat well enough. The complexity of the asymmetrical load creates too much neural stress, and our body tries to work around the asymmetrical load and alters the squat pattern. Therefore, it is VERY important that people work through the DVRT progressions to make sure they pattern the squat in increasingly more demanding postures and loads. Most just continue to load in their strongest positions and do little to challenge their postural integrity. Working through Bear Hug and Front Hold DVRT squats enable you to properly develop that squat pattern. This means not just trying to perform them for a few training sessions and then moving on. Instead, try playing with tempos, positions and angles. See if lifters can perform the majority of repetitions, keeping all of the details of these lifts in perfect harmony Without building faulty compensation patterns. I tell coaches all the time that there are no special awards for rushing people to more complex and demanding exercises if their clients have not earned the progression! Outside of just focusing on the foundational squatting patterns, how else can we build this lateral stability? In some of the upcoming DVRT progressions, we are going to see additional strategies we can implement to progressively build these qualities. However, I want to briefly introduce two other concepts within the DVRT model. In the very beginning, I spoke about DVRT being a program and system. That means we are not married to a training tool. We need to use the right tool to accomplish our training goal. Building this lateral stability may require using tools outside of the USB. One of the most obvious and best exercises are side plank drills. Scientists like Dr. McGill have found that progressive Side Plank variations are a great way to isolate and provide more focused training to the quadratus lumborum. Since the QL is often underutilized and weak , making sure that it both possesses good strength and is functioning at a high level is very important. 101

Looking outside of the USB is also very helpful. Remember, this is a system, not an implement-based program. One of the reasons that the Shoulder Squat is so challenging is because we have a combination of axial loading and asymmetrical stress. Having the load directly upon our frame puts a lot of stress on our nervous system to maintain posture while also trying to move. However, we can alter the position of the load and actually decrease the amount of stress we are applying to the body by moving the weight more in front of our body. In order to do so, we are going to have to change implements to the kettlebell. The kettlebell one-arm rack squat is one of the best exercises to progress people from bilateral loading into more asymmetrical positions. Focus on the goal and not the implement!

The Shoulder Squat executed with good technique.

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Identifying one’s weaknesses and experimenting with a few different DVRT concepts should allow you to see progress in the asymmetrical loading positions. While it may seem like quite the process, I can ensure you that you will be rewarded with greater levels of functional strength, movement, and a decreased likelihood of becoming a part of the 80% of the Western population that will experience low back pain!

DVRT Shoulder Squat Checklist • Make sure the body is in proper alignment once the USB is received upon the shoulder. • Watch for the feet moving to compensate, the hips shifting, or the torso leaning. • Begin the squat like the other DVRT squats, but be aware of continual shifting or moving of the feet, torso, or upper body. • Drive through the heels to ascend from the deep squat position. • The opposing arm may extend out to the side to help maintain balance.

The Re-Evolution of Squatting? Understanding our history of strength training allows us to also better understand why things have changed. Many people believe that barbell squatting has been in our training vocabulary ever since the beginning of fitness. The truth of the matter is that barbell squatting is a rather recent creation. For years, squatting with a barbell was done in a great variety of ways with the weight placed in all sorts of positions and squatting ranging from being on the ball of foot, to flat footed, to feet completely together to knees flaring out. The modern back and front squats would only become popular as the creation of squat racks and the sport of Olympic weightlifting gained popularity, but this wasn’t until the 1930s. That means for quite some time, athletes and strongmen built strong legs a variety of ways. A wide variety of squats were key in the development of the old time strongman physique. Somehow, we have lost many of these great lifts. Without knowing it, we made our training more limited and created an even bigger hole in our lower body training. Our goal in DVRT is to create the most progressive movements. When most people begin lower body training, they start with exercises such as squats and deadlifts, and then move to drills such as lunges, step-ups, and single leg deadlifts. As great as these exercises are, this is far from an incremental progression. 103

While most coaches would never dream of just stacking piles of weight on their client set to set, this is exactly what most end up doing when we think in terms of their body position. The body angles and positions of a squat to lunge are not subtly different; they are drastically changing one’s level of stability. For many lifters, this dramatic change in body position can be like adding huge amounts of weight to a lift. Don’t worry, there is a better way! The idea of Staggered Squatting came to me after watching how many athletes would set up in their sports. Wrestling is a perfect example of how athletes need to maintain a stable foundation while still being quick on their feet. In wrestling, many athletes never take a bilateral stance. Having your feet even with each other makes it difficult to change direction and react to an opponent. Of course, in strength training we don’t have to react to a load like an opponent, but wouldn’t it make sense to assume positions a bit closer to what we see in many sporting environments. Isn’t this more “athletic”? I realize changing the way squatting is performed seems outrageous! Yet if we start thinking of movement in the real world instead of in the weight room, we see these different types of squatting patterns. If we can get our minds out of the world of Powerlifting and even Olympic lifting, we can see the value of squatting in a wider variety of ways. The Staggered Squat offers some really interesting benefits that most would overlook. Why is it that more single leg dominant movements such as lunges, step-ups, single leg deadlifts, and pistols are almost never performed before drills such as squats, deadlifts, and a variety of pulls? This type of programming speaks to our bias toward heavier weighted movements. Some coaches will even suggest that many of the single leg- based movements mentioned are all about stability and not about strength (such a topic could be a book in of itself). The Staggered Squat actually satisfies both load and stability requirements. We have slightly destabilized our body, but not so much that we can’t apply appreciable loading. Even though we are speaking about Staggered Squatting as a progression to the more common bilateral squat variations, Staggered Squatting can be more. Because the stance assumed in the Staggered Squat opens the hips more than in the standard squat, those with restrictions in their find the Staggered Squat much more doable. We can use the Staggered Squat as a means of introducing the squatting pattern to those who have difficulties with the standard squat variations. The idea of a Staggered Squat is not necessarily unique to the DVRT system. Other coaches have used the idea of an off-set position squat to “mix up” their squats. Some realize the more unilateral loading you get by splitting the feet, and others find that the movement feels far more natural than the typical gym squats. However, some approaches are not ideal . For example, you will see some internet gurus speak about elevating a foot on a platform and perform at an angle. Elevating a leg tilts the pelvis while the body is loading. This is not ideal for most lifting situations and can aggravate some low back issues. 104

The Staggered Squat.

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Other coaches will use the Staggered Squat but commit a fatal flaw in its performance — they don’t raise the back heel! Some have called this a B-Squat where the feet are split, but both feet remain flat. This poses two potential problems. The first is that the pelvis begins to try to rotate. Rotation of the pelvis can be a primary cause of low back issues. The less obvious issue is that most people “get stuck” by keeping both feet flat in an odd, not quite a lunge, not quite a squat movement. The range of motion gets decreased. Greatly diminishing the value of the movement. The DVRT Staggered Squat tries to resolve all these issues while increasing the value of the movement. The Staggered Squat begins by assuming your squatting stance and then moving one foot slightly back so that the toes of the back foot line up with the heel of the front foot. The heel of the back foot elevates so that pressure is being applied to the ball of foot of the rear leg. Applying pressure through the ball of foot allows us to prevent the hips from rotating and provides some stability. Notice that at first we take a stance the width of your standard squat. This provides us a larger base to work from, and therefore a more stable base to learn this form of squatting. Over time, the stance can be brought inward, reducing the base of support and making the Staggered Squat more of single leg exercise. As we work through all DVRT progressions, we move from stable to unstable positions.

DVRT Staggered Squat Checklist • Assume a squatting stance and move one foot back so the toes of the back foot line up with the heel of the front leg. • Keep the heel of the back leg off the ground for the entire movement and place force through the ball of foot. • Make sure to squat into the movement and do not lunge. This means allowing the hips to sit back and keeping pressure through the flat foot of the lead leg and ball of the rear foot. • Over time you can slowly move the feet closer together, reducing the base of support. In doing so, point the toes straight ahead, but still allow the hips to travel back in the motion.

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Advancing the Movement If you think so far we have only covered some foundational principles in hip hinging and squatting, you are correct! However, I do hope that I have changed the way you are looking at these movement patterns and that you see how meaningful they can be in choosing specific drills in each section. At this point, you are freed from being a prisoner to the same exercises all the time, and should feel confident because you have far more options to address your training goals and individualize your training. The progressions of squatting and hip hinging could seem overwhelming, with so many exercises and progressions to choose from. It could feel like too many options. However, before we start speaking about progressions, let me be forthright about some obvious questions that are probably on your mind.

“Is there ever a good time to back squat a USB or odd object?” No! I would love to give you an exception, but I have never found one. For the reasons that I provided earlier in the squatting chapter, placing the USB or any odd object on the upper back causes many issues and few solutions. There are major issues in safely getting more significant loads in this position, as there can be significant compromise to the low back and shoulder. The back position provides no benefit and increases the likelihood of issues such as greater forward lean, and ultimately the positions we discussed offer a far greater benefit than placing the load on the upper back, especially while minimizing forces upon the lower back.

“How do I know to use the different holding positions in squatting or body positions in hip hinging?” You don’t need to achieve specific weights to move from one progression to another. You need to determine what you are trying to accomplish with each variation and where it is placed within the workout. Yes, basically, “Why are you using that exercise?” Even more important to note is that posture and technique determine all. If you move from one position to another but show very obvious compensations in either the performance of the drill or the posture that can be maintained during the exercise, you have pushed yourself too hard and too fast. Some people will be able to progress in certain drills with specific movement patterns faster than others. There will be those that find more stable standing positions with different holding positions much easier than those drills that challenge our body’s positional

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changes and vice versa. You will have to follow some of the programs and the progressions outlined in this book to see what works best for you!

“Can I overhead squat in DVRT?” You can, but like all drills we teach in the DVRT program, you should have a specific purpose for using such drills. People who already possess great shoulder and upper back flexibility can perform such drills, but I am not sure if it actually builds this flexibility as there are limited progressions in this position (we can increase both shoulder and upper back flexibility through a host of other DVRT drill progressions).

The overhead squat with USB.

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The Most Underrated Exercise? The mere mention of lunges makes some athletes feel less like lifters and more like they’re in an aerobics class. The long history of lunges being a part of music pounding fitness classes and spandex laden fitness television programs makes most serious strength athletes laugh at the thought of a lunge. But could YOU be missing out on how tremendous this exercise can be for your programs? I personally found myself being quite biased against the idea of lunges. Heck, you couldn’t load the barbell up and see the plates falling off the side when doing lunges like you could with squatting. Lunges were only those exercises that you performed after you trained your serious lifts like squats and deadlifts. Very shortly, though, life would teach me to become more respectful of the lunge. If I reflect on my past training history in a very honest way, I would have to tell you that most of the reasons that I didn’t use lunging as a core part of my program was only for two rather superficial reasons. The first being I had turned into that lifter I mentioned. I felt as though I was too good for them and that real strength was based upon the big loads, the ones where you felt the bar almost bending as you took it out of the rack. In reality, I had a big discrepancy between what I could perform on the more stable lifts such as squats and deadlifts and what I could perform in drills like lunges. That led me to the second reason that I just did not like lunges – I wasn’t very good at them at all! At the age of 14, I was playing basketball at the local park like I had done for years. Only this day I would land upon the crack in the ground that turned my foot almost upside down! Tearing about every ligament in the ankle, I was told I would possibly never play sports again. I would prove the doctors wrong and play again at even higher levels, but I never fully recovered from the ankle injury. To this day, working my right side is far more challenging than my left. Don’t worry though, I did what most athletes do. I did everything in my power to hide this compensation. More ankle braces, specific shoes, taping. I used everything and anything available to avoid actually addressing the problem of my lower leg instability. It didn’t matter to me. I was building my lower body strength with the classic strength lifts, so not using lunges didn’t seem to be a big deal. After all, I saw my squat and deadlift numbers go up and up. I couldn’t be hampering my progress, could I? Seeing success in the gym did prolong my neglect of many forms of lunging. What did it matter if I wasn’t good at lunges? I was getting strong, wasn’t I? Of course I thought I was getting strong, and more important to me, capable of playing my sport at a higher level. Yet six months after returning to basketball, I herniated two lumbar discs during a high school game. At the time I didn’t tie the ankle injury to my low 109

back, herniated discs are pretty unusual in a 14-year-old. Even more interesting is the fact that the discs ended up herniating towards the right side, same side as my ankle injury. Interesting. There is no way for me to prove that the ankle injury created a greater potential for injuring my low back. However, as I began to learn more about how the body actually functions, I began to suspect that it was a possibility. A 1999 study in the Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy found that people with low back pain on one side of their body, also had excessive foot pronation on the same side as the low back pain. With the research there to help us better understand how the body functions, we have to ask – why don’t the great strength athletes use the lunge more in training if it works? There is a mistake that many of even the best fitness professionals and strength coaches make all the time. It is differentiating what is performed in sports such as Powerlifting and Olympic lifting and what happens outside of the gym. While these iron game sports offer benefits to fitness enthusiasts and athletes alike, they work in very sterile environments. In the real world and in most non-iron sports, there are components of stepping, acceleration and deceleration in different angles and directions, unpredictability of movement, and horizontal — not just vertical — transfer of the body. For all these reasons, when we think of functional training models, we can’t be locked into the classic iron sports. But because the earliest strength coaches were from Powerlifting and Olympic lifting, the training systems associated with these sports became the predominant training systems. Most real world and sports activities are predominately performed in a single leg and/or split stance. It is more rare to find every day activities being performed in our standard squat or deadlift types of positions. Does this mean that these lifts serve no benefit? Quite the contrary, and I’ll address this shortly for those that are getting nervous that I may be suggesting we get rid of all bilateral drills. As renowned strength coach Mike Boyle says, “I’m not anti-bilateral exercise; I’m pro unilateral exercise.” Before you move toward closing this book and thinking this is some crazy “functional training” nonsense, most of you are already on board with this concept and don’t even know it! If I asked you whether a true one-arm push-up or a 315 bench press is more rare, probably most of you would answer the one-arm push-up. Don’t like this example? Do you love kettlebells? Even when using double kettlebells in training, the arms move independently, creating all types of unique stress on the body. Ever notice that many of the primary kettlebell lifts are one-arm in nature? Early in the book I mentioned that it is rare to find someone who can dumbbell bench press what they can barbell bench press. Yes, even the use of dumbbells lends itself to a predominately unilateral type of training. 110

I’ll give you one more example before we get down to the nuts and bolts. We tend to marvel and revere the strength of some of the classic strongmen like Eugene Sandow, Arthur Saxon, George Hackenschmidt, and many others. The lift they often demonstrated as their ultimate test of strength was the bent press. Yes, a one-arm exercise using the barbell! It wasn’t the bench press; it wasn’t the squat. Maybe these old time strongmen were even smarter than we originally thought! If we are confident in the use of unilateral training for the upper body, why wouldn’t it make sense to use it for the lower body as well? We tend to see upper body unilateral exercises such as one-arm push-ups or one-arm chin-ups as relatively elite exercises. Why can’t we view movements such as the lunge in the same manner? In reality, it all goes back to a general bias in favor of heavier loads. We shouldn’t be able to lunge as much as we can squat. The performance of the squat places us in a significantly more stable body position than the lunge. Realizing this is more of a difference of physics than it is a measure of strength can alter how we see most unilateral dominant exercises. As with the dumbbell bench press, we have far more instability and therefore smaller muscles firing off to stabilize our body. I understand, you are a bit nervous. Change breeds anxiety. After all, when was the last time someone in the gym asked you, “How much can you lunge?” Probably never is my guess, but that is ok. They are missing out – big time! What is the big difference? Is it just a function of stability and not strength? Coach Boyle makes a strong case for the greater focus of unilateral dominant exercises: “When we stand on one leg, as in a one leg squat, we engage three muscles that we don’t use in a two leg squat. I know some will say we use the adductors because the knees move apart in the descent, but this isn’t the same. The key to the lateral sub-system is that we engage these additional muscles in their normal role of stabilizers, not as movers. “In addition, in any single leg exercise, bodyweight becomes a more significant part of the resistance. Voila, functional training: training the muscles that we’re using in the way that we use them. Bottom line: this doesn’t happen in any version of the double leg squat. “In a conventional double leg squat, we simply strengthen the prime movers and neglect the stabilizers. Using the car analogy, we get a bigger engine, but maybe bad tires.”

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Again, you must be asking yourself, “If unilateral exercises are the way to go, how come I don’t see more people prioritizing them?” The truth is that it is changing, maybe slowly, but we are seeing strength coaches and fitness professionals slowly changing the way they see training. Quoting Coach Boyle once again, “Single limb training is a logical outgrowth of what we now know about functional anatomy. It’ll promote greater muscle growth and greater muscle strength because it works more muscles. Knowing the way the body works allows us to develop and utilize exercises that work not just prime movers, but stabilizers and neutralizers.” I get it, I really do. What I am asking you to do is take a giant leap of faith toward seeing unilateral training in a new way. Science is one thing, but what about the real world? Do I have any real proof that what I am suggesting actually works?! Interestingly enough, Strength Coach Ben Bruno actually put single leg training to the test! For one year, he dropped all bilateral quad dominant exercises and performed only unilateral versions. Initially he was also hesitant about such an experiment: “At first I struggled with the stability aspect of the single-leg exercises. I found it difficult to use much weight at all, and almost quit the experiment after the first two weeks because I figured it was a lost cause. But I stuck with it, and after an initial learning phase of about 3-4 weeks, my balance began to improve. And my numbers on the single-leg exercises started to skyrocket. For example, in the first eight weeks, I went from using 40-pound dumbbells for Bulgarian split squats to using a 275-pound barbell. I also went from not being able to do one bodyweight single-leg squat to using over 100 pounds of external load for 6-8 reps.” Some pretty impressive numbers, but does the result mean only getting better at these exercises? Shockingly, no! Coach Bruno states his previous best squatting effort with 225 was 21 repetitions – not too shabby at all! After his year-long test of not performing ANY bilateral types of squats he was able to hit a pretty remarkable 35 repetitions! His thoughts on his experience and the impact of unilateral drills? “If you treat the single-leg work as an accessory movement and do it at the end of the workout and don’t push the loading, then sure, it’s not going to do much for strength – it becomes more about building stability and evening out imbalances between legs, which is fine. If you put it first in the workout and follow the principle of progressive overload, however, then it becomes a strength exercise.” Ah, I can hear the “hardcore” squatters and deadlifters getting more and more wound up. Some may be ready to shout at me, “He probably BUILT his strength on the foundation of deadlifts and squats.” This is true! That is why, in the DVRT system, we begin with 112

movements such as our hip hinge and squatting progressions. Which DVRT exercises we prioritize really begins to depend on our goals, fitness levels, and needs. Where most people STOP at squatting and deadlifting, we are just beginning our journey of movement. In the beginning, squats and deadlifts will serve as an important foundation, but over time we will see the priority begin to switch, and this type of training philosophy keeps you progressing and growing in your fitness goals.

Defining the Lunge One of the issues with the lunge is that we tend to think of this movement in very limited terms. The actual lunge is a “primal movement.” This means it is not just an exercise, but a movement pattern like we see in the hip hinge. A primal movement is often thought of movement skills we naturally possess, but due to our largely sedentary lifestyles, we lose the ability to perform these foundational skills. Lunges can be a lifter’s and coach’s best asset because of the incredible number of options available in DVRT principles. Examining the lunge means we have to first identify the correct body position – an oft-neglected part of lunge training! When most people think of the classic lunge, they envision people performing walking lunges around the entire length of the gym! While walking lunges offer one variation, they are just scratching the surface of the many options, and don’t always provide the right starting point. Lunging usually refers to a stepping motion in many different directions, where one leg is positioned forward with knee bent and foot flat on the ground, while the other leg is positioned behind. Such a broad definition allows for a lot of variation and alteration to the exercise. For our starting point, we are going to try to assume an upright trunk position and a rather static lunge known as a split squat. Because EVERYTHING we do in the DVRT system is designed to become progressive, we need to make the lunge similarly progressive. Removing the stepping action from the lunge can help assist us in gaining the fundamental skills of the lunge. The fear factor can become a real problem with the lunge. Often we can see the lifter’s trunk start to crunch and flex forward as the stride shortens. While this can be attributed to lack of flexibility and mobility, we cannot underestimate the body’s desire to try to maintain balance and stability by creating flexion in the body. Realizing there is a fear factor in the lunge for some, we need to introduce the elements of instability into the lunge as progressively as possible.

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Don’t flex forward.

Don’t take too short of a stride.

Don’t take too long of a stride.

Don’t let the knee fall inward.

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Spending more time in the split squat position allows people to gain confidence and become more familiar with the movement of the lunge. All exercises have an element of neurological learning, so as the brain makes the body smarter, we will see the stability of the lifter improve. This is very similar to what we see when someone rides a bike their first time. They may seem very unsteady and then over time become far more capable. If we can reduce the fear aspect of any movement, the body will likely turn off the brakes. In the case of the lunge, this means those nasty hip flexors. The hip flexors can be a huge sticking point in many lifts. This group of muscles often tightens as a result of chronic sitting, unbalanced training, and/or to try to protect the body from perceived unstable situations. The hip flexors will often inhibit our movement if they decide to dominate, and they can pull our bodies out of ideal postural alignment. The split squat can often help in both dynamically stretching the hip flexors and helping tell the brain to turn off the brakes and allow movement in the front part of our hips. The key in performing the split squat is to make sure you are set up in the correct posture. Most people who feel uneasy in any type of split lower body position will assume too little of a step. The problem comes when we perform the split squat. The front heel rises off of the ground, putting a great deal of shear through the front knee. It often reminds me of Strength Coach Dan John’s saying about squats, “Squats don’t hurt your knees. The way YOU squat hurts your knees.” We can take the same philosophy and apply it to split squats and lunges. Many of the knee issues people experience are a result of poor set-up and execution of the movement.

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Correct posture for beginning position of Split Squat and Lunge.

A few simple guidelines are going to save most of you from experiencing the aches and pains some do by performing the split squat and lunge incorrectly.

DVRT Split Squat and Lunge Checklist • Make sure the stride of the front leg is long enough to allow the heel of the front leg to stay on the ground in the bottom position. • The stride should not be so long that the low back starts to extend rather than moving from the hip. • When descending into the bottom position, a slight transition of the body going forward is acceptable. However, the body should be lowered more vertically than horizontally. Think of bending both knees simultaneously, as most people get in trouble. • Make sure to initially keep the torso very tall, allowing a stretch in the hip of the rear.

Correct posture for finished position of Split Squat and Lunge.

• Keep the dominant amount of pressure through the heel of the front leg and the ball of the foot of back leg. Actively use both sides, even though you are assuming a more unstable stance, making it even more important to optimize both sides of the body.

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Loading Position Once we establish the foundational movement patterns of the split squat, we can now strategically plan how we will establish the loading positions. The split position allows us to take advantage of more holding positions and the ability to stimulate and challenge the body in unique ways. As per our principle of loading position, we move from stable to unstable. However, you are going to see a more extensive list of options. Some may seem subtle and others more dramatic. Everyone responds to the different holding positions differently, so think of the following as guidelines rather than commandments! Unlike the squatting series, we actually do not begin with the Bear Hug position. Greater loading in the DVRT system creates a larger USB. In the split position, we run into logistical issues. When using larger USBs we would end up running into our lead leg with the load. Additionally, because we do not have the same movement in the pelvis in lunging and split squats that we see in bilateral squatting, the counter balance of the USB would not be as profound. I am a great believer in the Oliver Wendell Holmes saying, “The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.” In other words, it is okay to break the rules if you know what the rules are and why you are deviating from them. In the case of loading position, it is ok not to begin our lunge or split squat series with the Bear Hug position and move immediately to the Front Hold series. The purpose and technique will remain the same as what we experienced in the squatting series. The challenge will remain resisting the forward lean, especially now that we are in a position of compromise with the body unstable.

The Front Hold Split Squat.

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Even though we are using the more static Split Squat position to help gain balance and confidence in the lunge progressions, we still have to step in the right direction to assume the Split Squat. Most coaches actually start their clients with the far more aggressive forward step, which requires decelerating both body weight and the USB. By actually stepping backward, our center of mass stays over our base of support. Consequently, we are far more balanced and have less weight to decelerate when getting into the Split Squat position. Starting with the Front Loaded position isn’t too innovative. However, where we go from there will shake up our loading progressions a bit. In the squatting series, I discussed at length the challenge of having an asymmetrical load. In the split squat and lunging series, we begin in a body position that immediately exposes us to rather high asymmetrical loads. When we add in the USB to the equation, we see TWO asymmetrical loading positions, and we add a great deal of complexity and intensity to our exercises.

Ipsilateral Suitcase Split Squat.

Contralateral Suitcase Split Squat.

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Because this combination of body and load position creates high levels of complexity and intensity, it also requires more progressive movements. This is where the unique design of the USB comes into play. Unlike most training implements, which require us to conform to the tool, we have made the USB to address the specific goals in our DVRT system. The “suitcase handle” becomes crucial in our split stance progressions. Because our center of gravity is around the bellybutton area, it’s easier to remain stable when the weight is below the center of gravity rather than at the Shoulder position. The direct loading upon the frame of our body creates an immediate challenge to our postural alignment than the suitcase position. Working the Suitcase position allows us to introduce the combination of asymmetrical body and load position in a more balanced lifting posture. However, don’t be fooled; this is a very challenging drill. Like all of our DVRT drills, the intent of the exercise will help dictate the performance.

Don’t compensate.

Begin by deadlifting the USB into the Suitcase standing position. From here, perform the same backward step to assume the Split Squat position. Immediately you will find your body resisting the pull of the USB off to one side.

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This “pull” you experience is a more intense form of what is known as multi-planar training. Multi what?! Our body predominately functions in three planes, as discussed in the principles section of this book. We have Sagittal, Frontal, and Transverse. While there is no quiz for later, understanding these three planes helps us realize that we can create greater intensity beyond just loading. Whereas the simple action of walking requires us to use all three planes of motion, most of our strength training largely in the Sagittal plane. Functional training gurus in the late 1990s believed we had to shift focus and actually move in all three planes. While they were correct, they misunderstood how instability actually integrates multiple planes. In order to just balance in the Split Squat position, we have to resist forces in both the Frontal and Transverse planes. By adding the USB into the Suitcase position, we exponentially increase the body’s need to resist these other planes. That is why even lighter loads in this exercise seem so much more stressful to the lifter. We want to emphasize control and stability. Just as with most new drills, altering tempo will go a long way toward teaching us such concepts. A number of people actually try to rush through these drills, and are unpleasantly surprised by how fast their balance is thrown off. Instead, we want to slow down, especially during the lowering phase of the Suitcase Split Squat. Slowing down the body naturally allows it to find where it needs to be in space, and groove the motion so that we can build upon these holding patterns. The interesting thing is that we don’t immediately proceed to the Shoulder position. Splitting our body position and having the asymmetrical load of the Suitcase means that we have to consider how the USB will feel differently depending upon which side is holding the load and which leg is forward. Don’t worry if you are feeling a bit overwhelmed at this point. I will soon outline the progressions for you, and as you get more familiar with using these concepts, they will feel far more natural in programming your workouts and you will see how the DVRT principles begin to transfer even to non-USB based drills. When we are in the Suitcase Split Squat, the USB theoretically should start in what we call “rear leg position.” In this position, USB is on the same side as the leg that is split behind and is helping support the Split Squat. The rear leg position creates a cross pattern that should help stabilize the body . Think of walking – the arm works in conjunction with the opposing leg. Cross patterns happen often during everyday activities. Of course this means that the USB on the same side – known as “front leg position” – should be more challenging. With all the load upon one side of the body, the USB should feel harder to control and balance. As I mentioned earlier in the lunge section, not everyone responds the same. Some of you will feel more balanced by switching these progressions. Just realize that everyone’s nervous system is slightly different. Use these as guidelines and be in tune with how your body responds. 120

The Shoulder position becomes our next holding position (after the suitcase). Does this mean we don’t spend time loading the Suitcase or Front Loading hold patterns? No, but because the USB doesn’t increase its weight by five pound increments, changing the holding position may offer a more subtle change to the perceived load than trying to add small increments to your USB or moving from one size to another.

Contralateral Shoulder Split Squat.

Ipsilateral Shoulder Split Squat.

While the Shoulder position is very difficult to maintain in the Squatting pattern, the Split Squat and lunge allow us to optimize what may have been impossible in the previous patterns. The fact that we have to stretch the hips is a primary reason that the Shoulder position is much more versatile and accessible in the split positions. With the higher point on the body that we saw in the Suitcase holding position, the Shoulder position is more difficult to stabilize. The additional axial loading (weight pressing from the top of the spine down), we instantly turn on many stabilizers of the trunk and change the dynamics of all our movements. 121

The progression of the Shoulder position is the same that we utilized in the Suitcase patterns. We want to begin by loading the shoulder of the rear leg, followed by the shoulder of the front leg. The increase stress to the body can show itself in subtle and not so subtle ways. For some lifters, slowly moving up and down without falling off to the side in the Split Squat with Shoulder load is quite a feet in itself. If you find that you’re one of these lifters, have some patience; you just need to learn how to become more comfortable and stable in these patterns and positions.

Not Good! Don’t let the hips rotate.

In more subtle ways, we can see the compensation in the hips. In several cases, you will find the hips rotated. For example, when we have the USB in the Shoulder position on the rear leg load, we can feel that hip rotate away. If the weight is on the right shoulder with the right leg back, it is easy for the right hip to actually turn away from the body. This is definitely a sign of instability and compensation. If you can’t really tell if you are falling victim to this compensation pattern, follow these guidelines to help make sure you don’t!

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DVRT Asymmetrical Loading Lunge Pattern Checklist • Keep the shoulders square. • Drive through the ball of the foot of the back leg. • Push through the back hip – slightly forward – to make sure the hip doesn’t rotate.

Split Squatting and lunging are not true single leg or unilateral lower body drills. Since we have both legs in contact with the ground, we still have some stability from the back leg. Taking advantage of the rear foot is important for progressing to more complex patterns, handling heavier loads, and sometimes for decreasing the amount of stress that people place on the front knee. By actively using the back foot (primarily the ball of foot, as the heel will remain off the ground), you will activate a lot of the supporting muscles on the rear leg side. This includes a lot of the important trunk and hip muscles that prevent rotation and collapse of the non-primary stance leg. Muscles such as the quadratus lumborum, internal/external obliques, glute medius, and many more have to function synergistically to prevent unwanted movements. These five loading positions don’t exhaust our options. Instead, they form the baseline for a solid foundation. The mistake many coaches will make in creating programs based around the DVRT lunge progressions is rushing people through these foundational movements and onto the “cool” variations we will describe in the upcoming chapters. The reason we discuss these variations first is to provide a solid base for people to perform more complex drills. Not following these progressions can make it very frustrating for coach and lifter alike. Remember, this is why I keep so strongly pointing to the system, and not just focusing on the tools that we are using in the program.

DVRT Loading Position Progressions • Front Load • Suitcase Rear Leg • Suitcase Front Leg • Shoulder Rear Leg • Shoulder Front Leg

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Front Load

Suitcase Rear Leg

1 2

Suitcase Front Leg

Shoulder Rear Leg

3 4 Shoulder Front Leg

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One Giant Step Once we have established these loading patterns in a static position, our goal is to move to more dynamic actions. Most importantly, this means actually taking a step and creating more acceleration and deceleration in the drills. Choosing the RIGHT stepping pattern in lunge progressions is where a great deal of programs go wrong! The direction we step during the lunge completely changes the outcome of the exercise. I remember learning this the hard way myself. I never really focused on systematizing the lunge patterns I programmed, I thought to myself after an extended period of predominately using forward lunge patterns to lunge backwards, “What is the big deal after all?” The training session went well overall. I found myself trying to gain the same groove that I had in the forward lunge in the backward or drop step lunge. Rather quickly, I found myself applying more challenging loads during the workout and feeling pretty good about the choice to switch things up. I learned my lesson about two days later, when I suffered a great deal of soreness that I hadn’t experienced with my previous lunging exercises. The soreness was pretty intense, and even light workouts were challenging. I quickly realized that different lunging patterns posses different coordination patterns. Just switching the coordination needed for each lunge direction would enable progressive intensity and hit specific qualities that I knew I needed to systematize to a much better degree. Which way do we go first then? We can go forward, backward, to the side, crossover, and even diagonally. The direction we choose to lunge affects the leverage of our body. While most of us are more familiar with the forward lunge, the fact of the matter is that this would not be the ideal progression for introducing most people to lunging. When we lunge forward, we have more of our body weight to decelerate Remember, it is deceleration that most people struggle with really absorbing. In the reverse step (we call drop step in DVRT) lunge, we actually keep more of our body weight in one position, making us stronger over our base of support. I know, you feel more comfortable going forward and you think that I am making a lot out of nothing. The reality is that you have probably patterned the forward lunge because you have performed it for far more repetitions. If we break down just the biomechanics of the movement, you would see the difference. Don’t worry though, I won’t get into a boring discussion of joint angles and such. We see the truth of forward lunges all the time in the gym. How many times have you seen people lunge forward and, upon trying to return to the start position, they perform a stutter step in between? You know that point – they take two to three steps before they can get themselves all the way back to the start. You will almost never find the same happen when people perform a drop step lunge.

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The drop step lunge isn’t just a good position for beginners, though. Drop stepping is another powerful form of hip extension, and utilizes the same movement pattern we used to perform our hip hinge progressions and power movements. Now we can really see how strong the glutes and hamstrings are in working together, because it is very difficult in this position for the low back to cover for their weaknesses. Being in a split position also causes the hip muscles to not just produce force, but resist the lateral instability that the lunge offers. Ever notice how your heart rate doesn’t take very long to jump to a significant degree even though the weights may not be very heavy? Such a change in heart rate can be due to not just the work the muscles are performing in accomplishing the lunge, but also the amount of energy the body must use to prevent motion. If you can’t tell, the drop step lunge is one of my favorite positions because it represents another “big bang for the buck” DVRT drill. We can achieve a lot of goals at once, and have a better opportunity to expose people to many of the loading patterns that were discussed in the Split Squat series. The drop step lunge also allows us to create some powerful exercises. If we see that the drop step is a powerful hip extension exercise like our Power Cleans, High Pulls, and others, then we see we can also use the drop step to perform similar types of lifts. By learning the Power Clean, High Pull, and other explosive exercises from the drop step lunge position, we are learning how to create force from a more athletic and challenging position. If you break down activities such as running and jumping, you would want to progress to forms of more unilateral power movements. In athletics especially, many of the power movements are based off of more unilateral actions and training, and as such would help us prepare the body more effectively for these demands. However, I do have to emphasize again: don’t rush through the progressions. When we start to perform power drills in the drop step lunge position, we need to worry about what goes down as much as what goes up! Since gravity increases the acceleration of the USB and we are in a more unstable position, we have to have gained a great deal of proficiency in both the power based USB exercises and the different loading patterns in the DVRT system. To help prepare lifters for this much greater demand, I have a series of steps to help them process the challenge. One of them is the addition of what we call “balance step.” One of the most common errors in the performance of Olympic lifts is that lifters don’t “finish the hips.” What does that mean? For the lifter to produce the most power, the hips need to fully extend. That creates that most powerful triple extension discussed earlier in this book. The idea of fully extending the hip isn’t unique to Olympic lifts. In the performance of other lifts such as the deadlift or many kettlebell drills, “finishing the hips” makes a big difference, by keeping the work in the hips and not in the low back. The balance step helps us teach this concept, as even elaborate diagrams may not help people actually understand what we are trying to accomplish. 126

The balance step refers to the action of coming up from the bottom of the lunge to a single leg stance, bringing the back leg parallel with the ground. Don’t worry, this isn’t some kind of DVRT circus trick. Bringing the leg up to this position requires the stance leg to fully lockout, and creates full extension in the hip. Try it just standing. Pick one leg up to this balance step position, but keep the stance leg slightly bent. Feels almost impossible to balance doesn’t it? Now, try the same motion but try to fully lockout the leg and drive pressure through the heel of your stance leg. Noticing a great deal of balance? The balance step allows us to be more stable for two reasons. When you fully lock out the leg, you should feel the glute of the same side start to tighten up. The glutes are very important for not just extending the hip, but also for lateral stability of the hip . Without them, we have very little resistance to lateral instability. Further, the balance step creates a chain reaction where the muscles of the hip, upper, and lower leg all kick into a higher degree to create tension and stability. If you feel a bit unbalanced, that is okay – totally normal even! Don’t give up, as single leg stance strength is very important and will go a long way in preparing you for the more demanding DVRT exercises. Early in this book I talked about the fact that the number of variations and progressions in the DVRT system is both a benefit and a disadvantage. The benefits is that anyone can benefit from the system and it can be taught in a progressive manner. The drawback is that both the coach and lifter can feel overwhelmed by all that is available to them. I’ve provided a table below to simplify the systematization. If you spend time actually trying to use these concepts, you will find they are no different from learning a new exercise. Could be a bit tough at first, but once you find the groove, it is actually relatively easy and highly rewarding!

DVRT Drop Step Lunge Progressions • Front Loaded Drop Step Lunge • Suitcase Load Rear Leg • Suitcase Load Front Leg • Shoulder Load Rear Leg • Shoulder Load Front Leg • Front Hold to Balance Step • Suitcase Load Rear Leg to Balance Step • Suitcase Load Front Leg to Balance Step • Shoulder Load Rear Leg to Balance Step • Shoulder Load Front Leg to Balance Step 127

The key concept you should notice is that once we change one variable, we progress with another. At first we wanted to expose the drop step lunge, then we went through the loading patterns, and when we added instability with the balance step we had to go through the loading series once again. The goal is to avoid overly stressing the body, causing it to struggle to recover and progress through the various movements.

The Front Load.

The Suitcase.

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The Shoulder.

The Balance Step Shoulder.

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Take Off! Once we have spent time developing the progressions listed above, we can start introducing the power movements from the drop step position. The progressions are going to change a bit, but for good reason. Many people are surprised that lifting the USB in these power-based movements isn’t as challenging as they expected. However, coming down is a whole different story! The fear and inability of correctly coming down from these power movements with the USB leads many coaches to never teach them. Big mistake! Of course we don’t want to rush people through any type of training, but not utilizing these lifts is often the result of coaches and lifters not realizing the small progressions they can create to use the drills for their current ability levels.

Lift Unstable, Lower Stable I can always tell that the role of body position in programming workouts is new to a lot of people (even well-trained fitness professionals), because they don’t feel comfortable optimizing this variable. What makes the drop step power movement so difficult is that when we are trying to lower the weight, we have a combination of high speed and unstable lifting position. The solution is quite simple. Let’s focus on only one aspect of the lift at a time and remove the excessively challenging portion. How? Even though I stated that lifting the USB up from these positions is not as challenging as many would believe, it’s certainly not easy. We do want to gain proficiency with lifting before we teach lowering. I didn’t mention that what makes performing the power movements in the drop lunge additionally challenging was the fact that the weight is not right in front of us. The USB will actually travel to the side of our body and have to come up our body at an angle. This is something that most people are truly unfamiliar with, but it is far more representative of what happens in the real world scenarios. To help learn this unique movement, we want to exclusively focus on the power coming up on the lift. Instead of coming directly back down with the USB after we perform our power movement, we will come down into a deadlift position. Since the deadlift is far more stable (and should be very comfortable at this point as well), we can lower the weight into a deadlift and reset. Setting up the power movements in such a manner allows us to focus upon lifting from an unstable position, but lowering the USB in a much safer stable position. It also provides us an opportunity to focus on one or two techniques rather than four or five!

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Performing the power movements in this manner goes a long way toward decreasing the learning curve of these DVRT drills. Remember, greater success in learning and teaching enhances both our training results and the experience of the program! However, it is curve ball time again. When we teach the power movements from the drop step lunge, we actually teach the Power Clean prior to the High Pull. The reason for now confusing you is that the purpose of these two exercises has changed. In our hip hinge progressions, we used the High Pull to teach you how to make the USB feel weightless and create force from the hip and not the upper body. In the drop step lunge, the High Pull isn’t necessary to teach this concept because if we are performing drop step power movements, we have already developed the skills of these two lifts.

The Rotational Lunge Clean executed with good form.

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The High Pull becomes more challenging than the Power Clean because it creates more speed and makes it more difficult to transition from one position to another. The Power Clean allows us to create a definitive stopping point and set our bodies up to lower the USB in the deadlift position, whereas the High Pull becomes almost one seamless motion. In order to perform the High Pull drop lunge well, we have to be very comfortable with the Power Clean version. Working from the drop step lunge helps us to identify some common errors that may exist in the Power Clean. Two of the most common can be quickly spotted by using the Drop Lunge Power Clean:

Incorrect elbow movement When people try to build or maintain stability they will gravitate toward their bad habits. A very noticeable one occurs when the elbows only come up a portion of the way, ending at about half of the movement. This is very problematic as it causes the USB to create a lot of torque, and because the lifter is not directing the weight, the weight ends up smacking them in the chest. Of course we call this incorrect, and need to address it immediately.

Swinging of the USB The second issue usually stems from people trying to rush through the progressions discussed in the lunge section and jump to DVRT drills they aren’t quite ready to perform. That often shows itself in incorrect timing and swinging of the USB out in front of the body. Once the weight gets too far ahead of the body, there is no way to redirect and absorb the load correctly. The USB should travel straight up the body, as we have seen in the earlier power drills discussed.

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Rotational Lunge High Pull.

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Watch for collapsing knees and compensation.

Focusing on getting comfortable with simply accelerating the USB upward has tremendous benefits and shouldn’t be rushed. The drop lunge explosive movements are so important because they are a better representation of functional power than the standard bilateral power exercises. You will, in fact, find that the better you become at the drop lunge power drills, the easier the more common Power Cleans, Shouldering, and other movements feel in your training. The final challenge – and the moment you know you are ready to try the most unique and possibly powerful DVRT exercise – is when you are able to perform the drop lunge power series with both the ability to correctly direct the weight upwards and to absorb the weight on the downward phase. Then you may welcome something truly unique in the world of functional fitness and performance based training – The Rotational Lunge.

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THE NEW FUNCTIONAL FITNESS ’ll admit it, some of you will probably struggle to see the value in some of our DVRT drills until they actually perform them. Squatting, hip hinging, even lunging can seem all too familiar. What I’ve written can’t be significantly different, can it? Hopefully I’ve explained the “whys” well enough for you to dedicate time to these progressions, as they lay the foundation for the more truly unique DVRT drills. For many, working through the foundational DVRT drills will be a wake-up call. We tend to cynically evaluate contemporary fitness programs. With so much information being shared, ideas being expressed, and theories being tested, it can be easy to reject what looks very different as inferior to what we feel more comfortable doing. In fact, I have read many times about coaches and lifters stating that there is nothing new in fitness and it has all been done before. How sad it must be to think that there are no new ideas. What would that mean for the future of fitness? The reality is that we have been burned by the novel exercises and programs so many times. Our “hope” for new ideas and programs has been lost. Part of the problem lies in same issues that I came across in my journey toward developing this system and the USB. If we choose to see exercise and fitness the same way, we will of course begin to recycle ideas. However, if we can make the choice to take a look outside the proverbial box, a whole new world can open to us.

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I’ll give you an example that occurs all too often. If I bring up the term “functional” to most coaches, there is usually a big eye roll and sigh that follow. I understand, the typical buzzwords in the industry get overused, overhyped, and then suffer a severe backlash from the industry they were trying to help change. Functional training itself went from trying to get people off machine training to odd “circus” type of training, to a strong focus on Olympic lifting, powerlifting, and a bit of intense body weight training. Is that wrong, though? Isn’t that what we should be focusing upon? Functional training as a concept was very profound. Legendary sporting coaches like Vern Gambetta understood that there was huge difference between the needs of an athlete and what we saw in the average weight room. Coach Gambetta’s philosophy was based around “involving controlled instability” and working in all three planes of motion. Even the more progressive gyms that utilize Olympic style lifting and powerlifting were still leaving out these very important elements of athletic development. My hope is that what we have covered in terms of manipulating these “new” training variables is changing the way you see all these movements, enabling you to see how they are adding new challenges to our training and physical development. Simply looking at the drop step power drills we discussed in the last section should change how you see even the most familiar of exercises and movements. Functional training really was meant to teach the body how to move, how to produce strength in all types of postures and positions, and ultimately to deal with the unpredictability of both sport and real life. This isn’t necessarily a new U.S. idea either. The Olympic coaches of the former Soviet Union understood the value of creating a better bridge from the weight room to the sporting field. They coined the term “imperfection training.” The Soviet coaches employed different strategies, such as blind folding athletes as they lifted. They poked them slightly during a lift to force the lifter to react to an unpredictable force, for example. The trouble again was this: How do you quantify these techniques, progress them, and have a far more developed system for their use rather than randomly trying to apply these stresses? So far you have seen my approach for doing just that. DVRT, with its emphasis on changing holding positions, body position, direction of force, speed, and all the other training variables becomes a system unlike any other. Unfortunately, most people don’t fully explore the depth of these concepts and only scratch the surface of where we can go with functional movement. A great example of this is the Rotational Lunge. If I had to point to my ONE exercise that most expressed the concepts of DVRT, it wouldn’t be Shouldering – as many would believe – but rather, the Rotational Lunge. All the dynamic components that allow one to actually perform the Rotational Lunge are unlike anything else! So, what is the Rotational Lunge? 136

Don’t let the name fool you, the term “rotation” actually refers to the action of the USB and the weight, not the body. The Rotational Lunge is a very strong anti-rotational exercise. What makes the Rotational Lunge so challenging is that we are moving in one direction while the USB pulls us in all different directions. The fact we are doing this all from an unstable body position makes this an even more dramatic drill.

The Rotational Lunge.

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The Rotational Lunge is performed by using our drop step lunge. We do so because we need to create the powerful hip extension that will give projection to the USB. As we drop step into the lunge, the USB begins to rotate to the side of our body. Moving from right in front of us to the side means the USB is moving through different planes of motion as we are moving and trying to resist lateral instability forces.

The Rotational Lunge.

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The body only rotates through the thoracic spine, which offers a great deal of rotation, especially compared to the lumbar spine. With our hips fixed forward, we don’t want to try to rotate through the low back. The powerful hip extension upon rising from the drop step lunge is what gives the USB movement and challenge. In order to better understand what is happening during the Rotational Lunge, let’s reverse-engineer the movement. Since the Rotational Lunge appears so unique, most people miss fact that we can trace it back to a more popular exercise, the kettlebell swing. Closer examination of the kettlebell swing will reveal a weight passing back through the body, causing the body to absorb the force and then create a powerful hip extension movement to re-transmit that force out in front of the body. Yes, basically the Rotational Lunge is a much more complex kettlebell swing. Like the kettlebell swing, we can break down the movement to make it more accessible for more fitness levels. What makes the Rotational Lunge unique is also what can make it an incredible challenge to perform correctly. The trajectory can prove especially challenging. Unlike ALL DVRT drills we have already discussed, the USB is being projected out in front of the body and not “up” the body. Not only is this a different type of pattern we must learn to coordinate, but more importantly this pattern creates a long lever arm to the USB. As we project the USB out in front of the body, the weight of the USB changes. The USB can gain great momentum that many people have a difficult time learning to control. Due the longer lever arm of the Rotational Lunge, we can start to learn the principles of the Rotational Lunge by first spending time on the Drop Step Power Clean and High Pull! Ah, yes, there is a very specific reason that I chose to address these drills prior to the introduction of the Rotational Lunge. I want you to get good — no, REALLY good — at the Drop Step Power Clean and High Pull before moving onto the Rotational Lunge. A big reason that coaches again can’t implement the Rotational Lunge is they don’t spend time prepping people. Instead they see a unique drill and just throw it into the training program without much consideration. I want you to question “why” all the time. If you can answer with more than, “Because I like it”, or “I want to be stronger or more powerful,” you can rest assured you are on the right path for greater fitness goals. Back to the Rotational Lunge. In many cases you will see me emphasize speed with the Rotational Lunge. In order to get that powerful projection of weight like we see parallel in the kettlebell swing, we need to move quickly and explosively. However, that doesn’t mean we have to do this all the time. One of the advantages the Rotational Lunge has over the kettlebell swing is that it can be performed at varying speeds. The progression I have used to even get clients in their 60s to benefit from the Rotational Lunge are as follows.

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• Slow Same Side • Slow Alternating Sides • Slowly Increase Speed Alternating Sides

The Rotational Lunge can be performed at varying speeds.

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Why do we focus on one side at a time, and why go slow when the Rotational Lunge is suppose to be so dynamic and explosive? The same-side phase of the Rotational Lunge is surprisingly important. Using the same-side approach allows us to introduce the unique movement of the USB and groove a pattern. Even though no two repetitions of the Rotational Lunge are the same, you will find the specificity principle kicking in, which will give you more confidence . There is also a different coordination pattern between staying on one side as opposed to alternating. Try this: simply try to slide your hands in through one another. You will notice that one hand is always on top and one is always on the bottom. Now try to reverse so that the other hand goes on top and the other on bottom. Odd feeling, isn’t it? We tend to under appreciate how finely tuned our nervous system is to very specific activities. The hand example is a rather simple one, especially given that in a movement like the Rotational Lunge we have far more complexity and components occurring. Moving slowly at first will obviously remove the projection of the USB, but that is okay at first. Our goal at this point is to teach how to deal with the USB moving in a different direction than our body moves. If we think about it, just about all our other exercises have the weight moving in line with our body’s actions. Trying to resist the movement of the USB is what makes this our most pronounced multi-planar drill. In the earlier sections of this book, I spoke at length about the different planes of movement and why they are so important to our functional fitness programs. Even though most movements in the gym occur in line with our body, there are many sporting actions and everyday activities that do not. Even a common task such as lifting a child requires multiplanar training. I remember first picking up my niece, and she was far from a rigid and stable weight. She would be constantly moving, which meant I was not just lifting her up and down, but had to resist the forces she was creating in all types of different angles when she played with me. In sport we see such actions all the time. I remember growing up in Chicago as a big Bears fan. It is hard to think of too many athletes that make you think of football and the Bears like Walter Payton. I was young at the height of his career, but can vividly remember his amazing runs – he seemed invincible. Not being an especially large athlete, Walter Payton would run over defenders and put more punishment on the defense than it seemed he ever received. A running back almost never has the luxury of just running straight ahead. They are constantly changing direction, accelerating and decelerating, absorbing hits and all angles during pretty much any motion. They are constantly in the midst of multi-planar work. In either example, we see that real world movement is not about just moving up and down or side to side. It is a combination of all these patterns, and demonstrates our real need to integrate this concept wisely into our functional fitness programs.

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There are few exercises in my mind that do this as well as the Rotational Lunge. Don’t take my word for it. NSCA Strength Coach of the Year, Robert Dos Remedios, has the Rotational Lunge in his top 5 movements for his athletes: “This is an exercise that I have been saying the past few years, could be my favorite exercise of all. I can’t emphasize how great of a move this is…sure it’s a great knee-dominant exercise that we can really load up etc. but we can create such great rotational force (especially when we start to swing the bag much like a KB swing!). Having not only to drive the load back up to the standing position but also having to deal with the deceleration of the load as it rotates around our body creates an amazing environment for getting stronger AND preventing future injury.”

DVRT Rotational Lunge Checklist • Deadlift the Ultimate Sandbag and begin in a tall standing position with the arms locked and shoulders back. • Initiate the movement by simultaneously drop-stepping and slowly rotating the Ultimate Sandbag to the same side as the lead leg. • Keep pressure through the front leg’s heel and the ball of foot of rear leg. • Slowly continue to descend, but do not rotate past the side of the front knee. • Keep the chest tall for the entire movement while bending both knees. • Drive through the heel of the front foot to pull the body all the way back up and tighten the glutes at the top, while driving into the ground with both heels.

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UPPER BODY DVRT DRILLS t would be easy to believe that the great majority of DVRT exercises revolve around just the lower body. Hip hinging, squatting, and lunging are all very strong lower body movements. Is there really anything different or unique in upper bodybased drills? Absolutely! However, I do have to preface the discussion of the upper body-dominant DVRT exercises with the disclaimer that these drills also include the entire body. Very shortly I will show you that the upper body, trunk, and lower body are all very closely related. Where do we start? There are two primary drills we will discuss, and each offers very different training effects . The first is the overhead press. Old time strongmen believed much of the strength of an individual was measured by their ability to lift weight overhead. Everything from the overhead press to the legendary bent press were favorites of these great and graceful athletes. Why was the overhead press so valued? Why do so many people value the bench press while the old time strongmen thought the overhead press was one of the top methods of measuring strength? One reason may not be nearly as deep as we may like to think. As with squatting, the overhead press was greatly impacted by the development of racks and eventually benches. The squat rack and bench didn’t exist during the era of many of these great athletes, leading them to find all types of ways to lift weight overhead and test their strength. Who knows if people like Eugene Sandow would have fallen in love with the bench press or not?

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I like to think they would have always seen the incredible value that overhead pressing offers and still would have favored the overhead press over the bench press. I realize that will get a few people up in arms, but let me explain. Notice that I have been referring to the drill as an overhead press and not a “shoulder press.” The overhead press requires the entire body to create force to get a weight safely and effectively overhead. Any weakness in the body’s chain will all of a sudden weaken the strength of our overhead press. Understanding the differences will have a profound effect for those who have traditionally struggled with pressing overhead in their shoulders. If we look at the anatomy of the shoulder, we see it is not nearly the size of many of the stronger and bigger muscles of our body. In fact, the shoulder is quite small and really needs the help of the other muscles to be safe and strong. To illustrate how the entire body is so critical in the performance of the overhead press, let’s look at what may appear to be a completely different exercise – the front plank. At first glance it may seem difficult to see any relationship between these movements. Upon closer examination, however, we can find a great deal of similarities. How do we typically progress the front plank? We move people from the forearms up to the hands, extending the arms and causing increased leverage. From the standard beginning of the push-up position, we can create more stress by changing leverage and moving the arms out in front of the body. If we were to continue to move the arms farther and farther out in front of the body, we would find our arms almost extending overhead. Of course at some point we would end up on our face, but if we move to a standing position and use an external load instead of gravity as our primary stressor, then you can see we continue the front plank progression. Yes, I am suggesting that the overhead press is just as much about the trunk and lower body as it is about the upper body. The overhead press is a great example of what functional training is really all about. Yes, that highly criticized term is not just a buzzword. Rather, it is about teaching our body how to work smarter and to use our body’s systems to collaborate to create more efficient and effective movement patterns. If we can agree that the overhead press shares a great deal with the front plank then we can take many of the concepts of the front plank and apply it to the overhead press. This includes important principles such as creating tension by applying force in the ground with the feet, actively locking the legs to build a stable foundation in the lower body. No, don’t worry, you won’t magically pass out or have your knees explode if you lock out your joints. You have plenty of muscles, tendons, and ligaments which make doing so almost impossible on a conscious level. Instead, you will find that the hamstrings and glutes become highly active, and we have already discussed how important these muscles are in our overall strength and efficiency. 144

The glutes especially play a big role in the overhead press. Many people actually fail in both their glutes and trunk, creating a very weak platform for the upper body to actually use as a base for performance. How? You can quickly see the difference for yourself without any weight. Stand up and keep a soft bend in your knees. See how much you can bend forward and back through your low back when you have the position of soft knees. Now try to press through your heels and stand as tall as possible. When you do so, you should find that your knees straighten and your glutes tighten. If you try to squeeze your glutes as tightly as possible, you should feel your pelvis tilt slightly back. Now see how much you can move forward and backwards while maintaining this tension. Finding that is it very difficult to do so? Good, you are setting forth a strong foundation for the rest of your body! Moving up the chain of the body, we come to the challenge of creating a rigid trunk. Our body possesses a natural “weight belt” through both the deep and more superficial abdominal muscles and fascia in the trunk. Creating proper pressure in the torso increases what is known as intra-abdominal pressure. Basically, the pressure in the torso helps stabilize the spine and prevents motion. You should be beginning to realize that the overhead press is less and less about the shoulders and more about learning to maximize the entire body. As we move up the chain to the actual upper body, we don’t look first at the actual strength of the upper body, but rather at its mobility. Joint mobility is defined by the American Council on Exercise as, “the degree to which an articulation (where two bones meet) is allowed to move before being restricted by surrounding tissues (ligaments/tendons/muscles etc.)… otherwise known as the range of uninhibited movement around a joint.” The definition of joint mobility seems rather simple, but what I have learned over the years is finding out why a joint is limited isn’t nearly as easy as it might seem. In Thomas Hanna’s revolutionary book about movement and pain, Somatics, he states that one of the most common errors of practitioners is treating the site of actual pain. This thought process has given rise to a whole new method for therapists and coaches to treat pain and injuries. We can use the same approach in trying to understand lack of mobility in the upper body. Realizing that everyone may not be able to initially perform the overhead press is crucial! I have consulted with many individuals who start a training program and complain about a specific exercise causing them injury. When I ask if anyone ever qualified them to perform these exercises, they look at me with confusion. The issue typically doesn’t arise from an exercise being bad or dangerous. Rather, people rarely evaluate whether an exercise is appropriate for their capabilities and/or goals. Injuries are usually the result of trying to makes someone perform an exercise they don’t have the necessary movement skills to do well! 145

What does it mean not to have the right capabilities? The overhead press is the perfect exercise to see this point rather easily. You can perform a rather easy self-assessment by using a mirror to watch your own movement. Make sure you can see your torso in the mirror. Place your feet together to standardize this little assessment, and use the same position every time. Slowly move your arms straight overhead for three repetitions. Performing a few repetitions will provide us a much more reliable idea of your body’s movement. On the third repetition hold your arms overhead and try to see a few key points.

Pressing both sizes of USBs (pressing style depends on size of USB).

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DVRT Overhead Press Checklist • Are both elbows able to fully lockout, or does on remain slightly bent? • Are both arms aligned with the ears? • If the arms reach an even position with the ears, do you feel your low back arching such that you feel like you are leaning back? • Is the space between your ears and arms even from side to side, or is one side in possession of far more space than the other?

Don’t flare elbows out.

Incorrect catch position.

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These three rather simple self-assessments allow us to gain quite a bit of information. Most people will find themselves with either a compensation in their movement or an imbalance from one side to the other. This is especially true if you have ever experienced some type of injury. Without telling you what is causing these issues, we first want to determine if you can safely perform the overhead press. If you are like many, you may have to go through some of the progressions I am going to lay forth in this chapter. You will find performing the RIGHT exercise is much more important than any one of the more advanced segment you wills see in the latter part of this book. You will be surprised how much faster your progress in training is if you focus on those movements that are right for you rather than becoming enamored by the cool exercise of the week.

No leaning through the low back

Incorrect catch position.

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As far as why we see some of these compensations, we can only talk in generalities. Without the ability to specifically assess everyone and anyone that reads this book, I can only give very general guidelines to enhance our movement skills.

The Hips It may seem odd, but yes, the hips have a lot to do with what happens at the shoulders. Because major muscles of the hip flexors actually start on the lower part of the spine and connect to the front part of the hip, they can actually pull the body into a slouching position. Problems with the hips also manifest themselves with the abdominals getting “tight.” If you slouch forward, you can see how problematic it can become to get your arms properly overhead. A very simple stretch for this entire area can be a good gauge to see if this is an issue for you. If, after performing the drill, you find increased range of motion in getting your arms overhead, you know this will become part of your pre-workout arsenal.

The Thoracic Spine What part of the spine? The thoracic spine is the middle portion of your spine, generally around the shoulder blade area and a bit below. The body actually has three portions to the spine, and the thoracic is one of the most neglected when it comes to discussions of health and performance. Because the lumbar spine (lower back) gets so much attention because of the high rate of injury, most people never realize that movement of both the hips and the thoracic spine can greatly alleviate many ailments. While the body can be very complex, some simple rules do apply. One of the main rules that impacts our health is that if an area doesn’t move well, the areas above and/or below will try to take up the slack. This usually leads to inappropriate movement or stress to an area, and the low back is a great example of these issues. The low back is not supposed to have a great deal of motion. This segment of the spine is more of a point for providing stability than motion. However, both the hips and thoracic spine are supposed to possess a great deal of movement. Issues in these two areas definitely lead both to issues in the low back and shoulders. A few simple drills can do wonders to see if lack of mobility in the thoracic spine. These are slow drills that require you to really focus upon where you are trying to establish movement rather than just rushing through to get them done. It only takes a few repetitions to get a positive result, so have patience and you will find both your body and training really improving!

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A combination Anyone who has been in fitness and performance training for any time realizes that issues in the body or compensations usually are the result of a few issues, not a singular one. When the body creates compensations in one area, it sets off a domino effect. We are trying to hit on “big bang” movements, drills that will most likely increase your movement capabilities the fastest. The tough part is that we could spend a great deal of time working many different areas. The chest, the lats, the shoulders themselves, and more could all be directly worked upon to try to improve the movement of the arms overhead. However, this more isolated version of trying to increase movement may be somewhat futile. Just as strength is highly related to our nervous system, so is movement and oftentimes lack of movement as well. There are a lot of instances where people’s lack of flexibility isn’t due to the muscle being tight as much as it is the nervous system trying to protect the body. Because the body may feel vulnerable in one area, it will shut it down as a means to protect it. By “waking up” some of the dormant muscles that should be working, we can all of a sudden get so much more movement out of an area of the body. One of my go-to exercises for this is tall kneeling around the world.

Tall Kneeling Around the World This drill is great for stimulating a great deal of the core muscles (both deep and superficial), dynamically strengthening the lats and chest, and activating the hamstrings and glutes. For such a relatively simple drill, the results can be quite profound.

Don’t Compensate.

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Tall Kneeling Around the World progression.

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The Warm-up One of the mistakes I made early in my career was spending so much time warming up that my clients got bored and lost time. That doesn’t mean it isn’t important. The truth is that my warm-up was highly inefficient. I spent so much time trying to stretch every muscle individually. I made the mistake of trying to train the body in a functional manner, but warm it up very nonfunctionally. The following warm-up series is far more effective in the results it provides and the time that is required. Definitely a win-win.

Rockstar Reach Stretch.

• Rockstar Reach Stretch: 5 repetitions per side.

• Lunge and Thoracic Spine Stretch: 5 repetitions per side.

Lunge and Thoracic Spine Stretch.

• Tall Kneeling Around the World: 3-5 repetitions per side.

Repeat Twice One of the major mistakes people make during such warm-ups is that they try to make them into a workout. We are just trying to get the body prepped for the demands we are going to place upon it during the main workout. Pre-fatiguing the body does very little to enhance how we move or perform. That is why the above circuit represents a situation where more is not better; better is better. It is the quality of the movement, not the quantity of repetitions we try to squeeze out. 152

Back to the Press It might seem like quite a detour to come back to overhead pressing. However, it is VERY important. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can sabotage a well-intended fitness program like injury. A lot of people won’t have the patience to actually implement what I have recommended above. Those are the same people who, in a short amount of time, will begin to rub their shoulders and begin to think pressing overhead is just an unsafe exercise. Big mistake! Once you have set yourself up to perform the overhead press well, we have so many great ways to train this movement. In the upper body-based DVRT drills, we are going to focus on changing body position before the holding position of the USB. This is very important in the overhead pressing series because the USB is going to feel unstable during the holding positions. I often chuckle when people get a bit frustrated when pressing the USB overhead, because they say things such as, “This is moving!” Well yes, a major reason we are using the USB and not another implement is that we want it to move. Because the USB will feel a bit unstable, we want to learn to create stability through our body first. We can work toward decreasing the amount of stability that the body offers as a means of making the overhead press more challenging. Remember, we aren’t changing the USB by small increments, so these body positions will be very important in your ability to progress through the series. The first key is to make sure you clean the USB into the right position. With all the work that we put into teaching the Power Clean in the early chapters, we are going to slightly tweak the movement. Instead of catching the USB in the Front Loaded position, we are actually going to work to catch the USB upon the fists. The difference in the catch of the clean simply stems from having a different intent for the movement. Because our aim is to press overhead, we can’t have the end position be the Front Load. 153

Clean the USB into the right position.

You learn a lot of lessons performing the clean to fists. If you have any faults in your clean, they will come about during this drill. While it is possible to get through some technical issues when you are learning to clean to the Front Load position, the clean to fists needs a lot more precision to get the USB in the correct position. Some common faults that will lead to an inability to get the USB on the fists include: • Only allowing the elbows to bend 90 degrees. This will cause a “flip” of the USB that will make it virtually impossible to get on the fists. • Allowing the arms to come out in front of the body. You’ll get into a wrestling match that the USB will always win.

Don’t catch too far out in front.

Don’t scoop too early.

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• Too much force: The amount of force you create is very important to your success in this drill. Insufficient force will mean that the USB does not get high enough to catch in the correct position. Too much force can cause you to over rotate the USB so that you catch the USB on the back side of the wrists. THIS is one of the most common errors and has the highest potential to cause injuries in the shoulder. People often overlook this issue because they think resting the USB on the back side of the Don't scoop too wrist is similar to using the kettlebell. There are some big difearly in the ferences between the kettlebell motion. and USB that cause this to be problematic. The kettlebell, when cleaned correctly, rests on the back side of the wrist. This allows the wrist to easily maintain a straight position. When the USB is cleaned incorrectly, it rests on the part of the wrist closest to the thumb. Instead of the wrist being straight, it is pulled at an awkward angle, which can cause strain to the wrist.

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Poor distance of shoulder to hand.

Good distance of shoulder to hand.

Even more important is the fact that, when the kettlebell rests on the backside of the wrist, the distance from the hand to the shoulder is quite small. A short distance allows us to focus on building stability through the lat and providing a safe base from the kettlebell to press. However, in the case of the USB, this incorrect holding position causes the distance from the hand to the shoulder to increase, especially as the weight of the USB increases. Now the shoulder has no help from the supporting structures of the upper body and becomes a front shoulder press. Such pressing is extremely risky to the integrity and health of the shoulder.

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Patiently learning the correct technique will help you improve your performance and keep you healthy. You may have to slow yourself down a bit and think of your clean to fists as skill work rather than as an exercise at first. Such training can be challenging. However, I will present a few different ways you can both practice and get a terrific workout.

Pressing Considerations Before we can consider progression, we need to ensure that we have great technique when pressing. Here are the keys to a great press: • Clean to fists with hands almost in line with shoulders (do not clean to fists and leave the hands significantly narrower than the shoulders). • Drive into the heels to activate the hamstrings and tighten the glutes. This gives a strong base to press weight overhead. • Brace the abdominals to create tension through the trunk and the glutes in the pelvis to prevent leaning forward or back. • Drive through the underarm to press the USB overhead to the crown of the head. • Maintaining tension through the lower body and trunk, “pull” the USB down to the chest again. (NOTE: pressing a Core/Power USB will differ from Strength/Burly USB) Once you have these foundations built into your routine, you can move onto programming. As mentioned earlier, some will struggle initially with the clean to fists. Patience does have its reward, but we also want to be mindful that frustration can cause a negative training experience. If you can learn to perform a clean with such an awkward implement, imagine how much you will improve when you go to more stable tools such as barbells, dumbbells, or even kettlebells. To build time for practice while improving your fitness, we will rely on programming to help solve these issues. The overhead press requires a great deal of body tension. Due to the high tension developed during the press, high repetitions are difficult to achieve. Using the right programming, we can address the practice needs of the clean to fists, refine our press, and if desired, build volume in this lift. Very simply, we are going to use a ratio of clean to fists and overhead presses. The ratio programming allows us to balance out the programming depending upon our goals. 157

Initially we are going to keep it simple in a 1:2 ratio. That means one clean to fists to two overhead presses. Such a ratio is great for practicing and gaining fitness. We can repeat this within one set any number of times. For example, in a beginner series we may repeat this series two times, giving us a total of two clean to fists and four presses overhead. For more intermediate to advanced levels, you can extend this process up to four or five times within one set. This results in five clean to fists and ten overhead presses – something that would be hard to replicate if we performed five clean to fists and then ten straight presses. Programming like this is extremely helpful, especially in a group setting. Probably the worst way to initially program the clean and press (combination of the clean and fists with overhead press) is by using timed sets or intervals. When people feel rushed as they initially perform these movements, they tend to re-create their mistakes more frequently. Therefore, intervals and speed are an advanced programming variable. Not only does speed lead rushed performance, but with the USB there is another profound impact to training by increasing speed. When you start to lift the USB faster, the USB itself becomes more unstable. Most people are not used to the instability of the implement when they program, and don’t realize they are layering more complexity than they believe. Trying to move quickly and technically well can be a great challenge, and doing so with an unstable weight can be MUCH more difficult. Speed can be a powerful means for adding progressions and instilling good lifting principles. The key here, however, is to go slower rather than faster. While the clean to fist always has to be fast, the press can actually be manipulated to add another layer of incremental progressions. When we move slower, we can easily see the compensations – what strength coach Dan John calls, “leakage of strength.” This leakage occurs when we lose tension and stability, inhibiting the ability to demonstrate strength When we slow down the movement, we have to appropriately accommodate the number of repetitions. Moving slower is very fatiguing, so moving back to a ration of 1:2 clean to fists to presses or even 1:1 will help manage fatigue and maximize performance. Repeating this type of slow cycle two to three times in a set is usually ideal. Even though fatigue accumulates rather quickly, we can see quick recovery as well. Therefore, we can take relatively short rest intervals (20-30 seconds) between our sets. What part of the press are we performing slowly? We are going to emphasize the lowering phase of the press. Remember, when the USB is all the way overhead, we have the greatest amount of weight acting upon our trunk and lower body. People who allow “leakage of strength” or compensation during the press will often see a shaking of the body as it tries to create stability. It is all right, though. We want to go through our checklist again and make sure that we are adhering to all our principles of good pressing. As we are able to integrate the body more efficiently, we should see less shaking. 158

Changing Body Position It is so important that you realize these progressions may constitute weeks or months of training. In the later sections of this book, I will provide you some programs that satisfy both your desire to have variation in training and your need to achieve results. However, don’t ever feel rushed to work through these different progressions. If you spend more time developing that strong foundation by adhering to good DVRT lifting concepts, you will be shocked at how much faster you reach those fitness goals. We have worked through the foundational techniques in the Clean and Press and we have challenged your stability and strength by slowing down the speed of your press. Now we will alter stability and strength again, but by a different means. That is changing how we stand as we press. This is not just a strategy to compensate for the USB not being able to micro-load. Instead, this is a superior means for developing strength. Very few athletic activities try to micro-load like in weight training. Even body weight training never adheres to the idea of such incremental loading. Sprinting and running athletes rarely implement the small changes in performance that are necessary in weight training. The reason that so many people focus on trying to make such small jumps in weight is that they don’t understand how to really enhance the nervous system. Yes, the nervous system is far more impactful to your strength gains than the size of your muscles. We want to teach the body how to work smarter, to tap into the muscles, particularly the ones it wants to be lazy about using. I guarantee if you work one or two sets of these different body positions prior to your standard bilateral pressing stance, you will probably feel stronger. You didn’t get stronger in the few minutes it took us to perform these drills. Instead, your body got smarter. The concept of changing the body position during a pressing motion isn’t all that unique. When you look at how the push-up is commonly challenged, we alter body position in a host of different strategies. We know from many different push-up variations that changing leverage and stability can greatly intensify the exercise and hit muscles we had forgotten long about. But if using such techniques are good enough for the body weight exercises like the push-up, how come we can’t use them during external loaded drills? Using these progressions in body position will teach you so much about your weaknesses. In the later chapters I will show you how you can use these varying body positions to create simple periodization models that will keep your progress moving forward for a very long time!

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Our DVRT principles tell us that we start from stable and move to unstable. That means we have to learn how to correctly perform what we will call the bilateral Clean and Press. This body position will refer to what we typically see in the performance of overhead pressing – the feet in line with each other and a stance hip width or slightly wider. Try to think of this position as similar to that of a push-up, but starting with a wider base in the lower body. The first step in stressing the body position variable is to reduce our base of support. We are going to move our feet to what is known as the military press position. Yes, most people think the military press refers to just a classic shoulder press. However, the term comes from both the stance that soldiers assume in saluting officers as well as the fact that in early military programs, you can see pictures of soldiers training in the field with smaller barbells, pressing from this very position.

The Military Press.

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The Military Press.

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As mentioned, the key in the military press is that we are changing stability by altering your base. We can again make the exercise more difficult by moving the feet together in a push-up. See how we our exercises and programs complement one another and are not mutually exclusive? It is actually very important for your long-term progress that you realize that your tools and exercises are based upon very similar concepts, even though they may outwardly appear very different.

The Staggered Stance Press.

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With the military press position, we can see the stress of having both a relatively unstable load and body position. The military press stance places more emphasis on resisting lateral forces, and therefore begins to transform the overhead press from a largely dominant Sagittal plane exercise into a more multi-planar movement. Watch for compensations, which can include tilting side to side and front to back. Not only can we see similarities between the overhead press and the push-up, but also to the front plank. As the USB moves to overhead, the trunk is being heavily worked, and the principles in exercises like the front plank become very important in resisting these forces. When do you move to your next progression? Achieving proficiency in a certain USB weight is not as important as establishing the ability to perform the movement without any lean in any direction. You can definitely continue to load this position, and I highly encourage it as people move right through the military press far too fast. The military press gives us a great combination of both working on stability and load. Once you have seen that you can perform the military press without any compromise in leaning or excessive movement, we can integrate the staggered stance. Just as with some of the lower body-based DVRT movements, the staggered stance is quite valuable in the upper body dominant drills as well. Staggered stance combines both a narrow base like in the military press, and an off-set position. This not only introduces lateral instability, but also rotational forces that the body must work against. We also see in the staggered stance the great importance of utilizing the lower body and creating force from the ground up. If the stance leg is “loose” it will be very difficult to maintain the correct lifting posture. However, if we learn to really drive into the ground and use the hip to create a more stable base we can greatly enhance both our core and upper body stability. What we haven’t discussed is how the USB will continue to add instability throughout these progressions. In the initial Clean and Press, we might feel some mild instability from the USB (depending on the size of the USB). As we move to less stable body positions, we notice that the instability of the USB becomes a variable we must consider during the performance of these drills. That is why it is important to remind you that speed plays a crucial role in the success of implementing these drills. You will find that you prefer to try to move fast when you don’t feel comfortable or strong. Not only does this reduce the effectiveness of the DVRT drills, but it also makes the USB feel even more unstable. Therefore, when you move from one progression to another, o slow down the tempo and really focus on proper body control. This is especially important because the next jump in body position is quite significant, and not adhering to these concepts can make it very difficult to incorporate these drills into your training programs.

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You may notice that changes in body position for the overhead press remove joints from the equation. In the very early forms of the overhead press we want to teach you how to efficiently use your body and the natural support systems it provides. As we progress though, we begin to remove some of these stability methods in order to really emphasize some key segments of the body. What are these “key segments”? We are referring specifically to the trunk, hips, and yes, the upper body. Continuing to move through these progressions, we get to see if we really are maximizing these areas of the body to their full potential. As you get stronger with the following drills, you’ll be astounded to see that they make the previously mentioned drills easier. This is due to training our nervous system and awakening many of the smaller muscle groups, which are often dormant when the body is more stable. Why not start with the next two drills then? The previous progressions teach us how to systematically

The Kneeling Press.

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use the body. Moving directly into the following drills is, for many people, like going up 50 or 100 pounds in weight in an exercise. It is important to remember that stability needs to be as progressive as load! These two elusive body positions I am referring to are both kneeling and half-kneeling lifting postures. By removing foot contact and not allowing you to generate as much force from the lower body by unlocking the legs, we now are increasing the work being performed by the trunk, hips, and upper body. This is a fantastic way to make a lighter weight in some of the other overhead progressions feel like work once again. Kneeling is often taught first in our DVRT system because of the more symmetrical alignment it allows. Even though we have reduced the contribution of the lower body, we haven’t eliminated integrating from these drills. Most people make a very big mistake in not being aware of proper usage of the lower body in the kneeling and halfkneeling postures, causing them to struggle excessively in learning how to perform them correctly. Maximizing these two variations requires us to once again begin by looking at the lower body. If we allow our feet to lay flat, we can’t integrate the lower body. By positioning the feet so that the ball of the foot is in contact with the ground (dorsiflexion), we can still use the glutes and hamstrings, but to a lesser degree. There of course are doubters, so you can simply try this concept for yourself. Assume the kneeling posture and relax the feet. Place your hands upon your glutes and hamstrings. How much tension do you feel? Probably very little. Now plant the ball of your foot into the ground on both sides of the body and actively press into your feet. What happens to the tension in your glutes and hamstrings? More than likely, you felt a huge increase in tension in these areas. This isn’t cheating at all. Think of your push-ups again. When you lift one leg

Kneeling Press compensation.

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off the ground, you don’t rely on just the trunk muscles. Instead, you have to drive even HARDER into the leg still in contact with the ground. Using such techniques is the intelligent way to make the body function as it was meant to. The half kneeling position is used as a more complex body position due to the asymmetrical stance. Just as in all our DVRT drills, the split stances in any sort will increase the amount of rotational forces our body must resist, as well as fully expose if we have compensations from one side to the other. Asymmetries are among the biggest causes of injury and obstacles in increasing performance. Improving any asymmetries that may exist often results in improved strength, performance, and health.

The HalfKneeling Press.

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Don’t arch forward excessively.

Don’t bend laterally.

Don’t take too wide of a stance.

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Once again we must start with the set-up. The goal is to create an “L” with the front and back side of the body. Slowly drop to the bottom of a split squat position (more about getting in position shortly), resting the rear knee on the ground. Ideally both hips stay in line with the pelvis and don’t move outwards. We now have many components to the overhead press. There is the asymmetrical position, the reduction in joints being used, and a narrow base. In other words, don’t underestimate the value of this movement or the difficulty in performing it well! The front heel should be flat, and our “L” should be established in the front leg. If we take a step that is too long, we won’t be able to apply the right amount of force into the ground, and if our step is too short we won’t be able to use the heel of the front foot. The rear leg should assume a position similar to the one used in our kneeling variation. Setting the body correctly allows us to work from a proper lifting position. When we begin to press from the half kneeling position we look for a few key elements: • Can we keep the body from moving forward or backward during the overhead press? • Do we lean through the low back as we press the USB overhead? • Does our hip rotate as the exercise is being performed? Both the kneeling and half kneeling positions obviously apply a great deal of stress to the body beyond just the load of the USB. We need to program appropriately, and more than five repetitions of such drills is not recommended. It is pretty shocking to most people that we have created so many variations of basically the same movement. By altering both speed of movement and body position, we develop a number of ways to progress and program the overhead press beyond just the load of the USB itself. Does it work, though? I can tell you from personal experience that the answer is a resounding YES! In 2011 I had a fusion to my neck, which prohibited me from lifting any significant weights for a few months. During my recovery, I used light USB loads combined with various body positions to address other weaknesses in my body and to improve the coordination of my right arm once again. Curious to see if what I was actually doing was working, I tried pressing a 97-pound kettlebell 6 weeks post surgery. Even though this was met with huge opposition from my physical therapist wife, my compulsive desire to see where I stood overruled her common sense. However, to both of our shock, I was able to press the kettlebell five times! Prior to the surgery I was unable to press the 53-pound kettlebell once. Did the surgery help? Of course, but my body was in recovery mode. During this time I lifted no heavier than 50 pounds total, and yet I was able to press quite a significant 168

weight. While my neurologist was less than pleased with my attempt at this goal, he was amazed at the recovery I had made without traditional physical therapy. I am not going to suggest you repeat my journey, but I am living proof that these methods work very well!

Get a Grip Once we have moved through these five overhead body position progressions, we can now work on integrating holding position. It may seem somewhat impossible to alter the holding position. After all, isn’t this way we press weight overhead? Both arms moving up and down in a vertical plane? That is how we press most other objects, but the USB is not most other objects. When it comes to pressing overhead we have two very different strategies we can integrate to enhance our strength and stability.

Off-Set When I created the USB I wanted to create a tool that could offer the most versatility possible and do things that no other implement could replicate. An example of this is utilizing the off-set grip. We moved from stable to unstable in body position, and now we are going to do the same by changing how we hold the USB. The off-set grip allows us to transform the USB into a one-arm press. Just about any time I show this progression to people they look at me with a very confused expression. How in the world is this a single arm press when there are two hands on the implement?! Once again, it all comes down to leverage.

The Off-set grip position.

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The off-set grip makes it virtually impossible for the outside arm to provide any force to the overhead press. It simply acts as a means to balance the USB as it moves overhead. The obvious question is, “Why use the USB in this manner when I can lift dumbbells or kettlebells one-arm overhead?” There are several very good reasons to add the off-set grip to your arsenal.

The Off-set grip position.

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The first has to do with using the USB for any drill – the live weight element! When we move to the off-set grip, the press arm actually absorbs more of the instability of the USB. The increased instability created by the off-set grip forces the lifter to integrate all aspects of the body much harder. We are able to identify the “leakages” of strength much faster because the compensations in movement will become far more profound. Although the off-set grip offers more instability during the actual press, it does make cleaning the USB into the press position much easier. For those that struggle to clean the USB in the standard pressing variations, the off-set grip may actually serve as a very useful way to bridge this gap. Instead of getting frustrated and feeling like you cannot get better at the clean, you can integrate the off-set grip to start building a foundation for the Clean and Press movements. One of the most common leakages of strength comes when people lean to the side as they press a weight with one arm. Because the off arm tends to be lazy, we don’t create any stability on the opposing side of the body. By actively gripping the USB while pressing, we teach the lifter how to create stability on the opposite side, which is really the whole point of using unilateral drills like the one-arm press. The last reason for using the USB has to do with economics. Any smart business person knows you always have to look at your return on investment (ROI). The USB has a HUGE ROI! It is really the only implement that can be effectively used as a single or double arm implement. In the barbell’s early years, it was used by famous strongmen in a similar manner. Older versions of the barbell were shorter in length, allowing lifters to perform unilateral or bilateral lifts. As the barbell grew to its current length, it became more difficult to actually implement these one-arm drills because the leverage of the barbell created such great levels of instability. The USB enables us to use a single implement for both purposes, greatly expanding the versatility and problem solving abilities of the USB.

The Arc Press To maximize the potential of the DVRT system and the USB itself, you must look at both without the glasses of standard gym training. Doing so opens up a big world of training options and programming possibilities. One such option is the Arc Press. Moving the USB to the Shoulder position, we create another powerful overhead pressing variation. Instead of the weight moving only vertically during the overhead press, we can now add a horizontal component. Increasing the angles of force we apply to the body, we can integrate more muscles into the lift, especially those of the trunk and hips. I have tried to stay away from using the term “core” in this book, as it either confuses people or is met with 171

cynicism. Understandable, but the truth is that the core does exist and it is made up of a combination of the trunk and hips. Notice that I did not say abdominals, but rather the trunk. The core doesn’t just mean the abdominals, as the lats, the low back muscles, and fascia are all crucial to the stability of the trunk. Given that we have both superficial and deep abdominal muscles, thinking of the core as just “the abs” really undervalues what the core can do for performance and injury prevention. The core’s job is often to resist movement. A great example occurs with the lateral motion that our body must resist during everyday tasks like walking and running. Although these tasks are commonly perceived as simple, the reality is that these are complex movements that require a great deal of optimal body integration to be performed well. That is why the DVRT program has such a heavy emphasis on lateral stability in drills such as the Shoulder Squat, Rotational Lunge, and now the Arc Press. The Arc Press is a different overhead press from the off-set position. Both holding positions offer single-arm training, but it different ways. The off-set grip press allows the weight to sit in front of our body, and this is our strongest pressing position. During the performance of the Arc Press the USB is rotated so the weight is laterally stressing the body, even before beginning the press.

The Arc Press with correct gripping.

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The Arc Press with correct gripping.

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As with the Shoulder Squat, we want to make sure we don’t alter our posture at any point, including by having the USB rest upon the shoulder. The outside arm becomes the pressing arm with an additional challenge. As if it weren’t enough to lift the USB with one arm or at a very different position, there’s also the fact that there’s no handle to grip. That’s right, we are gripping directly upon the USB. All of a sudden we have a great deal of input and stress going through the hand, down the arm, and to the rest of the body. This is why so many people struggle at first with the Arc Press. Their bodies don’t understand how to coordinate a movement without a stable handle to grab. Not very functional if you ask me! Gripping the middle of the USB is one part of the equation. The other is to grab toward the bottom of the middle of the USB. Gripping too high on the USB will place too much weight below your pressing arm, and will feel just about impossible to press. Improper USB holding techniques can also lead to logistical issues that I will address very shortly. Very similar to the off-set press, the other arm acts as a guide for the pressing arm. As the weight transitions to the mid-point of the body, we find the load shifting from one arm to the other. The Arc Press then becomes a press for one arm and a pull for the other arm. Making that transition requires us to really brace through our whole body to ensure we prevent any leaning in one direction or the other.

Don’t shift laterally.

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The Arc Press is almost always performed with a really slow tempo. While we can push press and use other means to get the USB up overhead, there is great value in learning how to decelerate that weight as the USB moves from one side of the body to the other. As with all DVRT drills, adding speed adds a great deal of complexity and instability. Unfortunately, I often observe lifters trying to add speed to the Arc Press, causing them to lose all focus and/or control over the body’s posture and alignment . The Arc Press often proves to be most valuable in the slow and steady mindset.

Don’t bob the head.

Logistical Issues As great as the Arc Press is to perform (one of my favorites in fact), there are some setup issues that we have to consider and address. The Arc Press is best to implement with smaller USBs. In the DVRT principles section, I discussed times where a more stable USB is far more effective, and this is one of those times! A smaller USB also means a more compact and stable weight. The orientation of the USB and the movement during the Arc Press creates enough instability on its own. We need to actually create some stability by making the USB move less. The question is, “How do I get stronger with the Arc Press?” Since some of you will use a weight at first that is much lighter than you could handle in the standard Clean and Press, we can jump progressions a bit. Instead of starting with the bilateral stance and moving to military and so on, we can begin by bringing you right to kneeling and halfkneeling positions. By combining slower speeds and unstable body positions, we can make the Arc Press a challenging drill.

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At some point, load is going to be a variable we will want to improve upon. An issue arises when we progress to larger USBs. Moving from a Power to Strength or Strength to Burly causes significant changes in dimension. Having a USB that is lightly loaded with a larger dimension means a USB that will fold as it is used during the Arc Press. For many, the actual press is not limiting because of the weight of the USB or stability problems. Rather, the problem is that the folding USB is too cumbersome to press overhead. There are three relatively easy solutions to this problem.

Too Flimsy of USB during Arc Press

Different Filling Material The name Ultimate Sandbag definitely implies the filling of the USB with sand. However, that is not necessarily the best option. In movements such as the Arc Press, we may want to increase the load and dimension of the USB. But dramatic increases in both cause too much stress, and altering the filling material can be very helpful. Over the years, we have experimented with a host of filling materials such as rubber mulch, rice, and birdseed. While other materials can definitely be used, these are both inexpensive and easily accessible. These materials give density to the USB and make it easier to make the jump to a large USB.

The Towel Solution Possibly the simplest, but the method we have used the least is to take a heavier, but more unstable USB and simply add towels or similar materials increase the density of the USB. Easy to do and easy to remove over time, this method just shows how easily we can solve what first appears to be a significant issue in the use of specific USB drills.

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Leveraging the USB In the above description of the Arc Press, I discussed grabbing onto the middle of the USB. While this is the standard recommendation, we can manipulate where we hold the USB to adjust for the increasing weight. By holding onto more of the front end of the USB and allowing the rest of the USB to almost fall behind the body, we can work with even unstable USBs, as we are pressing less weight and have to move less of the USB over the head.

How to manipulate leverage.

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The Many Ways to Overhead Press I have learned in the past few years that offering more options isn’t always welcomed by people. New options can seem overly complicated and confusing. That is why the programs included in this book are going to be incredibly helpful in getting you accustomed to the DVRT system. These principles, programs, and drills will quickly become second nature to you. Implementation seems to be one of the best ways to solve the intimidation factor that many encounter. Yes, you have to actually use this information! In order to simplify the progressions a bit, I have broken down the overhead progressions into categories so you can get an idea of where to start. Once your confidence grows, you will be able to jump around a bit to meet your own specific needs and goals. This isn’t a linear progression; you can use any of these movements at any time as long as you have identified them as the best method for helping you achieve your fitness and performance goals.

BILATERAL PRESSES DIFFERENT BODY POSITIONS

B I L AT E R A L P R E S S W I T H B I L AT E R A L S TA N C E

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IN

B I L AT E R A L P R E S S W I T H M I L I TA RY S TA N C E

B I L AT E R A L P R E S S W I T H S TA G G E R E D S TA N C E

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B I L AT E R A L P R E S S WITH KNEELING POSITION

B I L AT E R A L P R E S S WITH HALF KNEELING POSITION

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OFF-SET SERIES FOLLOWING BILATERAL PRESS PROGRESSIONS O F F -S E T P R E S S W I T H B I L AT E R A L S TA N C E

O F F -S E T P R E S S W I T H M I L I TA RY S TA N C E

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O F F -S E T P R E S S W I T H S TA G G E R E D S TA N C E

O F F -S E T P R E S S WITH KNEELING POSITION

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O F F -S E T P R E S S WITH HALF KNEELING POSITION (Opposite side: easier)

O F F -S E T P R E S S WITH HALF KNEELING POSITION (Same side: harder)

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ARC PRESS SERIES FOLLOWING OFF-SET PRESS PROGRESSIONS ARC PRESS W I T H B I L AT E R A L S TA N C E

ARC PRESS W I T H M I L I TA RY S TA N C E

ARC PRESS W I T H S TA G G E R E D S TA N C E

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ARC PRESS WITH KNEELING POSITION

ARC PRESS WITH HALF KNEELING POSITION

Seeing the progressions in these categories should help you become more confident with the progressions that I discussed. This doesn’t at all exhaust the options available, but gives us a strong foundation. Transforming the overhead press from what a shoulder exercise into a multi-purpose overall body movement not only provides so much more versatility, but also meaning to this movement patter.

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TRAINING WITH A TWIST f DVRT is really a complete training system, then we can’t leave out functional movement patterns such as rotation. Interestingly, many coaches stay far away from the concept of rotation. Ironically, our bodies are meant to produce a great deal of rotation and learning to use rotational forces in our performance of many activities helps us create far more force and efficiency in movement. If we look at a host of sporting actions that have a great deal of power, such as kicking, punching, change of direction, throwing, and even aspects of sprinting, rotation plays a very large role. Why is rotation so greatly feared and neglected by many training programs if it is so important? While rotation is immensely beneficial, it also has the potential to cause injury. My confusion, though, is if we go through progression and teach rotation like any other movement pattern, is the risk any greater than any other series of movements we teach? I think the rewards and proper progressions truly outweigh the potential risks involved. I would rather make the argument that avoiding teaching rotational movements not only creates an incomplete program, but actually sets us up for a higher risk of injury. The old saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” applies very well to the functionality of the body. There will inevitably be times when we need to rotate. Having neither the ability or knowledge of proper rotation is a high risk proposition. Rotational training is the final plane of motion that we learn to move through. It make sense that if natural human movement has three planes, we should eventually learn to move through each. While I hopefully made a strong argument for rotation-based training, I also have to say that the following training concepts do have a higher level of complexity to them. Therefore, I suggest that you spend time working through most of the previous drills before moving to the rotational aspects of your training. As with all the movement patterns we have covered, I am going to show you how to progress and identify if you are ready to perform rotational drills. 187

Before we get into those progressive DVRT drills, it is worthwhile to address why so many coaches have apprehension to rotational based drills. One of the easiest ways to herniate a disc in the lumbar spine is by moving the spine into rotation and flexion. That is why it is important to differentiate rotation of the body from rotation of the spine. While it may sound like a matter of semantics, the difference is very important. The lumbar spine does not have much rotation available. That is why it is even more important to teach people the difference between rotating through the low back and rotating through the hips. That’s right, the hips are a ball and socket joint that allow a great deal of movement, including internal rotation of the hip. When the foot rotates inward and creates force up through the hip, the hip creates this very powerful rotational force, not twisting through the low back. That is why exercises such as Russian twists, which lock the feet and hips into place, are often far from ideal for people’s low backs. Since drills like the Russian twist prevent proper motion of the foot and hip, most of the rotation is left to the low back That is where issues arise, and a great deal of force is being applied to the low back. It cannot absorb these stresses well. Like all our movement patterns, the important issue is not whether the movement is good, but whether it is being taught and performed properly.

Make sure to pivot through the hip rather than twisting through the low back.

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A Matter of the Hips Unfortunately, many people lack the proper hip motion to perform the rotational patterns well. Without a trained professional to evaluate your hips’ specific movement, it is difficult to definitively say whether or not you possess this range of motion. However, looking at how we hold certain postures and positions can give us valuable feedback.

The Shin Squat We are going to use a rather simple movement to make a very general evaluation of your hips’ ability to internally rotate. Simply by sitting in the Shin Squat, we are placing the back leg in a position where we can see its ability to internally rotate. The goal of the Shin Squat is to sit in this position while maintaining a tall trunk posture. If you are unable to internally rotate the back hip, you will find that you have to lean away from the back leg and support yourself by placing your hands on the ground. Some may cramp in this position, showing that the body is trying to protect itself from a position it perceives as dangerous. In either scenario, we are using the Shin Squat as a simple self-assessment tool. If you find yourself either unable to hold the upright trunk posture or cramping, you may want to spend time working on your hip mobility prior to performing the drills in the latter part of this chapter. What should you do? Addressing all of the possible reasons that you could be experiencing these issues is beyond the scope of this book. But some of the drills in the overhead press warm-up section also carry over into improving hip mobility for rotational training.

The proper Shin Squat.

The tight Shin Squat.

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One other issue to consider is coordination. While the ability to internally rotate the hip is important, I have found that far more people can’t rotate properly. Improving coordination in rotation is why I have structured the progressions in the manner you will see. At first we are going to want to try to isolate the motion as much as possible so you can really focus on correctly integrating all the components of proper rotation. As we move through these progressions, we will add more joints to the movement and leverage the body and load differently to stimulate various aspects of the rotational movements. You have seen throughout this book that no DVRT drill is performed for some random reason. This will be especially true for the sequence of our DVRT rotational drills.

Rotational Press After trying to teach rotational training to so many different populations, I found success with the use of the Rotational Press. Our trunk maintains a vertical position throughout the exercise, allowing us to really focus on the quality of the movement without much compromise to the spine at all. The Rotational Press allows us to help the lifter feel how proper rotation through the body can generate power and efficiency in the entire body. After we have cleaned the USB into our pressing position, we can place focus on what is happening from the ground up. The key is the ball of the foot driving into the ground and rotating at the same time. Unfortunately, the best way to think of this action for most people is to simply think of “putting out a cigarette.” I know, I wish I had a better cue that reinforced healthy habits, but this cue seems to be universally understood. We want to separate just simply turning the foot and hip with a very deliberate action of creating a great deal of force into the ground.

Foot pivoting— think of “putting out a cigarette.”

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As the foot rotates and creates this force into the ground, our torso follows the movement of our hip and we begin to feel this drive going all the way to our upper body. If I am rotating through the right hip, I will actually be moving toward the left. Don’t worry, it is ALMOST impossible to move in the wrong direction. Performing the Rotational Press correctly, you will have feel as though you are lifting less with your arms and upper body, and simply continuing the rotational action that began at my foot. Those that try to lift and press will struggle a bit more because pressing from a rotated position is a much tougher body position. Our goal is to make it one synergistic movement so we can take advantage of the forces being driven through the body.

The Rotational Press.

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Once the USB is locked out over the crown of our head we want to make sure that both legs are in proper position. The side of the foot that caused the rotation should feel as though it cannot rotate inward much further. The leg should lock by continuing to push through the ball of the foot, not letting the heel come into contact with the ground. By locking out the rotating leg, we are again giving support to the low back by activating that glute to make sure we don’t try to move through our lumbar spine.

Too much low back compensation.

Too much out in front compensation.

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The action of the stance leg is equally important. We can even use what happens on the stance leg to gauge much mobility we possess in this side of the body. When the rotational movement occurs, the stance leg (the one that is not moving) should be able to remain very close to neutral (pointing almost straight ahead). Those with limited mobility in their hips are going to find that as they rotate, the stance leg begins to rotate as well. That definitely is a sign of mobility issue through the hips, and should be addressed before progressing any further through our series. With all DVRT drills, we have to pay attention on the downward phase as well. This is a tremendous opportunity to reinforce important principles that will carry over to our more complex rotational patterns. As the USB reaches the crown of the head (not being pressed out at a angle!), we are going to use the principles from the overhead pressing series and pull the elbows into the ribs. Yes, actively and slowly pull the USB back to the beginning of the press position while simultaneously rotating the leg back to the bilateral pressing stance. Do not just let the USB “fall” from the top position, and don’t forget to rotate the leg purposefully. By being very deliberate in the lowering action, you will naturally continue the rotation to the other side of the body. Focusing on the rotation of the body through the movement of the feet, you will find yourself wanting to use the momentum you purposefully created to help press to the opposing side. The more you find yourself becoming efficient in this movement, the less “arms” you will feel. The weight of the USB will be dispersed through the entire body. Learning how to create this almost effortless press is the whole point in starting with the Rotational Press as our foundation to rotational based movements. In the earlier part of this section, I discussed that rotation is our way of moving more efficiently. The Rotational Press does a terrific job of demonstrating this very concept as we begin to gain higher levels of proficiency in the DVRT exercise.

Inside Out Clean You can spend a great deal of time utilizing the Rotational Press to meet many different goals. The Rotational Press is positioned perfectly to allow us to build progressive loading, and allows us an opportunity to build smarter combination DVRT movements. When you find yourself being able to use the Rotational Press for both of these goals, you can begin to introduce the Inside Out Clean. Our form of progression in the DVRT rotational drills is going to be a combination of both adding more joints to the exercises and being very aware of the angles we create. In the case of the Inside Out Clean, we have many different variables to consider. As we identify more variables, we have to realize we are increasing both the complexity and 193

intensity of the drills. Make sure you have spent time building the foundations with the Rotational Press and aren’t trying to rush to “new” exercises for the sake of novelty. At the same time, the Inside Out Clean is a very deliberate DVRT progressional movement to help us bridge the gap into achieving these more challenging rotational drills. Speed, increasing the number of joints used, and the angles we will load the body all make the Inside Out Clean a very important drill to introduce. One of the foundational DVRT principles that I have been repeating throughout this book is that of moving from stable to unstable progressions. The Inside Out Clean begins and ends in our stable hip hinge position, very similar to what we see in the deadlift and other accelerative DVRT movements. This is much different from how most rotational drills are introduced into fitness programs. Whether we are looking at wood chopping band and pulley exercises or medicine ball drills, the great majority of these drills both begin and end in a less stable body postures. For our purposes, that means starting and ending in the rotational positions. When moving from other planes of motion to the transverse plane, we take quantum leaps rather than using incremental jumps. Most of the rotational drills I just mentioned with other training tools require a hip hinge to be added to the patterns. This is very important for creating higher levels of power, but also means we need to learn how to absorb these forces and make sure we aren’t trying to produce power from our low back! The Inside Out Clean also takes advantage of the hip hinge pattern. However, we don’t do it in a rotated position. We begin in a movement that you already have developed, so you should feel strong and stable. The motion is almost identical to that of the Power Clean, but we quickly pivot through the ground and catch the USB in a rotated position. To perform the Inside Out Clean well, we not only extend the hips explosively upward, but also at an angle. This means simultaneously pulling up and pivoting. Doesn’t this mean the catch ends in the unstable position that I just claimed was unsafe? We are producing power from our strong and stable position to assist the power of the rotation. The stable hip hinge produces significant force, and we continue this force to rotation. This might seem like mere semantics, but it makes a big difference and is fundamentally different from trying to produce all of the force via rotation. The difference also lies in the fact that we catch the weight with a vertical torso and extension of the hips. While the rotation is a somewhat weaker position, the increased support from the lower body and changed leverage makes for a stronger stance. It is very similar to the one we just learned how to achieve with the Rotational Press.

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Catching the USB in this position also means that when we come down with the USB we can absorb the weight in a much safer and stronger position. That means we are going to rotate and hinge the hips to catch the USB back into the deadlift posture. When the forces are highest, we are putting ourselves back in a very safe postural alignment, which we have patterned with all the DVRT movements leading up to this series. When force production is highest, we are working from that strong hip hinge posture to allow us to introduce this very dynamic lift. The Inside Out Clean is highly effective on two additional fronts. The first is that if you have any faults with the Power Clean, they will become very evident here. Common mistakes such as not fully extending the hip or swinging the USB out in front of the body are amplified by the Inside Out Clean. From a conditioning and effort side, the Inside Out Clean will cause a greater metabolic effect because of the complexity of the movement and the additional muscles needed to both produce and absorb the force created. This means that over time, we can vary not just our reps, sets, and weight in the Power Clean, but the plane of motion we choose to work in as well.

The Inside Out Clean.

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Rotational Clean and High Pull The Inside Out Clean solves an initial issue of decreasing the amount of eccentric loading we introduce during a rotated position. From a functional perspective, we do need to eventually introduce how to absorb the downward motion of rotation. This may cause some hesitation by some strength coaches, but this can be done with a plan and does fulfill our ideas of functional training. Many sporting actions occur with a quick preload of the body before producing full power. If we look at many throwing motions, for example, we see that the athlete takes advantage of elastic energy through the body by rotating back before they move forward. You can see how much more power can be developed by performing this small action before the actual throwing movement.

The Rotational Clean and High Pull.

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In our DVRT training, we have a far more predictable environment and can progress this type of training by controlling range of motion, angles, and other important training variables. Managing range of motion is one of the best ways to make these drills more accessible and reduce overall risk. Again, the old adage, “Use it or lose it” is particularly relevant here. Trying to pretend that this type of movement doesn’t occur in everyday or sporting life doesn’t make us less prone to suffering injury. In fact, a stronger argument can be made for the opposite. One reason that people get hurt performing pretty mundane tasks is that they have never trained these ranges of motion or patterns before. Don’t let the scare tactics of some keep you from fully developing what your body was meant to do – move in all sorts of angles and positions! For the DVRT rotational drills where we work from the outside of the body, we will use the knee height as our goal. Since height varies, working from the floor can be easy for some and a huge change of leverage for others. The knees help balance out the field. Unlike with our first introduction of DVRT accelerative drills, now we are going to use the Clean before the High Pull. The Clean in the rotational series gives us a definitive stopping point where we can re-evaluate our posture and position. Before we try to quickly rotate and absorb the force of the USB in this more challenging position, we want to make sure we start from the right alignment. That means when we clean the USB we should receive the weight with both feet planted into the ground and the weight of the body distributed between our mid-foot and heel. The catch of the Clean really is the midway point of the two lifts. The start and end of the drill are the two most critical points of the these two rotational USB drills. At these two times, you’ll find yourself in a rotated position. Let me emphasize again that we don’t have the rotation occurring from the low back, but rather the hips. Just like in the original hip hinge series, we can do a great deal to make sure you don’t try to move through 197

the low back by paying attention to the shoulders. As we move to more unstable body positions, the tendency to round the shoulders will increase. Therefore, either when we are about to start the lift or when we come back down with the USB, we want to make sure the shoulders never round forward but rather lock into place to help absorb the force coming down or help direct the weight moving upwards. Catching the USB in the Clean gives us a moment to remind ourselves of these important concepts, and to initiate the movement by a quick rotation of the outside hip and foot. That is why the Clean is used prior to the High Pull. Thinking about the correct movements is very different from actually having to react to the USB moving across the body. This shows us the difference between feedback and feedforward systems. Feedback occurs when we have the time to self-correct the movement while it is occurring, while feedforward relies on our training to pre-program the right actions into the brain. This is a big reason that football coach Vince Lombardi, said, “Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.” Understanding why I am taking you through this journey is just as important as the drills that you learn along the way! When we move to the Rotational High Pull, we have to quickly move from one side of the body to the other. Done correctly, you really begin to feel what it is like to generate force from the ground and up through the entire body. You begin to get a fluid action of rotating from one side to the other with the combination of the extension of the hips and rotation of the feet making a nearly seamless action from side to side. When you are able to use the energy from one side of the High Pull to create power on the other side, you know you are starting to get the hang of rotational movements. I have to remind you, though, that this isn’t our initial goal. When we first introduce the Rotational High Pull we want a definitive stop when the USB is received on the other side. We do so to ensure that you are in a position to pull again. We never want to see you perform any lift from a bad posture, so we need to make sure you have come down with the weight in the right position to lift again to the other side. Even though we may be transitioning from one side to the other in a slower manner, this doesn’t reduce the effectiveness of the exercise to any degree. By moving from side to side in a rapid pace we use elastic energy which may eventually be optimal for more conditioning types of workouts. However, when we remove this deliberate momentum the body has to work harder to create that initial pull for the Rotational High Pull. Therefore, using both strategies can be very helpful for different purposes. The setting up and stopping before we transition rep to rep helps develop the skill of the exercise as well as optimizes power production. Whereas quickly moving side to side can teach us reaction skills and build more specific conditioning.

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SHOVELING here are important similarities between all of the rotational DVRT movements we have covered. The USB creates a small lever arm and stays close to the body. The leverage of the weight we lift is a point of consideration in many programs. That is due to the fact that more times than not, the weight stays relatively close to the body. However, with the popularity of drills such as kettlebell swings, we have to reconsider how the lever arm of the exercise can influence both the progressions we set forth, and the outcomes of the exercise. One of the biggest reasons that lighter kettlebells can be swung to produce force that is similar to heavier barbells is the leverage they create by being swung out in front of the body. When we swing a 35-pound kettlebell out in front of the body, as the weight moves further away from us it is much more than 35 pounds. When we swing the kettlebell back, the momentum of gravity with our body behind it greatly increase the difficulty of the swing. That is the same reason that I have introduced a series of DVRT drills where the weight of the USB has stayed relatively close to the body. We can focus on the more challenging foot movements and body positions when we feel more in control of the weight we are trying to move. Adding leverage definitely provides more complexity. You must already be very proficient in the rotational movements to earn the right to perform. There are many positive benefits of extending the leverage of the weight. In a 2012 study of both weightlifting and kettlebell exercises, researchers found that, “Short-term weightlifting and kettlebell training were effective in increasing strength and power.” — Otto WH, Coburn JW, Brown LE, Spiering BA. Effects of weightlifting vs. kettlebell training on vertical jump, strength, and body composition. 2012. J Strength Cond Res.

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These researchers found that weightlifting (as in the Olympic lifts) was better for strength development than the kettlebells. However, here is the interesting point for both the power and strength development side: The weightlifting group used an 80% maximum weight, while the kettlebell group used a 35-pound kettlebell across the board. So, even though the weights used for the kettlebell group were less than those of the weightlifting group, there were significant improvements in power compared to the weightlifting group. Of course, with these parameters we wouldn’t expect a 35-pound weighted squat to compare to a squat of 5 times its weight. Not all weight is equal, and leverage plays a very big role in power development. Since most kettlebell drills have a bigger horizontal component than classic Olympic lifts, we have to assume this is the main reason we can see appreciable power gains in spite of the inferior loads. What I love about our DVRT system is that we are capable of both! We can have the loading during the vertical type pulling that occurs during weightlifting, and we have some unique drills that provide that horizontal loading that we see in kettlebell exercises like the swing!

Shoveling sequence.

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Compare DVRT shoveling to the kettlebell swing. The obvious difference is that the focus on the transverse plane that Shoveling provides us is far more difficult to achieve with the kettlebell. Don’t worry, kettlebell fans! I am not suggesting you abandon your kettlebell swings. Instead, I want you to consider what DVRT drills such as Shoveling can bring to your training. Shoveling includes all the movements we find in the earlier DVRT rotational drills. However, instead of moving the USB upward along the body, the USB will be projected out in front of the body. With this increased leverage, we need to be aware not just of what goes up, but what comes down as well. In order to even think that Shoveling is the right exercise for your training program, you have to have developed proficiency in all the DVRT rotational drills listed prior. There are two reasons that having worked through the previous progressions is so critical. The first is that Shoveling is very similar to the Rotational High Pull. That means quickly moving from one side to the other, so we really don’t have time to adjust our form during the lift. Instead, we have to use the quality movement skills we built in the previous drills. Secondly, the lever arm of the USB during Shoveling creates much more weight than the actual weight of the USB. In the end? Don’t skip progressions! There is a reason that DVRT is a system and not just bunch of cool exercises. Why do people struggle or not see the results they desire? Because they choose to ignore my advice and find themselves overwhelmed because they didn’t take time to establish a strong foundation. If you have the patience to work through the levels of DVRT drills you will definitely find the results worthwhile! I probably make Shoveling sound a bit scary, and that is not my goal. It can be a relatively simple drill to learn as long as you take the time to work through drills like the Rotational High Pull. You will find the principles of Shoveling to be the same as kettlebell swings, so if you have a background in kettlebell training you will definitely love Shoveling! 201

While Shoveling carries a lot of similarities to the kettlebell swing, overall the USB does not function well in a swing. The difference between the structure of the USB and kettlebell means that the USB does not function well in a linear swing. Remember, it is not about which tool is superior, but when is it appropriate to use a different tool! That is why the USB works better for rotational based training than the kettlebell. Make sure to understand your training tools! The range of motion during the actual performance of Shoveling is very similar to that of the kettlebell swing. We are not looking to squat the motion, but rather to pull the body into an active hip hinge and create a strong base to drive the USB away from the body. We cue Shoveling by working from no lower than knee height and making sure you don’t overrotate the USB. The side of the knee is typically ideal for the end point of the Shoveling motion. We don’t want to start rotating through the low back, so a bit more deceleration is needed to ensure that we keep the motion through the hip. That means really driving the hip closest to the USB back to absorb the weight, and quickly rotating the opposing hip and driving that ball of foot into the ground. The fast motion of Shoveling is largely based upon your ability to keep the shoulders in the right position and the elbows locked. When people begin to bend their arms, they seem to start to lift the USB with their arms rather than projecting through the hip. Such compensations in technique definitely mean we are losing value to the Shoveling action. One of the most common mistakes during Shoveling is that people are so concerned about rotating to the opposing side that they miss what happens in the middle. The middle point of Shoveling is one of the most important. During the transition from one side to the other, we want to fully extend the hips and plant through the heels. This ensures we get true power development, while helping us actively pull the weight back into the right position. Just as with the kettlebell swing, Shoveling can be performed at high hip speeds, but not necessarily large swings with the weight. By focusing on the hip movement rather than the height achieved with the USB, we can avoid trying to lift with the arms. The projection of the USB with Shoveling is really a byproduct of the hips “pushing” the weight away from the body. That is why we don’t need to go any higher than chest height when we are establishing a top end range to the movement. While there may be some slight variance with this idea, overall, chest height serves as an overall great cue. When you are trying to establish the weight you want to use for Shoveling, remember, we also have to consider the dimensions. Even if you are an experienced kettlebell lifter, be conservative during your first few sessions working with Shoveling. For men I recommend working with the Power USB and women either the Core or Power USB. We want the USB to be less awkward because the combination of the body position, pattern of motion, and the speed are big enough changes to stability. 202

CORE TRAINING hroughout this entire book we have been discussing the role of the core in creating success in a variety of movements. It may seem inappropriate to suggest there are specific exercises that work the core, as all our movements are predicated largely upon proper integration of the core of the body. We’ve already discussed how the core is integrated into so many different movements, so having a section on just core training might seem unnecessary. What this core training section of DVRT is really designed to do is to provide us the opportunity to really focus on the core. During drills like the Shoulder Squat, Front Loaded Good Mornings, Military Press, and so on, we have a ton of core work going on, but we’re also working other major muscle groups. It may be hard to improve the core when we have such complexity to an exercise. Therefore, the DVRT drills outlined in this section are going to be specifically geared to improving our ability to integrate the core. Just as with our other movements, you are going to see layered progressions that make this DVRT drills accessible to any fitness level. Using core training as a movement may seem somewhat odd considering through most of these drills the core actually produces very little movement. Yes, the gluteals do work hard to extend the hip, but the trunk typically sees minimal dynamic action. Preventing movement is the foundational role of the core. While most people train the core to flex the spine in actions such as crunches and sit-ups, this may not be the primary role of the core. Research by leading spine specialist like, Dr. Stuart McGill, shows that the core is really trying to provide resistance to the trunk rather than activating very dynamically itself. “The lumbar torso must prepare to withstand all manner of possible loads, including steady-state loading (which may be a complex combination of flexion/extension, lateral bend, and axial twisting moments) and sudden, unexpected complex loads together with loads that develop from prehensive ballistic motion.” (McGill, 168) What Dr. McGill is trying to espouse, is how “reactive” our core must really be to properly absorb and tolerate many of the stresses that the spine endures in what seem to be rather every day activities. That is why learning his technique of bracing and resisting many of these motions can go a long way in enhancing performance and health. 203

Lateral Bag Drags One of my absolute favorite drills is the Lateral Bag Drag. I may be a bit biased because this is a drill I used a great deal myself in rehabbing my upper body after my neck fusion. After my fusion, my greatest challenge was gaining coordination and stability back in my right arm and shoulder complex. Holding even a push-up on plank position often caused fatigue in the area, and I knew this would require some work. Of course I incorporated Front Planks, but the Lateral Bag Drag quickly became a staple because of the varying levels I could use and the increased work it created in my upper body.

The Lateral Bag Drag.

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I created the Lateral Bag Drag as a means to teach people what bracing the trunk actually felt like. Dr. McGill writes extensively that bracing, not drawing in, of the torso builds trunk stability. Great, but how do you actually teach people how to create this action that can really only be felt by the lifter as there is no movement? We can create squatting, pressing, and most other movements simply because we can actually see the moving parts. In bracing, we really can’t see what is happening on the inside of the individual. What should this feel like, and how do I know I am performing bracing correctly? These are all questions I had, but didn’t know how to help my clients get the answers. What led me down the path of the Lateral Bag Drag was my attempt at solving a secondary problem. When I tried to employ the aspects of overhead lifting, I began to see a big issue. Many people lacked mobility in their thoracic spine and shoulders. II would have to address these issues specifically, but this didn’t mean I would have to wait to clear up these movement problems before I could teach good fundamentals of lifting. How could I save myself and the client time in teaching them the components of lifting overhead if they didn’t have the mobility to lift in the first place? Get them horizontal! I kept finding that a lot of people lacked both mobility and strength in the upper body and shoulder stabilizers. My clients had no idea how to hold their scapula in the right place, create tension in their lats, and more! What I found is that I could work on their direct mobility issues and complement that with foundational stability and strength work from a horizontal position. Being in a horizontal position, we could use gravity to stress their bodies and use posture and position as feedback. There were still a few issues. My clients could build to holding a push-up position quickly. They seemed to improve in their stability and strength faster than we could improve their mobility, so what could we do? Given that some of my clients had severe restrictions in the overhead positions, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to compound the problem by building the muscles that roll the shoulders forward. I wanted to accentuate the stability component as I began to find that people in the push-up position not only lacked awareness and strength in the upper body, but in their core and lower body as well. The more we challenged their stability, the more we could see where these weaknesses were. All of a sudden the equation came together. I wanted to teach the principles of driving through the feet, tightening the lower body and pelvis, bracing through the trunk, and proper tension and positioning of the upper body. Small goals, I know, but the answer came in the form of the Lateral Bag Drag. The Lateral Bag Drag addresses all of these goals and allows for plenty of progressions, enabling proper training and quick success. Moving to one hand in the push-up position is more than enough of a challenge for most people. The stability of two hands and two legs on the ground is a whole different world from lifting an arm off the ground. I would even argue that lifting an arm is much more difficult for most than is lifting a leg off of the ground. 205

Realizing how challenging these DVRT progressions can be, don’t try to rush through many of these progressions. We are going to discuss and describe the primary means of performing the Lateral Bag Drag and then provide you with regressions and some very fun and effective progressions. Here is your rather simple goal for the Lateral Bag Drag: DON’T MOVE! I am referring to your position and alignment. We are trying to see when we perform the Lateral Bag Drag if the feet, hips, and/or trunk rotate, does the pelvis sink or hike up in the air. Do we see the shoulder unwind and begin to round forward, even if the head stays in good alignment? There are several check points, but we are going to focus on the big things first! Start in a push-up position with the feet rather wide. How wide? We don’t want to see the pelvis start to move upwards or the feet rotate inwards. I have found that the widest that most can manage is to move each leg three steps to the side from the standard push-up position. Once we determined our lower body position, we want to make sure we set up the upper body so that the shoulders will line up directly above the hands. Now that both ends of our body are set in the proper position, we can press through both the balls of the feet and lock our arms into place so we rise to the top of the push-up. Continuing to drive through the balls of the feet, we then try to lockout the legs and actively squeeze the glutes. You should feel a lot of tightness in the lower body, pelvis, and trunk at this point. That is good! This tightness will give you a very strong base to operate from and keep your low back from moving. What occurs in the upper body is as important as what is happening at the lower body. As our arms lockout we want to “corkscrew” our shoulders so that the crease of our elbows points almost straight ahead. Don’t move the hands; just try to “roll” the shoulders into this position. You know you have done this correctly if you feel tension begin in the underarms. Maintaining this position in both the lower and upper body is critical during the performance of the Lateral Bag Drag. Often you will see compromise in one of these areas when you actually start performing the drill. The final part of the Lateral Bag Drag is the Ultimate Sandbag itself. People are often surprised how a little weight can go a very long way with the Lateral Bag Drag. The Rotational Lunge and the Lateral Bag Drag are two key exercises for which having a more compact Ultimate Sandbag becomes very important. Even if we don’t consider the weight component, larger Ultimate Sandbags will drag for a longer period, making the exercise more difficult. The drag portion of the Lateral Bag is one of the most overlooked and improperly performed aspects of the exercise. Most people become very task oriented and only see the Ultimate Sandbag traveling from one side to the other, paying very little attention to HOW 206

the Ultimate Sandbag is transitioned. I have even seen some people, thanks to YouTube, who toss the Ultimate Sandbag from side to side or try to pick it up and move it from one side to the other. Tossing or picking up the USB make the movement far less valuable. The actual dragging of the Ultimate Sandbag causes friction on the ground, which provides additional resistance to the Lateral Bag Drag. Trust me, you would think that more resistance unnecessary once you begin the Lateral Bag Drag, but the friction is different from just adding more weight. The friction created by dragging the Ultimate Sandbag requires the body to constantly change where tension is being created. You will find that one area begins to work harder than another depending upon where the Ultimate Sandbag is in the dragging sequence. In order to really enhance this concept, the Lateral Bag Drag is always performed at a slow count. The more advanced you are, the more slowly you should be able to drag the Ultimate Sandbag. You will find that increasing the duration of a repetition causes rapid fatigue, so that beginners will have to use more moderate tempos along with shorter repetitions. That also means we can make the exercise more difficult by intentionally moving slower or increasing the number of repetitions for a set. Yet even with increasing repetitions, 10 repetitions performed on each side is quite high. With the Ultimate Sandbag starting right underneath one underarm, we begin to reach across the body to begin the dragging aspect. As soon as the opposing hand lifts and begins to reach across the body, we are watching for compensation throughout the body. Our first point to check is the feet. If we begin to see the feet rotating, it is easy to see this continued throughout the chain of the body. We begin to see the legs twist, the hips rotating, and all of a sudden we take a very powerful anti-rotational exercise into a rotational exercise. A great example of the need to understand the intent of every exercise. If we see the feet rotating (typically the heel falls inward), we can provide some feedback. By using the hands of a partner or a small band around the ankles, we want to feel ourselves pushing slightly outward against the resistance. The position we are working from in the Lateral Bag Drag makes even small things feel challenging, so be very aware of the amount of tension you are applying to the body. A small amount is more than appropriate. The knees become the next checkpoint, as we want to ensure that the legs remained locked out. If we bend even slightly at the knee, we will lose tension in the pelvis and see the hips drop. Keeping that good lockout will be necessary throughout, and grows in importance as we fatigue. Moving right up, we hit the hips. We should be able to actually see tension being created by the glutes. The glutes are a very important point on the body, so not providing stability here usually leads to a collapse in both posture and strength. Once the hips are checked we 207

want to look at shoulder position. Can we see and feel tension in the underarm? Are the creases of the elbow facing almost directly ahead? If you want to quickly see that understanding these details is important, just quickly drop down to a push-up position. Without paying much attention to the other segments we have discussed, simply begin with the shoulders corkscrewed and then deliberately allow the elbows to rotate outward. Do this a few times and you will begin to see how the tension shifts from the upper back and underarm to the shoulders. A lot of people “rest” on their shoulders in push-ups because they do not understand how to use the rest of the upper body. If you go through this checklist, you will quickly see how this teaches us all the principles that carry over to overhead lifting. This means you can use the Lateral Bag Drag as a preparatory drill to teach these movements, build up the foundational strength we will be needing, or even as a warm-up to some of your overhead pressing drills. The last challenge is to see what actually occurs as the Ultimate Sandbag drags across the body at slow speeds. Since we are constantly going through our checklist, do we begin to see compensation at any point? If so, we can try to cue that specific area and see if the lifter can correct the fault. However, if the issue persists, this could mean we have reached a point where the set needs to be terminated, or we can try to drop to a regression to see if we need more time to develop these skills and the strength to demonstrate them well.

The Regression One of the most under appreciated aspects of the DVRT system will always be how we can make any exercise not just more difficult, but regress the movement to allow a person of any fitness level to perform it. The Lateral Bag Drag is no exception. To perform the standard Lateral Bag Drag variation described above, you usually have to be able to hold the top of a push-up position for at least one minute. Does this mean that we can’t introduce the drill at any other time? Absolutely NOT! Some coaches see dropping to the knees as somehow less “hardcore,” but it still fits within the scope of our system and can be highly effective as a regression. The kneeling position can be used during the same training cycle as other Front Plank variations as a means of slowly introducing the concepts of the Lateral Bag Drag. The key to getting positive results from the kneeling position all goes back to our set-up. People frequently use the kneeling position incorrectly, leading to a quantum leap to the more standard push-up position. We will use our hands and shoulders as a guide for correct alignment. Keeping our shoulders remain over our hands instantly moves our body weight forward. All too often, people “sit back” too much in the Lateral Bag Drag or other 208

kneeling push-up variations. This doesn’t stress the necessary muscles enough. Having the correct upper body alignment solves this problem and allows us to load both the trunk and the stability systems of the upper body.

The Kneeling Lateral Bag Drag.

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What occurs at the lower body is equally as important. Most people forget that kneeling does reduce our base of support that we achieve in a wider stance in the standard Lateral Bag Drag. Even though we have more of our body weight supported on the ground, this reduced base of support can still make taking one hand off the ground and anti-rotational training quite challenging. To provide more stability and to use the lower body to your advantage, flex the feet to dig in the balls of the feet into the ground. Once you do so, you should feel the hamstrings and glutes tighten, giving you a more stable foundation. Most people lift their feet off of the ground at first. This doesn’t allow us the opportunity to integrate the lower body into the movement, and we see all types of collapses in the pelvis, trunk, and/or upper body. Since we are going to be using this strategy in future progressions of the Lateral Bag Drag, it is more than worthwhile to establish the concepts as early as possible. Once we are set in the correct position, we can perform the Lateral Bag Drag in the manner we did in the initial introduction of this movement. Even very strong individuals can find this variation challenging and worthwhile. After all, this isn’t about just having just a strong abdominal area. It’s also about having a strong connection through the body – something that even the strongest of lifters sometimes lack. Other variations also allow us to progress the Lateral Bag Drag. One very helpful idea is to reduce the amount of distance the USB actually drags upon the ground. We can focus on just dragging the USB from one side of the body to the middle, and then back to the starting position. This both reduces the amount of stress on the torso and the time under tension.

The Progressions I am more than confident that quite a few of you that end up reading this book will quickly discover many variations that can be performed off of this movement. Truthfully, it can feel like there’s no end to what one can create once the original cues are accomplished. However, when we do add variation it could come at the expense of our original intent of using the Ultimate Sandbag. We still want to stay true to what the exercise is trying to teach us about movement and not start building bad habits just in the name of variety. Some may leap to the idea of using a heavier USB. In my experience this is NOT the best means of progressing the Lateral Bag Drag. I cannot tell you how much more intense even adding just five pounds to your Ultimate Sandbag can make the movement. It literally can be the difference between feeling very confident and proficient in the movement and finding that the Ultimate Sandbag feels almost glued to the ground.

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Instead, move slowly! Moving slowly is more beneficial for our goals, even if this means we reduce the repetitions of the set or workout. Performing six repetitions at a 3-4 count versus 2-3 at a 5-6 count may not sound like a logical progression, but people are often astonished at how intentionally moving slower is far more taxing than trying to knock out more repetitions. Speed is one option. Another is to make the Lateral Bag Drag into a complex. Push-ups are an obvious and very effective choice. However, realize that as the pushing muscle tire, your ability to pull across your body and hold the top position will decrease. If you do add any of these possible progressions to your arsenal, make sure to appropriately reduce the repetitions and slowly build back up. • Push-ups • T Push-ups • Lateral Body Walks

The Lateral Bag Drag with one arm push-up.

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The last suggested movement listed above may be a bit unfamiliar to some. As we pull the USB across the body, instead of pulling it right back the other direction we can actually move the entire body! By walking both the feet and hands across the USB, we add some interesting stresses to the body. Walking the body in this manner will give us that powerful upper body stabilization that occurs in the single arm position. We have to resist both the lateral forces and rotational forces of the walk that are trying to pull the body out of alignment, and we have to learn to keep a tight lower body during a dynamic action. This is really fun and effective means of progressing the Lateral Bag Drag assuming you don’t allow faulty techniques to creep into the exercise.

Around the World The Lateral Bag Drag teaches us how to make our body very rigid, but this by itself isn’t very functional. Our core needs to also know how to be mobile and change how much force it creates. You will notice when we create a lot of tension in the core, we are discouraging movement from other areas of the body. The reality is that most daily life activities and sporting actions require very quick moments of a rigid core combined with a core that can quickly contract and relax. This allows us to create movement and express force. You can feel how awkward it would be to hold this much tension in every day life just by trying to walk around with huge amounts of tension in your trunk. The Around the World may be the perfect complement to the Lateral Bag Drag for this very reason. Where the Lateral Bag Drag is very rigid, the Around the World is very fluid. Which one is better? Neither, both are concepts that we want to address during training. In the Overhead Pressing section, we introduced you to a variation of the Around the World in a kneeling position. The purpose of that drill was to actually avoid rotation and create rigidity in the torso. The variation we are discussing now is quite different (notice you have to understand the intent of a movement to decide if it is helpful to your goals). We are going encourage a lot of movement throughout the entire body. Trying to hold the stiffness that we create during the kneeling variation would actually be counterproductive to this version of the Around the World. You can place the standard standing Around the World in the same section as our other rotational based DVRT movements. The motion of the Around the World is created not by swinging USB up and around our body, but rather by pivoting and moving our body around the USB. This may sound like semantics, but intent can change the outcome of a movement. In the kettlebell clean, learning how to move the hand around the kettlebell is a popular cue to avoid slamming the weight into the forearm. The barbell deadlift is often taught by thinking of pressing into the ground rather than just picking up the weight. Such a simple cue and change in thought process can dramatically change the amount of tension one feels in the low back during the barbell deadlift. 212

Around the World series.

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By concentrating on wrapping our bodies around the USB, we avoid the swing motion that often occurs. If the USB starts to swing away from the body, the lifter will try to create stability by reducing their motion at the feet, hips, trunk, and upper body. The whole essence of the Around the World is the synergistic motion that stems from all these segments. The Around the World is initiated by pivoting to one side, with the USB rotating to the opposing side and being caught by the elbow. The position of the elbow will correct about 90% of the issues that we see in the performance of the Around the World. What do I mean by “catching” the elbow? As the USB begins to come around the body, the elbows closest to this side must quickly lock into the ribs and set a strong foundation for the motion to continue. If the elbow comes away from the body, this will create a lever arm and encourage a swing motion of the USB. Once the elbow locks into the side of the body, the momentum created by the strong pivot and the outside arm will come just over the top of the head. The USB will continue to be wrapped around the body until we hit the upper back position. When first introducing Around the Worlds, I will have lifters stop in this position. This is because this is both a very strong learning position as well as a site where a lot of things go wrong! The upper back is one of our holding positions in the DVRT system, and this is the first time we will discuss its use and purpose. At a very foundational level, the upper back position will allow us to see the amount of motion in the thoracic spine and shoulders. Many lifters will find getting into this position very difficult because of the lack of mobility they posses in these regions. If you cannot get into this position without discomfort, then you are not quite ready to go here. Others will find this position gives them a huge triceps stretch – just one more reason we are going to start with rather low loads in the USB. When getting into the proper upper back position, the weight of the USB tries to pull the trunk into extension. This means that we have to use the entire core to resist this extension and hold a more neutral body position. That requires the trunk to brace and the glutes to tighten. A lot of people miss this position because they are consumed by trying to swing the USB around their bodies. Pausing in this position allows us to emphasize the benefits of the upper back. The extension that the USB wants to create here also means we can use it for a few other exercises. Notice that we didn’t use the USB in the upper back position for the squatting variations? This is not just due to the stress the position causes to the back, but also because of logistical issues. One of the biggest reasons that the barbell can be stabilized on the back is due to the shelf that most lifters create. If we watch how both powerlifters and Olympic lifters position their shoulders as they get under the bar, the upper back creates a platform for the weight to sit upon. This provides stability to the weight and allows them to support more load. The problem with the USB in this position is this very thing! The USB must be held in

this Upper Back position, which means that no shelf can be created. Therefore, many lifters attempting to squat the USB will either have to lean very forward or hold most of the weight on their necks. Neither is a productive or healthy way to perform the movement. If you are absolutely set on back squatting (even in light of the evidence I supported above), please use the barbell and not the USB! This doesn’t make the upper back position useless, though. We can use the upper back hold in movements such as lunges and step-ups. Why is ok but squatting is not? The reason that the upper back holding position works for these exercises is that we want to create a tall torso in both of them. We want to avoid the forward lean, and a little bit of weight can be effective in accomplishing this goal. This way we are not putting our shoulders, back, or neck at risk. Using the upper back holding position to correct the faulty forward lean in both lunging and the step-up is very effective and easy to implement! Let’s go back to the Around the World. Performing the full movement can be overwhelming very technical. In order to make the Around the World more accessible to more people, we focus on one side at a time. This means we will use the upper back holding position as our end point, and unwind to the same side the USB came up the body. With all the moving parts the Around the World requires, we need to slow down speed to ensure that we learn how to coordinate our movements. One of the most common mistakes people make in the performance of the Around the World is that they try to apply speed far too early in the progressions. The complexity of the Around the World itself, combined with speed, usually ends with swimming the USB instead of moving the body. Feet end up staying firmly planted into the ground, hips don’t rotate, and all the tremendous benefits that this DVRT drill offers are lost. Moving at a slow speed, making sure that we are learning how to wrap our bodies around the USB, and working one side at a time makes learning the Around the World much easier. All of a sudden, instead of having a very complicated drill, you can immediately begin to feel the benefits the Around the World has to offer. If we are looking to making the Around the World more of a workout, we can do half turns combined with a lunge or step-up movement. We quickly get a cool complex of different movement patterns that flow together very effectively. Focusing on a such a complex allows us to build the repetitions of the Around the World and refine our skills before we move to the full version. Performing the entire Around the World is when things get really fun and powerful! The movement is largely dependent upon the continual movement of the feet. It will be the pivoting of the feet that helps continue the motion and movement of the Ultimate Sandbag without any swinging or upper body muscling in the exercise. If you find that your feet are no longer pivoting, you need to slow down the movement, use less weight, or you have

tired and need to terminate the set. Why? When people don’t move their feet, they start trying to move through the low back. I think we have discussed enough times why this is far from optimal or desirable. When we go all the way in the Around the World, we want to make sure to hit that important upper back position. People often get in a rush to simply get through the movement, and start missing important segments to the drill. We can move all the way around but still stop for a brief pause at the upper back position to do a body check. Since we have already described why this is such a great position, we don’t want to be bypassing it in our program! Keep the intent of the drill true to the desired outcome and don’t become a victim of mindless repetitions. Once proficiency in the Around the World is demonstrated, we can slowly add speed. Like the Lateral Bag Drag, the Around the World can feel much heavier even with modest changes in weight. Therefore, we often will work on increasing speed or add repetitions. The Around the World drill is a very fluid exercise, so it lends itself very well to higher repetition protocols and you may be shocked by how taxing it becomes! Besides being incredible for reactive core training, shoulder/thoracic mobility, and teaching rotational skills, the Around the World is incredibly metabolically taxing. Time and time again we see people hitting 90% plus maximum heart rate outputs when they really become proficient at the Around the World. We don’t typically think of “core training” as being so taxing to the body. Once again, people often underestimate the ability of DVRT to do things better. This is just another way that the DVRT system makes your training more efficient and effective. The Around the World is one of those DVRT drills that has nearly infinite layers once you build the proper skills. Taking the time and having the patience to do so will reward you with not just incredible results, but options to keep sophisticating movement to unbelievable levels over time.

Cyclone Besides having a fun name, the Cyclone is a signature move in the DVRT system. At first glance it can seem like a very overwhelming motion. Some may be incredibly intimidated by the Cyclone, but if we understand the DVRT program, the fear is replaced by excitement. The Cyclone is a combination of Shoveling and the Around the World. Instead of having the weight of the Ultimate Sandbag project far away from the body, the Shovel is quickly transitioned into the Around the World. The constant movement of our feet allows us to move quickly and efficiently to rapidly absorb and retransmit the force to produce a unique full body drill. 216

The Cyclone series.

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Trust me, the goal is not just to create a novel drill. The Cyclone is really the combination of rotational power, deceleration strength, reactive core ability, and upper body mobility. All of these parts are why with rather light loads, heart rates can go far beyond people’s 90% maximum. The quick movement of the Ultimate Sandbag is something unlike what we see in most other areas of lifting. Just like lifting “heavy,” fast drills are usually done with the feet firmly planted into the ground and the weight moving in line with the body. The Cyclone breaks all those rules and creates what I believe to be a far more athletic type of lift. We have to react, rotate, decelerate, and still be strong. If you ask me the ingredients that make up athleticism, it would be hard for me not to include these concepts as the cornerstones. You will learn to be fluid, and you will quickly find where your weaknesses lie in strength, mobility, or deceleration abilities. Feeling proficient in both Shoveling and the Around the World will make the transfer to the Cyclone much easier. Shoveling teaches you how to get in the right positions to both start and stop, and how to project the Ultimate Sandbag.

Bridge to Pullover Lying on the ground and performing functional movements seems counterintuitive. After all, functional training is supposed to make us work in ways that we may encounter in everyday life or sport. n truth, functional training is designed to teach you how to move more efficiently and effectively. Working from the ground actually works within the principles of the DVRT system. Our concept of working from stable to unstable positions and postures allows us to take movements all the way to the ground. After all, there is no more stable position than the ground itself. Sometimes making people very stable is the best means for teaching them how to perform very precise movements or for introducing movements that have more complexity. One such example is the outwardly simple but very powerful Bridge to Pullover drill. If you have followed what we have set forth in the earlier sections, the core is not just the abdominals or even the low back, but the hips as well. The hips that help stabilize the pelvis, and that can go a long way toward both preventing and treating low back issues. Teaching people to use the hips can be a challenge in of itself. That is why we spent a great deal of time in the early sections discussing the Hip Hinge pattern before we got to more classic exercises like squatting. However, gaining really great motor control of the hips can be an issue. Outwardly, lifters can make their technique look good, even to the 218

trained eye. Yet they are experiencing an abnormal amount of low back pain and/or discomfort. That makes the Bridge to Pullover a great drill for beginners and advanced individuals alike. The hip bridge is not a new exercise to many, but it is one of the most incorrectly performed drills. Most people cheat the hip bridge and never actually train or even feel the right muscles. What are you trying to work? The hip bridge is not just about training muscles, but making sure they function in the right sequence. The hip hinge that we spoke so much about in the earlier sections is not just about using the hamstrings, glutes, and low back, but also about the order in which they are used. Many people actually develop dysfunctional patterns and never use one of these three muscles, or they do so in a sequence that doesn’t provide proper stability in the low back, which is the primary reason we perform these drills.

The key is to perform a small pelvic tilt to hold the torso in place.

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What is right? Ideally we would see the hamstrings, then glutes, then low back fire in a very fast sequence. However, most people work from hamstrings directly to the low back, completely missing the glutes. This is a big problem, but a common one. More importantly, how do you know that you may have such an issue? When bridging, some will almost immediately cramp in their hamstrings. The cramping that many experience is often related to the body trying to project itself from weakness in the area. This is often due to the fact that the glutes are not working. Before we can get too far into the full Bridge to Pullover, we have to make sure that you are setting yourself up correctly. When we lie on our backs, we want the palms facing upwards. Doing so will discourage us from using the upper body and prevent the abdominals that flex the spine from trying to produce the motion. We want the lower body to produce the force, and the trunk to simply stabilize. In other words, you shouldn’t feel like you are performing a maximal effort when you bridge. If you do, you will encourage the wrong areas of the body to become active. What comes next may be one of the most challenging aspects, even though it is one of the smallest movements. When people initiate the hip bridge, they almost inevitably at some point being to lead with the low back. Most coaches aren’t sure how to cue lifters not to use the low back, and are left with vague cues like, “use the hips more!” The problem comes in the actual set-up just prior to the movement’s beginning. The key is to perform a small pelvic tilt to hold the torso in place. You want to gently – and I can’t emphasize the word gently enough – roll your pelvis so your low back applies light pressure to the ground. At no point should you feel the upper abdominals wanting to flex the trunk forward. Rather, you need a solid contraction in the area below your umbilical. For some, this will be an issue of coordination, but it is not unlike what happens when we press overhead or at the top of many of our hip hinge movements. Learning this skill obviously has great value not just for this exercise, but for good movement overall. Using this little pelvic tilt goes a long way in preventing the low back from becoming the major source of motion. Once you lock the pelvis into place, either the pelvis will go straight up or the body will try to shift backwards. Trying to lean back is the other compensation and we want to avoid leaning back as much as moving through the low back. The hips need to go straight up. Now, really dialing in the hip bridge, we can bring in the movement of the pullover. This isn’t the classic bodybuilding goal of increasing the rib cage or such things. We have two primary goals with the pullover. The more subtle reinforcing how to utilize the lats. Remember, understanding how to create tension in the underarm will be important for our ability to stabilize in the push-up position and when pressing overhead.

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The bigger reason that we are using the pullover in the hip bridge is to challenge the body to resist extension in the torso. That’s right, now that we have created a strong hip bridge with a strong body alignment, we want to use the weight of the Ultimate Sandbag to try to pull us into extension. Of course, we want to resist the force by strongly engaging both the lower abdominal area and the hips. Simply allowing the arms to carry the weight overhead is a means of incrementally increasing the intensity.

The Pullover to Bridge.

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When we can hold the right position and carry the Ultimate Sandbag completely over the top of the head, then we can progress the movement. Like the majority of our DVRT drills, going up in weight is an option, but it may be not the best one. The lever arm that the pull over creates makes small Ultimate Sandbags feel much heavier than their actual weight would indicate. Therefore, since we don’t typically move up by a very small amount of weight, we are going to look to alter body position as a means of progressing this movement. It won’t take much to make the Bridge to Pullover by altering body position. Slightly elevating one leg can completely change the dynamics of the exercise. We don’t have to lift the leg high to immediately feel the impact of going on one leg. Moving to a unilateral movement not only makes one side work harder, but adds rotational forces to the Bridge to Pullover. Avoid rotating the hips during any variation of one legged Bridge to Pullovers.

The Unilateral Bridge to Pullover.

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Over time, you will keep challenging yourself by first lifting the off leg to eventually 90 degrees, and then slowly straightening it out. The most difficult form will be when the off leg sits just off the floor and completely straight. Having the off leg in this position adds a long lever arm, and will improve the ability to properly hip bridge and keep the torso aligned. Take your time, though. Determine which position gives you the best ability to perform the exercise well. Once you can work through all these levels, increasing the weight of your Ultimate Sandbag will feel far more reasonable.

Leg Threading You are probably wondering, heck, even waiting. When I am going to discuss performing Turkish Get-ups?! After all, Ultimate Sandbags are perfect for a variation of the Turkish Get-up. My answer is that they are and they aren’t. Holding an Ultimate Sandbag on the shoulder while trying to get up off of the floor is quite a unique experience. It is different from holding a weight overhead, and the only thing I can compare it to is having someone lay right on top of your body! This makes the Ultimate Get-up a valuable exercise for anyone who is looking to emphasize core strength or who has shoulder limitations. I am not going to suggest that the Ultimate Sandbag on the shoulder is a better version than holding weight overhead; it’s just different. What we are looking for is not just your ability to get off of the ground, but the manner in which you do so. We are trying to see if you can integrate the right muscles of the core to perform the get-up or if you start to compensate for a weak core structure. What does compensating look like? During the get-up, the set-up is the same as with the weight overhead. We take a “v” position with the legs, with one straight leg and one leg bent as though we were going to perform a bridge. The Ultimate Sandbag rests on the shoulder that is on the same side as the bent leg. As we try to roll and sit-up, if the straight leg comes off the ground, we have a compensation pattern. This is a strong sign that our body has given up on the ability of our core to work synergistically to bring the body upward, and has substituted the hip flexors. In this instance, I am referring to the abdominals, hamstrings, and glutes when I mention the core. While the hip flexors technically make up the core, we are trying to minimize their role at this point in the movement. Part of the issue can be strength and integration. Using the wrong approach in the get-up portion can also be a problem. The heels of both legs are actively pushing into the ground and are not in a relaxed state. We want to feel tension in the hamstrings and glutes before we even begin to move. Now we have a strong foundation to move, and can focus on using the right muscles. 223

Straight leg stays on the ground.

Straight leg comes off the ground.

The lower body isn’t the only player in getting up; the upper body also plays an important role. Coming up is not a straight sit-up motion. Rather, we are going to roll and use a drive through the outside arm to once again place force into the ground to help us up. The arm helps activate the lat, transferring force through the rest of the body. It is also a stabilizing force for the next phase of the DVRT we are about to perform.

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Dropping the bent knee outwards compensation.

At this point, we are going to diverge from the traditional Turkish Get-up. Don’t get me wrong, it is possible to do a Turkish Get-up with the Ultimate Sandbag . But there’s an issue with coming back down. After rising off the ground with the Ultimate Sandbag, the weight is going to rest upon the shoulder, dispersed evenly. That makes coming back down to the floor a bit of an issue. The USB ends up returning to the floor before the body. Does that ruin everything? I think it makes the movement awkward, and after all the exercises we have discussed throughout this book, hopefully it is obvious that we don’t need to just copy other exercises. The best and most important aspect of the Ultimate Sandbag in this position is the shoulder position we hold. Consequently, we are going to want to really emphasize what the shoulder position does in challenging our movement and strength. That means we don’t need to perform a get-up. We can do something a bit different. Leg Threading makes it possible to stress the shoulder position that forces the body to resist lateral force. When we have introduced the shoulder position in past exercises, we have always had a vertical torso, which makes distributing the weight a bit easier. As I described those exercises, easier and easy are not the same thing! Moving through Leg Threading, we work the torso in all types of angles. The challenge of keeping the trunk in good alignment becomes much greater when we are both moving and holding the Ultimate Sandbag on the shoulder. The primary goal of stressing the trunk is to slow down the speed. The complexity of the movement is another great reason we slow down Leg Threading. 225

Leg Threading.

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To move from one position to another, we need the hip bridge that we built in the Bridge to Pullover – as well as hip mobility – to seamlessly move our body. Like all our DVRT drills, there is an ideal and many levels to regress. I say this because the amount of movement and stability that Leg Threading requires could discourage many from even trying. Many think regression is a bad word that means you are unfit. Nothing could be further from the truth! I experienced this lesson working with a former professional strongman. He was former because he had hurt his back so badly that not only could he no longer compete, but he told me he was unable to perform a body weight squat without pain. Going from a high level of athletic competition to being unable to perform the foundational task of squatting your own weight is a hard thing to swallow. However, he possessed a great attitude and more importantly, a desire to get better. All day, this very strong athlete gave his best, going through many of our DVRT drills. He did what he could, and modified what seemed like too much. Until we came to it. When we started to cover Leg Threading I thought we had hit the limit. The once-positive attitude was met with a facial expression that said it all, “NO WAY!” Why did this exercise seem impossible to him? He watched the full version – all these moving parts that seemed to force positions he had never used and that asked parts of his body to work that I don’t think he had ever worked. Maybe I could have forced him through the movement. Instead, I tried to stay true to our principles. I had to look at modifying the range of motion. Some may argue doing so compromises the integrity of the exercise. That is the danger in seeing something as an exercise and not a movement. A movement has a host of different levels and versions. I wanted him to perform the movement of Leg Threading. What did we do? We simply altered the range of motion. I didn’t ask him to bridge as high or to move his legs as wide. I know, not really innovative, but how many people are discouraged from an exercise because they cannot perform the “ideal” version? Get over what is ideal, and work on what is both safe and effective for you and your current ability levels! Back to our strongman, though. I had shown him what level I wanted him to work at, and he is was up for the challenge. In all honesty, I didn’t have big expectations for him, but I wanted him to experience it, as now he was a coach. If he was going to be teaching these concepts to others, I wanted him to have a baseline for what it felt like. I went on to help a few other coaches with their technique, and as I came back to him, he was doing it! Not just the version I had provided him, but the entire Leg Thread. I was completely shocked. He was smiling, but most improbable of all was that he stood up after and started to squat. I asked him if he was in pain and he said that he felt so good he wanted to try. It was the first time that he was able to body weight squat without pain! Are you going to get the same result? Is it going to happen as fast? I can’t really tell you that, but being persistent and staying true to the concepts can help you accomplish some pretty amazing things! 227

One of the concepts that Leg Threading taught him was not necessarily to just drive harder through his lower body, but how important integrating the body really becomes in building strength and stability. In Leg Threading, the best example is what happens with the arm. Once we are in the sitting position, we want to make sure that we corkscrew the support arm in the same manner that we used in the Lateral Bag Drags. I am constantly amazed how time and time again, emphasizing the corkscrew can make or break the bridge. By corkscrewing the arm, we engage the lat and cause a chain reaction throughout the whole body. Where someone can’t bridge one moment, as soon as they engage the upper body, it becomes almost effortless. The correct arm position is what is going to help us move the lower body in all types of angles. The actions of bridging and supporting of the arm allows us to move our straight leg all the way across the body. If we freeze the motion in time, we see a different version of a Side Plank. Instead of just working on hitting the lateral side of the trunk, we are combining it with stability of the arm and hip as well. Whether you want to use this as a “core” drill, a “warm-up” to your overhead work, or a finisher, Leg Threading has so many terrific applications because of how many issues it addresses at one time!

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BUILDING MUSCLE? e talked a lot about concepts like functional training throughout this entire book. While it may sound great to build strength that transfers to the real world and increases our overall health, you may still find yourself asking one question – will I look better? The simple answer is YES! Of course, you have to remain consistent with other important factors such as nutrition and sleep. Seeing the amazing results people get from applying the DVRT system even surprises me at times. It is the adherence to a program – based upon strong principles and using an amazing tool – that seems to bring about such change. The best part is that DVRT isn’t a program that requires you to live and breathe fitness. You don’t have to be a professional athlete, or perform two daily workouts to accomplish significant goals. Pedro Morales is a perfect example of someone who took his life back into his own hands and dedicated himself to these very ideals. His results? “Hands down the best program I’ve ever seen or been on, The program is simply genius. Today February 7, 2012 I weigh 219.6 lbs. I haven’t broken the 220 lb barrier in over a year, this is with 3-1/2 months of training, that’s 30.4 lbs of weight, I definitely put on some muscle, so I know I lost a lot more then 30.4 lbs of fat. My energy levels are through the roof. The depression is gone. I feel strong & healthy. I’m getting my mobility back & my posture has improved we are talking night & day deference, and this is just ½ way to my goal.” Pedro’s story is not an anomaly; it is the result of dedication, consistency, and adherence to the principles we have outlined here for the DVRT program. The DVRT system will give you what you put into it. Can you build muscle? Absolutely! Can you shred fat? Of course! Is it really possible to get in incredible shape with minimal space? No doubt!

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The Ultimate Sandbag has so much versatility we didn’t even cover in this book. I didn’t want you to get into all the exercises that are possible with the Ultimate Sandbag. Instead, my goal was to introduce you to a new way of thinking about fitness programs. In that spirit, I will touch on a few exercises that are highly effective but didn’t quite fit into the journey I was hoping to take you through.

Bent-Over Rows In the very early sections of this book, I outlined the many benefits of the Bent-Over Row. What I did not discuss were the incredible combinations that you can create and the ways you can manipulate the system for different exercise goals. The Ultimate Sandbag is a far more powerful tool than people realize. The fact that we have so many gripping options is only one element. Changing the grip you take on your rows will change some of the muscle activation in the upper body. I have provided the table below to give you some idea of how changing the grip on your Ultimate Sandbag can alter the outcome of your bent-over row variations.

Grip Option Supinated

Mechanical Advantage Strong

Stability Level Focus More on Biceps Involvement and Lats

Neutral

Strong

Good Combination of Biceps and Scapula Retractors

Pronated

Moderate

Less Biceps and More Focus on Scapula Retraction

End Cap Rows

Minimal

Grip Will be Limiting Factor and the Center of Mass Will Be Away from Grip

Off-Set

Moderate (Depends on Above Gripping Options)

Creates a Unique Asymmetrical Loading Variable

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Supinated Bent-Over Rows.

Neutral Bent-Over Rows.

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Prontated Bent-Over Rows.

End Cap Bent-Over Rows.

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Off-Set Bent-Over Rows.

Bonus one Grip Bent-Over Rows.

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The unique emphasis on gripping the Ultimate Sandbag also allows us to use more of the muscles used in the upper body. Therefore, we not only have grip position, but extra emphasis in some variations on grip strength as well. We have to select the right variation for our goals. Don’t worry, if you don’t know which one is right for you, simply rotate the type every few weeks. I often recommend that people incorporate two versions in a training cycle, with a third day being devoted to drills like pull-ups. Why a ratio of 1:2? I find most lifters don’t have good scapular retraction and need to learn how to perform retraction of the shoulders correctly. They often lack strength in this area. Many lifters forget that as good as pull-ups are, they also tend to cause internal rotation of the shoulders if done too frequently. Considering many people already suffer from rounded shoulders, I want to prioritize correcting this issue. Along with variation, work through tempo. As mentioned in our first discussion of the Bent-Over Row, many people simply rush through the movement. Work on slower lowering tempos. Add pauses and use different repetition schemes. If this all feels a bit overwhelming, don’t worry, you can also follow some of the workouts I am providing at the end of this book.

Biceps Curls Since functional training has gained such popularity in both the fitness industry and general population, exercises such as biceps curls have almost become outlawed! As with many new concepts, we tend to suffer from an overreaction to some of the concepts. Are drills like biceps curls bad? Of course not. The better question is: how many of them do we perform and how much of our workout do they make up? Biceps can be very useful and teach us important lessons about movement. The current fitness overemphasizes going hard and fast all the time. No wonder injuries accumulate faster and goals are never met. All of us can benefit from preparing our bodies for more intense training. You don’t think bicep curls are important? Some of the strongest athletes in the world may disagree with you! Competitive strongmen have long used biceps curls to help prevent bicep tears. The immense strain placed on both the tendon and muscle during classic strongman events like stones and farmer’s walks make biceps curls part of the strongman arsenal. Listen to the advice of top-level amateur strongman and strength coach, Jason Nunn: “Distal biceps tears are very common in strongman. Doing these high rep curls will help develop the tensile strength of the tendons involved.” Don’t think doing a few sets of biceps curls will get you kicked out of the functional training coaches club! 234

We must go beyond the biceps to maximize the benefits of performing this muchmaligned exercise. Take your eyes off what is happening at the arm. If we zoom out, we can see that biceps curls actually work the upper back and core to a great degree, especially as the weight gets heavier or our grip gets stressed more. When the weight sits in front of our body in the initial phase of the biceps curl, we have to actively pull our shoulders down and back, while locking our legs and tightening the glutes. That’s right! Many of the same tips I have given for so many other DVRT to produce stability apply here as well. All too often people allow their shoulders to round forward and crunch into the weight when they perform biceps curls. If you follow the tips of DVRT stability, you will find that your upper back and core get hit almost as hard as your biceps. They don’t move, though. They learn how to fight the weight of the Ultimate Sandbag pulling them forward. Another chance to teach the concepts of good movement doesn’t sound like a waste of time to me at all!

Biceps Curls.

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Just like the Bent-Over Row, the Ultimate Sandbag biceps curl has many variations. Not only can we curl it from a few different handle positions, not only can we curl it from different body positions, and not only can we make it one handed or two, We can also place the Ultimate Sandbag in some unique holding positions. My favorite is placing the Ultimate Sandbag in a vertical position. Instead of holding onto the handles of the Ultimate Sandbag, you are now holding onto the Ultimate Sandbag itself. This changes two important variables. The most obvious is that by no longer holding the handles, our fingers and grip are taxed to a higher degree. Just like the Bent-Over Row, this will actually increase the usage of our upper body muscles and really work the arms. Getting grip and biceps strength is a double bonus!

Grip Curls.

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Less obvious until you actually perform Grip Curls is that by holding the Ultimate Sandbag vertically, we have a lot of weight pulling against us. The weight of the Ultimate Sandbag usually feels heavier in this position, probably because of the unique combination of leverage and grip strength. Using grip curls at the end of a workout or as part of a circuit is effective and remains true to our ideals of functional training.

Don’t compensate.

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Carries The concept of carrying weight has become popular once again – relatively speaking, at least. The idea of walking around with weight may seem a bit odd for some. Old time strongmen, though, greatly believed in the idea that how much weight you could carry was a sign of your overall strength. There were three attributes that made for a good strongman: how much weight they could pick up from the ground, how much weight they could put overhead, and how much weight they could carry. Having competed in more modern day strongman competitions, I can tell you carrying weight hits muscles that are simply hard to explain. Some coaches like Dan John believe that carrying weight can be completely transformational. He explains, “The loaded carry does more to expand athletic qualities than any other single thing I’ve attempted in my career as a coach and athlete. And I do not say that lightly.” What is it that makes carrying weight so unique? When you hold weight, your body instantly starts to feel the compression. To maintain your postural alignment, both the large and small muscles of the body have to become very active. This combination of all these muscles working together helps activate your body’s natural weight belt system to create stability for the spine. Is that it, though? I think the combination of this compression and walking adds dimension to this type of training. After all, if you are performing many of the drills in the DVRT system, being under compression of weight is not a new idea. DVRT drills like Front Loaded Squats, Shoulder Lunges, and even Lateral Bag Drags and Overhead Pressing all require a great deal of compression in the trunk. I believe things differ when you add the simple act of walking. Walking wouldn’t seem to complicate things. After all, we do it every day. Walking with weight changes the game because the feel of the weight differs with every step. As with all our DVRT drills, the goal is not simply to complete the task, but also to correctly perform the movement. The weight in loaded carries tries to alter our postural alignment, and depending upon which holding position we choose, it can change what areas of the body we feel being stressed. Those that are somewhat familiar with loaded carries might instantly think of the exercise called farmer’s walks. A farmer walk is simply carrying a weight down by your side as you walk. It’s a simple sounding task, but not so easy to perform. The farmer’s walk is a good drill, but I like some of our DVRT options even better.

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The DVRT and Ultimate Sandbag variations move the weight from down by our sides to much higher positions. This simple change often completely alters the feel of carrying weights. A higher carrying position requires more work from the trunk, upper back, and in some instances, arms as well. Why do most people favor the farmer’s walk? To be perfectly honest, it is due to the fact you can handle more weight and it is much easier than the walking variations I am about to describe. But if you are up for the challenge, here is our system of loaded carries:

Bear Hug The Bear Hug comes back as our foundational holding position because it allows us to maintain a more upright torso position. Far too often, lifters will get into loaded carrying positions and begin to lean back to counter balance the weight on the body. Such a compensation is a big no-no, as it only puts the lower back under more shear. The overall goal of any of the loaded carries is to maintain as undisturbed a walking posture as possible, not just heave the heaviest weight possible. The Bear Hug walk calls heavily upon the arms and upper back, along with the trunk, to maintain a tall walking posture. While walking, you will find that your breathing becomes shortened because your body must maintain the tension through the trunk. Learning to take shorter and timely breaths is key to keepThe Bear Hug Carry. ing the duration of the loaded carry at challenging levels. However, this unique fatigue that loaded carries such as the Bear Hug walk provide are exactly what make people tire in the first place. Becoming more proficient and simply more fit with these carries will go along way toward improving some of your other lifts and specific conditioning as well. Tactical athletes such as fireman should perform such work because of the unique stress of their jobs. Being under heavy loads for long periods of time is a type of fatigue that can’t be simulated by just classic running or other conditioning methods. 239

Front Hold My personal favorite is the Front Hold position walks. Why? These exercises are both challenging and highly accessible. Since we have already paralleled all Front Hold positions to the Front Plank, we can quickly see this becomes a walking plank. By taking the Ultimate Sandbag from the Bear Hug to the Front Hold position, we also have changed the body’s center of mass making it even harder to hold our walking posture. This is one of those drills you feel pretty instantly. As soon as you take that first step you can feel your core turning on big time! The body isn’t just fighting the pull of the Ultimate Sandbag forwards, but the walking action causes lateral forces to torch the obliques as well! The higher holding position of the Front Hold additionally increases the work load on the upper back and arms. I have seen numerous lifters fail in their ability to hold their shoulders in the classic “down and back” position because their lats and upper back fatigue. If you can perform the Front Hold walk well, you will feel as though you just got done with a tough set of pull-ups in your upper back!

Don’t lean back.

The Front Hold Carry.

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Shoulder The Shoulder position is often the trickiest of the loaded carries. I see it all the time on the internet. Guys and gals load up their shoulders and try to run or walk. Unfortunately, you see all types of compensations. You see people’s hips sitting to one side, their trunks leaning, and even knees caving! The Shoulder loaded carry requires even more attention than the Shoulder Squat because of the instability walking causes through the pelvis. Our goal hasn’t changed from the Bear Hug to the Shoulder loaded carry. We don’t want to see our walking stance altered. Doing so will most definitely result in sore, if not injured, low backs. Most people allow a collapse of their torso to one side, completely overloading structures like the quadratus lumborum. A funny-sounding muscle that you don’t want to make angry! The result can sometimes be almost as painful as a disc injury! Attention to quality of movement is key in both getting the desired result and keeping you clear of harm. Being disciplined enough to follow these standards will provide you with some powerful strength gains.

The Shoulder Carry.

Don’t compensate laterally.

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Overhead The Overhead position battles closely with the Shoulder position for the role of most challenging loaded carry position. The more balanced loading position makes it somewhat easier to maintain good alignment, but the longer lever arm definitely makes walking quite the challenge. Add in the fact that the Ultimate Sandbag provides more instability in this position, and you have one heck of a feat of stability and strength. I must preface the rest of the description of the Overhead loaded carry with the fact we have to ensure you have the upper body flexibility to get into the correct position. Much like the Shoulder holding position, many people compensate greatly during their Overhead loaded carries. Compensations, though, are not subtle; they usually come in the form of a really big curve in the low back. As I discussed in the Overhead pressing series, we don’t want to see an increased curve in the low back at any point of the Ultimate Sandbag being overhead.

The Overhead Carry.

Some people can actually start in the right posture, but as soon as that first step is taken, they begin to arch. If we start in the right position and this type of compensation occurs, this could be due to a core weakness rather than an inability to move properly in the upper body. Learning how to brace more effectively while pulling the shoulders down and back are keys to helping stabilize the trunk. More unstable Ultimate Sandbags are really fun with Overhead loaded carries. As you pick up speed or walk longer, you will find the instability increases, making the body work harder. That means you don’t have to perform huge weights to get a great benefit from the DVRT Overhead loaded carries. Sometimes using a very unstable Ultimate Sandbag is more than enough. 242

DVRT PROGRAMMING o far I have provided you the pieces to the puzzle. Exercises and progressions are really just pieces of a program. The art of fitness comes from understanding how to put these pieces together to match your goals. Some people get overwhelmed by all the movements that are possible in our DVRT program. and can’t even imagine how to put it all together. Going back to principles, though, you will see that it is relatively easy to piece together a well thought-out plan for your fitness goals. Is a program really necessary, though? Should I just go by how I feel that day? Doesn’t a plan keep me from addressing the unpredictability of life? Isn’t “confusing” my muscles far more effective than following a consistent program? These are the questions that the current fitness climate breeds. Truthfully, I find these to be excuses that are not founded on much science, but are rather a result of our culture’s tendency to suffer from varying levels of A.D.D. In an era where we communicate with 140 characters and check the news in literally seconds, our desire to spend any appreciable time thinking about what and how we wish to accomplish our fitness goals seems to go far against the grain. Yet, if you look at successful organizations, they all have a strong foundation and a good plan. How many Fortune 500 companies do you think are built without a business plan? How many times do generals go into battle without a plan? Would you feel good if your doctor didn’t have a plan for treatment of an illness? While it may seem ridiculous to some to put your fitness program in the same category as business, military, or medicine, the reality is it isn’t too far off. To get a specific result, you need a specific plan. What most people don’t understand is that a training program is just that – a plan. You can think of a plan as providing you direction or being a map. It is hard to find where you are going if you don’t have a map or directions. Yet this is the very way people address their fitness goals all the time. 243

Don’t get me wrong, your plan and program won’t always be right. They will need to be tweaked, re-evaluated, and altered to the unpredictable variables that life will throw at you. Knowing the rules means you understand when it is necessary to break the rules. As strength coach Charles Staley says, “You can’t deviate from a system you do not have.” If we do not have a plan, we cannot even attempt to identify why we are not making the progress we desire. It also means that we don’t even really know what is working so we can continue to implement the successful ideas. To help you better understand the value of programming, let me quickly dispel many of these common programming myths.

MYTH 1 I need to keep my body guessing! Truth: The reality is that your body needs to get somewhat accustomed to a program. Since many of the early changes in a program (yes, any program) are due to the brain coordinating the body more efficiently, we need to allow some adaptation to occur so that the muscles and metabolic systems can be more appropriately challenged. Think of a program like riding a bike. The first few times you feel unsteady, you can’t really balance, and then after a few times you start to smooth it out. You can then ride faster, longer, and more aggressive trails. Your program is very similar; you can’t really train the muscles or other aspects of fitness if you don’t allow some familiarity with the program. Otherwise your body is always learning how to “steady the bike,” and doesn’t get much better at anything. Still a bit doubtful about how effective this concept is for training? If you don’t think having a program works in fitness, look at the performance of Olympic athletes in track & field, gymnastics, weightlifting, and heck, most sports. They all work off of a plan. The truth is at some point, our body becomes too efficient and changing the program is necessary. Researchers find this time from to be somewhere between 4 and 8 weeks. A beginner can be on a program longer than a well-trained individual. This is due to the fact the more advanced trainee has a more efficient nervous system.

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MYTH 2 My program needs to be random to meet the unpredictability of Life Truth: There are many issues with this line of thinking. Possibly most notable is the fact that those that preach this concept actually do not have much random work in their training. Many of these individuals are merely trying to justify doing what they like and are good at. It is shocking to see those that promote the idea of random workouts usually center their training around 5 to 10 specific lifts. Not too much randomization there at all! Focusing on what we like and what we are good at is not unusual, and even a program can’t prevent this altogether. However, if you sit down and really analyze your programming, the truth is usually very glaring. Making a commitment to yourself by putting your weaknesses first in your workouts is a very powerful way to achieve progress much faster. Let’s address the whole predictability factor now. Even unpredictability in the world of sport requires planning. Whether you have played American football, basketball, baseball, tennis, lacrosse, soccer, or pretty much anything, you practice and prepare for the sport. You spend a considerable amount of time developing the skills and abilities that are necessary for high level performance in your sport. Of course, each of these sports has a strong element of unpredictability – from weather and the elements to facing a highly skilled athlete. Your opponent has also trained, has specific strengths and weaknesses, and has developed a strategy and plan they want to execute. You have to both react to your opponent and perform at the highest possible level. In most team sports, the most successful coaches are those who can make adjustments during the game. However, adjustments are based upon the foundation of a great plan. How would you feel if you knew the coach of your favorite team went into the championship game with no game plan, no strategy, and just said they were going to react to the unpredictability of the game? Such an approach would seem odd on many accounts. Just as the coach would have to make adjustments to a game plan, it is very likely you, over time, will have to do the same to your training. This doesn’t make a program wrong or unnecessary. Quite the opposite, you will find knowing which aspect to change is far easier than a shotgun approach.

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MYTH 3 Designing a program takes all the “fun” out of training. Truth: A training program is not etched in stone, and is not designed to remove the joy from training. In coaching for over 20 years, I can tell you that there is a great deal of fun in accomplishing specific goals. The opposite happens with random workouts. You will find often find these individuals constantly searching for more novel exercises and unique training tools to make up for the fact they don’t find themselves getting any closer to actually reaching their individual goals. This becomes a pursuit that seems to have no end, as trying to find a new stimulus every workout becomes time consuming and more times than not, futile. If, after reading this book, you don’t see how to make purposeful progressions, I haven’t done my job. The goal of the first section of this book was to describe how simple it is to make a small change that yields big results. We have the power to have fun and still stay focused. One of the biggest challenges in achieving goals is possessing the dedication to stay on a path toward accomplishing your goals. DVRT is set up to help you have variety. It also helps you avoid forgetting the big picture of achieving your specific goals!

The Beginner Program What makes for a beginner program? If you have had a three month or more period of time off from training, I would ask you to start in the beginner’s section. While three months does not seem to be a great deal of time, certain fitness qualities can drop rapidly, and rebuilding and preparing the body for more intense forms of training will definitely allow for a faster return to your previous fitness levels. The focus of the beginner program is to teach proficiency for the foundational movements. I want you to get better at them because they will serve as a strong base for every other form of training we implement. Many of these movements have us working in both stable holding and body positions to help us feel more confident with these foundational movements. Therefore, show some discipline and patience with the training. Trying to rush to the more intense variations is something that far too many people try to do. You’ll only be met with plateaus and early stagnation in your training. 246

How Much Weight? One of the most challenging aspects of the DVRT program is to provide you with guidelines on what size and weight of USB to use. I am going to provide you some general recommendations. However, these are just that – general. If you need to adjust the weight either up or down, make sure to do so . As a base I recommend women work with a Power USB between 25-30 pounds and men with a Strength USB at 50-60 pounds. In reality, you are going to do best with one additional USB – women with one heavier USB and men with one lighter USB. This would be a Strength USB at about 40 pounds for women and a Power USB at 30 pounds for men. While this may seem like a more significant investment, the truth is that you will find your gym almost complete with just these two sizes.

How Often? The beginner programs are based upon a three day a week training schedule. While some of you may be capable of handling more, it doesn’t mean you are necessarily better served by performing even more workouts. It is normal in our culture to think more is always better. Remember that even good training like the DVRT system is still considered a stress to the body. The key with any fitness training is to apply the right amount of stress to the body, while still allowing the body to recover and improve overall fitness. The old gym adage that, “you grow outside of the gym, not in it” rings very true. If you doubt that three days a week of focused training can produce strong results, then it may be better to hear the same idea from another source. Weightlifting champion Tommy Kono is one of the most legendary American strength athletes. He’s also a pioneer in the sport of Olympic Weightlifting. He explains, “You can train 2 or 3 times a day, 5-6 days a week like the Europeans, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you will improve that much faster.” Moreover, he opines, it may lead to overtraining, injury and bad habits that come from lifting tired. Says Kono, “Training three times a week tends to create more enthusiasm, and because you enjoy the training, you put more heart and soul into it and reap the benefit of improving faster.” If it is good enough for a world champion then it may be wise to give it a try yourself. This doesn’t mean that you should not participate in any additional activity. Quite the opposite, the non-scheduled training days can have activities such as yoga, hiking, and other enjoyable training that is lower intensity. These non-scripted training days can be very helpful in facilitating greater recovery, building a stronger foundation, and keeping the mind fresh and excited. Being excited to train is an important aspect of developing a program. Most people believe that they must painfully go through every workout, dreading every minute of it. You will be far better served if you find how to make training a more enjoyable habit. 247

What if the workouts are too easy or too difficult? My rant in the earlier part of this chapter reinforced that programs are plans. You can alter the plan if it is not working for your own personal fitness levels. Coaches do this all the time for their clients, so absolutely feel free to adjust the program to your needs. One of the most obvious factors you can change is simply the weight of the USB. However, our assumption is that you are really using no more than two USBs for your training. Therefore, you might find the weight perfect for some exercises and too heavy or light for others. What do you do? If you find the weight of the USB too light, then our first variable is speed. Begin to consciously slow down the speed with which you lower the Ultimate Sandbag. A 5-6 second count is as long as we typically extend the eccentric phase. That doesn’t mean at select times you can’t be a masochist and work up to ten seconds! Talk about brutal. That isn’t the only way we can manipulate speed. Adding pauses in the bottom position of the lift is a great way to not only make the weight of the USB feel heavier, but to spike up the heart rate and build tremendous strength. Pauses of 3-5 seconds are a tremendous way of incorporating deliberate pauses. Legendary bodybuilding innovator Arthur Jones spoke extensively about the use of altered tempos for building a strong body. In these introductory workouts, we use typically stable holding and body positions. That means you can try to introduce less stable holding or body positions to DVRT drills you find too easy. That might mean performing a Front Loaded Squat instead of Bear Hug. It could mean performing Staggered Deadlifts in place of our standard bilateral deadlifts. This might be a bit challenging to integrate until you become more familiar with these progressions. Altering speed and load will serve as your tools for making your DVRT workouts more challenging until then. Let’s look at the other side – what if the workouts are too hard? Of course, reducing the load of your USB is an option. However, you may find yourself running into the same issues as before. Some DVRT drills are perfect with the weight, and others are far too heavy. Moving too quickly isn’t ideal when we are trying to develop quality movement patterns. Speed probably won’t be the variable that we manipulate the most; we want to maintain a pretty consistent moderate tempo. That leaves us with volume and rest intervals. What is volume? Think of volume as the sets and repetitions. You will find that there are ranges for both. This gives you the freedom to alter and progress in your workouts without just adding weight. By adjusting sets and reps, we realize that the real world can often factor into the quality of your workouts. One of the best known scientists in performance and fitness training, Dr. Mel Siff, called this 248

type of training “cybernetic periodization.” This futuristic term simply referred to the idea that technique, volume, and load may have to be altered workout to workout. You may find yourself exhausted from a long day of work, stressed by all of life’s commitments, or a host of real world activities. In such situations you can work on the lower end of both set and repetition schemes. If you are having a great day, then you can push the upper limits – simple, but often underrated. Can you go below either the sets or repetitions I recommend? Of course! If you find a single set to be the only way to get your workout in, then I am all for it. Science has shown that cumulative training delivers a result, not a singular workout. Therefore, keeping on your schedule is more important than how much you killed yourself that day. Sometimes doing less but actually moving will help your body recover, and does help to maybe relieve some stress and elevate your mood. I can’t tell you how many times I considered skipping a workout, but decided to alter my program just in the manner I am describing and ended up finishing the workout feeling good and upbeat. A complete 180 from how I felt prior to performing the training session. The rest intervals also play a key role. Most people don’t pay attention to the rest time in between sets. Yet they play a large part in the outcome and intensity of the training session. It probably wouldn’t surprise you to hear that most people try to keep their rest intervals as short as possible. Does this help in improving fitness? Absolutely! However, this approach is very intense, and the great majority of people cannot do it on a consistent basis without overtraining. Just like weight or the number of training sessions, making the rest intervals harder and harder isn’t always better. This is especially true for beginner workouts. Building great technique as a foundation is so very important for getting great results. Having too little rest between exercises or sets can cause fatigue to accumulate so quickly that technique often suffers. Having a bit more rest allows us to train much harder and maintain technique in our earlier phases. As we go through the different levels, we will place greater demand on your ability to perform while fatigued. That means you are more than free to increase the rest intervals if you find yourself tiring out so fast during the workout you feel like you aren’t performing the DVRT drills well any longer. Start by adding 15-30 seconds and see if that makes the workout much more feasible.

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Weeks 1-6 Beginner Workout 1 Exercise A1. Deadlift

Sets 2-3

Repetitions 12-15

Rest Intervals 60 seconds

A2. Overhead Press

2-3

8-10

60 seconds

A3. Bear Hug Squats

2-3

8-10

60 seconds

A4. Bent-Over Row

2-3

10-12

60 Seconds

A5. Front Plank

2-3

30-45 seconds

60 seconds

Exercise A1. Front Hold Squat with 2 second pause at bottom

Sets 2-3

Repetitions 30 seconds

Rest Intervals 60 seconds

A2. Bent-Over Row

2-3

30 seconds

60 seconds

A3. High Pull

2-3

30 seconds

60 seconds

A4. Push Press

2-3

30 seconds

60 Seconds

A5. Side Plank

2-3

30 seconds

60 seconds

Workout 2

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Workout 3 Exercise A1. Staggered Deadlift

Sets 2-3

Repetitions 8-10 each side

Rest Intervals 60 seconds

A2. Kneeling Half Press

2-3

6-8

60 seconds

A3. Front Loaded Drop Lunge

2-3

8-10 per side

60 seconds

A4. Body Weight

2-3

5-8

60 Seconds

A5. Around the World

2-3

10-12 per side

60 seconds

Weeks 7-13 Beginner Workout 1 Exercise A1. High Pull

Sets 1-2

Repetitions 10/8/6

Rest Intervals As little rest as possible

A2. Chin-ups

1-2

3/2/1

As little rest as possible

B1. Bear Hug Staggered Squat

2-3

5-6 per side

60 seconds

B2. Kneeling Press

2-3

6-8

60 Seconds

B3. Inch Worm

2-3

8-10

60 seconds

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Workout 2 Exercise A1. Front Hold Forward Lunge

Sets 2-3

Repetitions 30 seconds

Rest Intervals 45 seconds

A2. Bent-Over Hand Grip Rows

2-3

30 seconds

45 seconds

A3. Front Hold Good Mornings

2-3

30 seconds

45 seconds

A4. Military Push Press

2-3

30 seconds

45 seconds

A5. Side Plank with Knee Tuck

2-3

30 seconds per side

45 seconds

Exercise A1. Staggered Deadlift

Sets 2-3

Repetitions 8-10 per side

Rest Intervals 60 seconds

A2. Drop Lunge to Half Kneeling Press

2-3

5-8 per side

60 seconds

A3. Bear Hug Squat with 3 second pause at bottom

2-3

6-8

60 seconds

A4. Staggered Bent-Over Row

2-3

6-8 per side

60 Seconds

A5. Hand to Chest Touches from Push-up position

2-3

8-10 per side

60 seconds

Workout 3

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Intermediate What qualifies someone for an intermediate program? If you have a minimum of six months of training behind you, you may attempt these programs. This doesn’t ensure that you have worked on these specific movement skills long enough that you are going to feel proficient. If you find that the following programs feel like they are too much either on the fitness or movement side, definitely jump to the beginner programs. Don’t worry, just because I have labeled them “beginner” doesn’t mean that a host of ability levels wouldn’t benefit from performing them. After all, not being familiar with the Ultimate Sandbag may make these workouts initially much more challenging. It is possible that after a month of the beginner programs, you will feel much more confident tackling these intermediate workouts. As we progress through the different levels, you are going to see more variables being manipulated at one time. The thought is that as your fitness and movement skills continue to improve, your ability to tolerate more intense workouts and exercises will improve as well. What are you going to see? We will definitely be working on challenging your ability to stabilize your body under various conditions. Some exercises will focus on changing body positions, while others will challenge your holding position by working one side of the body at a time. We will incorporate specific tempos, and finally repetition, set, and rest intervals that will be relevant to the intermediate level.

Weeks 1-6 Intermediate Workout 1 Exercise A1. Rear Step Deadlift

Sets 3-4

Repetitions 6-8 per side

Rest Intervals 30 seconds

A2. Clean and Press

3-4

5-6

30 seconds

A3. Front Loaded 1 1/4 Squat

3-4

5-8

30 seconds

A4. Off-Set Grip Rows

3-4

8-10 per side

30 seconds

A5. Super Plank

3-4

6-10

30 seconds

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Workout 2 Exercise A1. Right Shoulder Drop Lunge

Sets 2-3

Repetitions 10/8/6/4

Rest Intervals As little rest as possible

A2. Right Off-Set Push Press

2-3

5/4/3/2

As little rest as possible

A3. Left Shoulder Drop Lunge

2-3

10/8/6/4

As little rest as possible

A4. Left Off-Set Push Press

2-3

5/4/3/2

As little rest as possible

B1. Chin-ups

2-3

3-5

30 seconds

B2. Kneeling Around the World

2-3

5-6 per side

30 seconds

Exercise Sets A1. Power Clean to 3-4 Front Hold Good Morning

Repetitions 30 seconds

Rest Intervals 30 seconds

A2. Kneeling Press

3-4

30 seconds

30 seconds

A3. Rotational High Pulls 3-4

30 seconds

30 seconds

A4. Side Plank with Reach

3-4

30 seconds per side

30 seconds

A5. Grip Curls

3-4

30 seconds

30 seconds

Workout 3

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Weeks 7-13 Intermediate Workout 1 Exercise Sets A1. Staggered High Pulls 3-4

Repetitions 8-10 per side with rest between sides

Rest Intervals 30 seconds

A2. Military 1 1/4 Press (1/4 at the top)

3-4

5-8

30 seconds

A3. Front Loaded Front Lunge

3-4

6-8 per side

30 seconds

A4. Kneeling Front Body Circles

3-4

8-10 per side

30 seconds

A5. Single Leg Bridge to Pullover

3-4

6-8 per side

30 seconds

Exercise A1. Slow Rotational Lunge with Pause at Bottom

Sets 2-3

Repetitions 10/8/6/4

Rest Intervals As little rest as possible

A2. Clean and Press

2-3

6/4/2/1

As little rest as possible

B1. Shoveling

2-3

30 seconds

30 seconds

B2. Leg Threading

2-3

30 seconds per side

30 seconds

B3. Body Rows with Hip Hinge

2-3

30 seconds per side

30 seconds

Workout 2

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Workout 3 Exercise Sets A1. Shoulder to Shoulder 5 Squat Right

Repetitions 5 with 2 second pause at bottom

Rest Intervals 30 seconds

A2. Mixed Chin-up Right

5

5

30 seconds

A3. Shoulder to Squat Left

5

5 with 2 second pause at bottom

30 seconds

A4. Mixed Chin-up Left

5

5

30 seconds

B1. Lateral Step High Pulls

2

40 seconds

20 seconds

B2. Side Plank with Row Right

2

40 seconds (switch every 20 seconds)

20 seconds

B3. Front Load Carry

2

40 seconds

20 seconds

Advanced The word advanced can be a dangerous one. There is a great deal of responsibility that comes with being a more advanced trainee. Being advanced does not just refer to a fitness level or strength ability. It is the ability to combine how well we move, integrate muscles in our body, and yes, our strength and fitness. As we move to more advanced DVRT programs I also expect that you are able to get more out of each movement. One reason that you see a change in the amount of repetitions performed is that at this point, we really should be able to work at an intensity that gets us more out of doing less. We can handle heavier Ultimate Sandbags, as well as move in less stable patterns, along with working a the full spectrum of speeds. One of the biggest differences from a beginner to a more advanced trainee is the ability to move efficiently, with the assistance of a well-trained nervous system. Strength Coach Charles Poliquin describes neurological efficiency very effectively:

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“Neurological efficiency refers to how effectively an individual recruits the higher threshold muscle fibers, and is of special concern to prepubescent athletes and all female athletes. Having these groups focus on sets of 1-2 reps may not be an efficient use of training time as they often cannot recruit a significant number the high-threshold fibers in the first place, especially if they have no previous weight training experience.” This is why more advanced lifters can focus on a few complex lifts, where a beginner needs to build a strong body and gain exposure to a wider spectrum of movement patterns. There are people who can get to the advanced DVRT workouts rather quickly, but starting at the beginner or intermediate workouts might be more advantageous. Even if you do have an extensive background in functional training, the unfamiliarity of the DVRT movements and Ultimate Sandbag take a little bit of time. After a month’s worth of training you can try the first phase of the advanced workout series.

Weeks 1-6 Advanced Workout 1 Exercise A1. Rotational Clean to Front Hold 1 1/4 Squat

Sets 5

Repetitions 5

Rest Intervals 30 seconds

A2. Pull-ups

5

5

30 seconds

B1. Shoulder Drop Lunge to Balance

3-4

6-8 per side 30 seconds (increase hold time on balance up to 3 seconds)

B2. Lateral Bag Drag with Push-up

3-4

5-6 per side 30 seconds (incorporate up to 3 second pause at bottom of push-up)

B3. Shoveling

3-4

10-15 per side

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30 seconds

Workout 2 Exercise A1. Rotational Lunge to Chest Height

Sets 2-3

Repetitions 12/10/8/6 per side

Rest Intervals As little rest as possible then 2 minutes after the ladder

A2. Rotational Presses Chest Height

2-3

6/4/2 per side

As little rest as possible then 2 minutes after the ladder

B1. Leg Threading

2-3

30 seconds per side

30 seconds

B2. Grip Rows

2-3

10-12 per side

30 seconds

B3. Cyclone

2-3

30 seconds per side

20 seconds

Exercise Sets A1. Lateral Step Shoulder 3-5

Repetitions 6-8 per side

Rest Intervals 30 seconds

A2. Off-Set Staggered Rows

3-5

8-10 per side

30 seconds

B1. Shoulder Up Downs

3-5

8-10 per side

30 seconds

B2. Kneeling Press

3-5

6-8

30 seconds

B3. Around the Worlds

2-3

30 seconds per side

30 second break in between

Workout 3

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Weeks 7-13 Advanced Workout 1 Exercise A1. Single Leg Bent-Over Row

Sets 2-3

Repetitions 5/4/3/2/1 per side

Rest Intervals As little rest as possible then 2 minutes after the ladder

A2. Staggered Squat to Press

2-3

5/4/3/2/1 per side

As little rest as possible then 2 minutes after the ladder

B1. Rotational High Pulls

2-3

30 seconds

30 seconds

B2. Lateral Bag Drags

2-3

30 seconds

30 seconds

B3. Biceps Curls

2-3

30 seconds

30 seconds

Exercise A1. Rotational Lunge to Clean

Sets 4-5

Repetitions 40 seconds alternating sides

Rest Intervals 20 seconds

A2. Push Press

4-5

40 seconds

20 seconds

A3. 1 1/4 Front Loaded Squat

4-5

40 seconds

20 seconds

A4. Leg Threading Right 4-5

40 seconds

20 seconds

A5. Leg Threading Left

40 seconds

20 seconds

Workout 2

4-5

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Workout 3 Exercise A1. Lateral Step Clean to Lateral Lunge Right

Sets 5

Repetitions 6

Rest Intervals On the minute for 20 minutes

A2. Staggered Clean and Press Right

5

6

On the minute for 20 minutes

A3. Lateral Step Clean to Lateral Lunge Left

5

6

On the minute for 20 minutes

A4. Staggered Clean and Press Left

5

6

On the minute for 20 minutes

B1. Single Leg Bridge to Pullover

2-3

6-8 per side

30 seconds

B2. Side Plank with Leg Raise

2-3

45-60 seconds per side

30 seconds

Explaining DVRT Programs Some of the methods used in the DVRT programs may be familiar, and others may appear to be a foreign language. There are many programs we can create using the DVRT system. They vary in their intent and stress, so you will see more or less at various levels of training. These methods are largely used to maximize the many benefits that DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training offers and minimize the one limitation of not being able to add incremental loads set to set. Once you understand how to perform these workouts, it will become much more obvious what we are trying to achieve.

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Standard Repetitions / Set Protocols Many people don’t think that we use standard sets and repetitions because we don’t add incremental loads from set to set. That isn’t true at all, and keeping it more familiar at first allows people to focus primarily on the technique and not on the complexity of the workout. In the early phases of training, we are going to perform more movements and establish a good movement vocabulary by not really specializing. The repetitions are going to be higher and we are going to try to give enough practice and intensity to set forth a great base. As discussed earlier, the standard repetition and set protocols allow us to have a range. If you are feeling great and want to push the upper limits of both sets and repetitions, then you are free to see if you can hit the high ends of both. If you can accomplish this, then the following workout you can either add weight to your Ultimate Sandbag, or slightly reduce the rest time to see if you can repeat your performance. Most people tire though, and you will see a drop off in performance from set to set. That isn’t a bad thing. We usually don’t progress until the top end is achieved for both sets and repetitions. This is a simple but effective gauge for progress.

Climbing the Ladder There is a problem. If I am recommending you NOT place your focus on changing the weight of your Ultimate Sandbag, how in the world do you create workouts? I know, you may be thinking you are going to perform some unimaginable number of repetitions, but that isn’t it either. There is a secret that no one talks about. This is the fact that we have a lot of great ways to make better workouts if we don’t focus on just “more weight.” You have to think outside the box of “how much and how many.” However, once you learn a few of these strategies, you are going to wonder why you never used them before! These methods I am alluding to work particularly well for those pieces of equipment that don’t change weight easily. As I discussed in an earlier chapter, only the barbell is a tool to which can add incremental weights. For other equipment such as dumbbells, kettlebells, even bands, you have to have more of them if you want to change the actual weight. So, is the barbell the best tool to use? As discussed in “What is DVRT,” a focus on just going heavier does little for long-term progress or health of your body. What do we do? One of the most effective strategies I have found is the concept of ladders. What is a ladder? I originally got the idea of ladders from kettlebell expert Pavel Tsastouline. Kettlebells originally came in three different sizes, with about 20 pound increment 261

changes between them. Not very “incremental” at all, but that was the point. Kettlebells had been used quite a bit by the Soviet military because with just a few pieces of equipment, you could perform a wide array of exercises and programs if you knew how to manipulate other training variables. A ladder can be an ascending or descending series of repetitions. It is often best to alternate or superset two movements that really don’t compete with each other. Alternating squats and overhead presses typically works better than squats and cleans. Does it mean that you CAN’T use both techniques? Absolutely not! However, I’ll be honest, combining exercises that hit similar segments of the body is a lot more advanced than breaking up the regions of the body. A typical ladders series may look like the following: • Overhead Press 1/2/3/4/5 • Front Loaded Squats 1/2/3/4/5 The above series is accomplished by performing one repetition of each, then without rest, proceeding to two repetitions each, and so on until the series is completed, followed by 1 to 2 minutes of rest. Why is this method so effective? If you do the math that gives us 15 repetitions of each exercise. Why not just perform 15 repetitions instead of using ladders? The ladder method has a few advantages. The first is that we can handle more weight for the 15 repetition ladder style than the classic style. Whenever possible, using more weight (assuming combined with great technique) will yield better results for fat loss, strength gains, and overall body conditioning. What, wait, huh?! Did I not just spend the majority of this book talking about weight being overrated? Yes, and it is, but the role of weight is also easy to misunderstand. When most people create their fitness programs, they don’t focus on variables such as changing stability and speed of motion. However, if we do change these variables and can use the best weight for the movement, then absolutely we should take advantage of the opportunity. If you are using different instability techniques and playing with variables like speed of motion, then yes, use the highest weight that allows you to have good technique! Ladders also allow us to manage fatigue much more efficiently. In all honesty, when you see most people perform a standard set of 15 repetitions, a great portion of the series is just flat out ugly because the lifter has accumulated so much fatigue. Whenever possible, we want to keep the quality of work at a high level. Better work will always produce a superior result that just makes you tired, promise! 262

Lastly, it is just more fun — as well as easier — to mentally focus on the work you are performing, rather than counting what seems to be endless repetitions. You are more likely to repeat a workout if you find it engaging rather than boring and uninteresting. The example I provided above does not prevent us from using other forms of ladders. We can still utilize higher-repetition ladder schemes, but this typically is used along with exercises that have more of a “flow” to them rather than very definitive stops and starts. Here are a few DVRT exercises that would fit higher repetition protocols: — Rotational Lunge — Rotational High pull — Shoveling — Around the World — Lateral Lunge High Pull Even some of our Ultimate Sandbag Training exercises that possess the common starts and stops can work well with higher repetitions due to the rhythmic motion you develop. Such exercises are: — Power Cleans — Bear Hug Squats — Power Snatches — Front Loaded Good Mornings I have provided a number of ladder workouts for you to try immediately and find the style that works best for you. In these workouts, I demonstrate a variety of different ways to integrate the ladder method and allow you to experience what these variations feel like in the scope of a well organized program. I am sure you will find them extremely challenging. but they may also be among the most fun workouts you’ve ever performed!

Density Training The idea of Density Training is new for a lot of people. It is not a training variable that too many are familiar with programming, but some people are actually already using Density Training in their workouts. Density refers to doing the same amount of work in less time. For example, if you simply wanted to do 100 Bear Hug Squats and found you finished in ten minutes, that would be your 100%. If you performed the same workout a week later and finished in 9 minutes and 30 seconds, you would have improved your fitness in the realm of density. So, even though the weight hasn’t changed and you haven’t 263

performed more repetitions, you finished the same amount of work in less time – improved density. There are several forms of density training we can implement, but one of my personal favorites is the idea of Escalating Density Training (EDT) developed by Strength Coach Charles Staley. There are a few benefits of using EDT as the primary means for attaining density in your workouts: 1. EDT makes it easier to measure your progress. 2. The EDT method allows you to easily adjust the training to your current fitness level. 3. EDT is a self-regulating system that will ensure you don’t end up venturing into unsafe training methods or overtraining. EDT begins with finding a weight that you can use for about twenty repetitions. However, since weight isn’t our only factor or the easiest variable to adjust, you can also find the best variation of a movement. For example, Shoulder Staggered Squats may be too challenging to perform for twenty repetitions with your Ultimate Sandbag, but you can use the USB with Front Loaded Squats. Therefore, Front Loaded Squats are the variation you will incorporate. I have provided some outlines, but you can adjust the exercises if necessary. Similar to ladders, you will find yourself alternating between two non-competing exercises, usually with the focus on different regions of the body (i.e. lower or upper). With the two exercises determined, we will set a time interval, usually about 10-15 minutes, for the workout. The goal will be to perform the specified number of repetitions for each exercise while trying to take as little rest as possible between exercises. What you will find is that you will rest less in the beginning, and as you tire, the rest interval will increase. Instead of counting mindless repetitions, the goal is to see how many sets you can perform in the allotted time. So if you are able to perform eight sets your first time , then the next time you perform the workout you will attempt to beat that number of sets. The goal is obviously to rest less between sets. This is an easy way of tracking an improvement in your fitness levels. You may be asking yourself, “Why such a light weight for a small number of repetitions?” Your goal is to perform anywhere from 8-15 sets. If you can do more than this, the weight is too light. If you can’t achieve the minimum of 8, the weight is too heavy. If you again think about the design of the program, we can take the standard 20 repetitions and, let’s say, 3 sets. That yields us 60 repetitions, with probably half of them being less than high quality. Performing 10-12 sets of 5-6 repetitions provides us the same amount of work, but with much higher quality of work. 264

If you have never performed EDT or any form of density training before, I recommend you find a good pace for the first workout. Let this be your standard, and through the following workouts you can begin to push yourself to a new level while demonstrating great technique. Don’t worry about underestimating at first; it is often better to err on the side of too few rather than too many. Over a few workouts, you will find what works best for you!

Inferno Intervals One of my personal favorite methods is using intervals or timed sets in our programs. Intervals allow you to focus on the quality of repetitions and work on another variable outside of weight – speed. The faster you can perform an exercise with great technique, the closer you get to performing what we call High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). What is HIIT and why should you care about using this style of training? HIIT is basically short bouts of really intense exercise followed by a specific rest period. The key is both the idea of “short bouts” and “intense” exercise. Research has shown that this style of training is better for fat loss than traditional long duration, steady state “cardio”. What researchers are realizing is the post-exercise recovery period may be extremely influential on the overall outcome of a training program. To lose body fat, it is more important to take into account the overall calories expended rather than the amount utilized from fat(1). Research shows that when the same number of calories are burned using high-intensity and low-intensity exercise, the amount of body fat loss between these groups was not significant(2). In fact, a study performed by Tremblay et al.(3) examined the differences between endurance training (ET) and high-intensity intermittent-training(HIIT). The endurance group performed their training for 20 weeks and burned an average of 120.4MJ per session. The HIIT group performed their program for 15 weeks with an average expenditure of 57.9MJ per session. In other words, the endurance group burned more energy during their training sessions. However, the results of body fat testing showed the HIIT group lost significantly more body fat. There has to be something happening to the body beyond simple caloric expenditure. Okay, why is the high-intensity group losing more body fat? There are a lot of theories, but no concrete facts. With exercise, basically everything is still theory and we just try to employ effective methods. Knowing how the body works allows us to manipulate it for better results. One of the more popular theories is that high-intensity exercise will result in greater post-exercise energy expenditure and fat utilization(4). This means you end up burning calories for hours afterward – some believe as many as 16 hours after training.

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Another theory is the influence of growth hormone(GH). GH is the anti-aging hormone, and also is effective at regulating body fat. A high production of GH is useful for maintaining low body fat levels. The body naturally produces GH in response to high levels of lactic acid. Lactic acid is responsible for the burning sensation you feel during strenuous exercise. As described in Kraemer and Fleck’s excellent text, Designing Resistance Training Programs, “... this energy source [lactic acid] contributes a moderate-to-high percentage of the energy during activities composed of high-intensity work interspersed with rest periods and high-intensity activities lasting longer than 25 s, such as interval run training and wrestling.” So, short rest intervals – 45 to 90 seconds – with anaerobic training lasting at least 25 seconds cause high levels of lactic acid. This would cause a greater production of GH, so in theory, greater body fat loss. A third theory can be a little more confusing because more explanation of exercise physiology is necessary. During the recovery period of high-intensity exercise, higher levels of free fatty acids can be found, with increased use of fat during the recovery period. Rasmussen et al. found high-intensity exercise resulted in greater acetyl-CoA carboxylase inactivation, which in English means an increased utilization of free fatty acid oxidation(5). Finally, many studies have also shown that high-intensity exercise suppresses appetite to a greater degree. Maybe this is a bit more science than you are interested in seeing, but I do believe that it is important for people understand that science has shown us better ways to get fit. We just have to implement the techniques the right way! What is the “right way”? To be clear, this style of training is NOT easy. As I discussed earlier, the high effort is paramount in getting all the great body fat burning effects we are talking about. Casually going through repetitions doesn’t cut it. Trying to perform as many repetitions with great technique in the amount of time designated is going to be your initial standard for improvement. The good news is that the bouts of “work” are typically 30-45 seconds. I find that going to a minute usually causes too much fatigue, and going over 60 seconds also takes the training out of the HIIT style. Therefore, you have to work as hard as possible during that specified time frame. That may mean going faster (my preferred method), going heavier, or advancing the exercise. Don’t worry, there is a rest period, but that too is important. Typically rest will be quite short, only 15-60 seconds. If you are following these workouts and you are finding them to be TOO intense, then increasing the rest time slightly is a great way of tailoring the workouts to your own ability level. Instead of the traditional approach of just adding weight as you progress, you can simply decrease the rest interval time until you are working in the designated time frames. A good rule of thumb is decreasing your rest by 5 seconds every workout. 266

Below is a practical example of how you can progress your intervals: Week 1: Clean and Squat: 15 Seconds of Work, 60 Seconds of Rest Week 2: Clean and Squat: 20 Seconds of Work, 55 Seconds of Rest Week 3: Clean and Squat: 25 Seconds of Work, 50 Seconds of Rest Week 4: Clean and Squat: 30 Seconds of Work, 45 Seconds of Rest Intervals are a powerful tools for getting stronger and leaner. You can make them progressive and fun. Your focus doesn’t have to be on counting endless reps, but on working against the clock. You will be shocked how much more fun and challenging such workouts can be when applied correctly.

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ARE YOU EXCITED YET? y biggest concern with writing this book was not that you wouldn’t believe what I was suggesting is true and not that you wouldn’t think what we talked about was interesting. No, my worry is that you will never actually try the DVRT system. I completely understand that what I just wrote is a lot of information. It is asking you to change the way you see fitness and strength, it is asking you to differ from many other programs and ideas. I wouldn’t ask you to make all these changes if I didn’t truly believe there was a better way. Just because I believe it doesn’t mean that I don’t expect you to have some doubts. I am not going to ask you to try the DVRT system because we have military personnel and elite athletes using the programs, or because some of the top fitness facilities in the world are adopting these concepts. Rather, I want you to try DVRT because it can provide YOU with the results you really want. But you can’t just sit there and read what I am talking about; reading will never help you achieve your fitness goals. Instead, you have to get up and get to work! You can find literally hundreds of excuses for avoiding this challenge, but there is one big reason you can’t afford to make excuses. That is the promise of such powerful results. When I ask you to “try” the DVRT system, I don’t mean for a workout or a week. I am asking that you do it for at least a month. It takes time to fully understand the depth of the program. Many top fitness professionals and strength coaches need some time to appreciate the full scope of the DVRT system. As Strength Coach Dave Quevedo recently wrote, “The more and more I see the body positions of how parents hold their young children (infants & toddlers) the more my appreciation for Josh Henkin’s DVRT system and the Ultimate Sandbag grows. So many practical uses for the system and the tool.”

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When I say DVRT is so much more than a “sandbag” program, I really mean it. It changes the way you see every day activities, as Coach Quevedo mentioned. You start to really evaluate what fitness and movement are all about. Most of all, you start addressing and accomplishing your OWN goals, not those that other people have for you! In fact, if you had to break down DVRT into just two movements, I would suggest the Clean and Press and Rotational Lunge. That’s right, just two! If you spend ten to fifteen minutes, five days a week, trying to knock out as many sets as possible of five repetitions of the Clean and Press and ten Rotational Lunges, I know you will see amazing changes. I probably could have written an entire book just on the value and power of these two movements, but as I keep saying, I wanted to give you much more! I don’t want you to have exercises. I want you to have a system, a philosophy. I don’t want this to be what you do just for the use of the Ultimate Sandbag. Instead, I want DVRT to change how you see everything to do with fitness. That may be a lofty goal, but that is why I am devoting my life to bringing awareness to more effective and accessible forms of fitness. If it can change my life and those of so many, how can you NOT at least give one month to see if it can do the same for you?

Is It Really For Everyone? In 2002 I became interested in kettlebells because of one simple statement. I heard kettlebells were “the working man’s weightlifting.” The idea of being able to achieve great things without the need for expensive equipment, coaching I could never get, and with the limited time my clients and I had to devote was pretty exciting. In fact, I think many people were intrigued by the very same idea. However, recently the philosophy of fitness has changed quite a bit. There is a desire to feel elite, even to feel better than others. I get it, people want to feel special. They want to feel as though they are doing something that not just anyone can perform. Ideas from Olympic weightlifting and gymnastics have flooded even the mainstream fitness arena. Is this bad? Probably not, but I think we forgot our mission. We have gotten away from making fitness accessible and real for people. I have no problem if you want to practice your training, if you want to spend hours in the gym. I have no place to judge. In my mind, though, that’s not helping people. That is setting up unrealistic expectations and goals. I didn’t want DVRT to be elitist, I wanted it to be something that a busy parent, office worker, athlete, or serious fitness enthusiast could all greatly benefit from using. Maybe the DVRT loses some sexiness because of this, but I think back to the purpose of coaching and our program.

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Former college football coach Ara Parasheghian said, “A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.” In my mind, the same can be said of fitness programs. I don’t want DVRT to show you what you cannot do. I want it to show you what you can do! I want you to see that you can continue to strive to be better and make huge changes with a bit of dedication and hard work. Is this to say that the DVRT program and Ultimate Sandbag Training aren’t as challenging as other fitness programs? Nothing could be further from the truth. DVRT means we can work with an elite strength athlete or someone looking to begin a fitness program. We can make them fitter, stronger, and more mobile than they ever thought possible! That is the essence of DVRT. It isn’t a sandbag program, but an innovative fitness system that will completely change everything you ever thought possible about fitness, strength, movement, conditioning, and most of all, feeling your best! 1. Coyle, E.H. Fat Metabolism During Exercise. [Online] Gatorade Sports Science Institute. 1999, March 25. 2. Ballor, D.L., J.P. McCarthy, and E.J. Wilterdink. Exercise Intensity Does Not Affect the Composition of Diet- and Exercise- Induced Body Mass Loss. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 51:142-146, 1990. 3. Tremblay, A., J. Simoneau, and C. Bouchard, Impact of Exercise Intensity on Body Fatness and Skeletal Muscle Metabolism. Metabolism.43:814-818, 1994. 4. McMillan, J.L., et al. 20-hour Physiological Responses to a Single Weight-training Session. J. Strength Cond. Res. 7(3):9-21, 1993. 5. Rasmussen, B.B., and W.W. Winder. Effect of Exercise Intensity on Skeletal Muscle Malonyl-CoA and AcetylCoA Carboxylase. J. Appl. Physiol. 83:1104-1109, 1997.

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References: Yessis, Michael, Secrets of Russian Sports Fitness and Training. Michigan: Ultimate Athlete Concepts, 2008. McGill, Stuart, Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance. Waterloo, Canada: Backfitpro Incorporated, 2006 Kubik, Brooks, Dinosaur Training: Lost Secrets of Strength and Development. Louisville, KY, Brooks Kubik Enterprises, Inc., 2006 Jesse, John, Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia. Pasadena, CA. Athletic PR, 1974 Hedrick, Allen, “Using Uncommon Implements in the Training Program of Athletes.” Strength & Conditioning Journal: August 2003 - Volume 25 - Issue 4 - ppg 18-22 Behm, David & Anderson, Kenneth, “The Role of Instability with Resistance Training.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: 2006, 20(3), 716–722 Beckwith, Kimberly, Building Strength: Alan Calvert, the Milo Bar-bell Company, and the Modernization of American Weight Training. Ann Arbor, Michigan, ProQuest LLC, 2008. Saeterbakken, AH & Fimland, MS, “Effects of Body Position and Loading Modality of Muscle Activity and Strength in Shoulder Presses.”Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research Volume 27-Issue 7-ppg 1824-1831 Scott, Christopher. “The Effect of Time Under Tension and Weight Lifting Cadence on aerobic, Anaerobic, and Recovery Energy expenditures”. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. 2012. 37(2), 252-256. LaStayo PC, Woolf JM, Lewek MD, Snyder-Mackler L, Reich T, Lindstedt SL. “Eccentric muscle contractions: their contribution to injury, prevention, rehabilitation, and sport.” Journal of Orthopedic and Sport Physical Therapy: 003 Oct;33(10):557-71 Gullett, Jonathan C; Tillman, Mark D; Gutierrez, Gregory M; Chow, John W. “A Biomechanical Comparison of Back and Front Squats in Healthy Trained Individuals.” Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research: January 2009 - Volume 23 - Issue 1 - pp 284-292 “The Clean High Pull.” T-Nation. n.d. 25 Jan. 2012 “The Case for Single Leg Training.” T-Nation. n.d. 24 April 2007

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ABOUT

THE

AUTHOR

Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist, Josh Henkin, has been in the fitness industry for over 20 years. In the early 2000’s Josh began writing articles on new methods of functional and performance training. Over the years Josh has written over 100 articles for various publications including Men’s Health, Experience Life, REPS, and many other fitness publications. Teaching has been a great passion of Josh’s as he has lectured at some of the top fitness conferences in the US. His work has been recognized not just in the US, but all over the world as well. He has lectured in over 10 countries worldwide and is highly sought after for his innovative functional training concepts. 2005 was the year everything changed for Josh as he created his Dynamic Variable Resistance Training (DVRT™) program as an innovative way to look at functional training. Since the inception, DVRT has been taught to top training facilities, personal training businesses, and military units all over the world. In fact, in 2008 Josh was commissioned by the US Army to create an entire fitness program inspired by DVRT for the US Army Special Forces Recruiting Battalion. DVRT also saw the creation of the Ultimate Sandbag™. A specifically designed variables resistance sandbag that met the demands of a highly detailed fitness and performance program. The Ultimate Sandbag completely changed how people perform their fitness and performance programs due to the incredible versatility and effectiveness of both the Ultimate Sandbag and DVRT system. The Ultimate Sandbag has grown from an idea in his garage in 2005 to being used in over 80 countries worldwide.

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