Sandbag Training For Martial Arts & MMA

Times are changing, the strength and conditioning field is evolving quickly. With these changes the martial arts are finally receiving the attention they deserve. At the same time this is a challenging time as the martial arts has one of the richest history of sports performance training.

Many martial artists have been turned off by mainstream strength and conditioning because the specific needs of these athletes have never been addressed. Typically most of the current research on sports training occurs with team sports. With the rise of mixed martial arts, the entire martial arts community has been receiving more attention
and research.

The Ultimate Sandbag

With all the new advances on training, we are only now learning to appreciate some of the old time methods. Innovative techniques are being looked at mostly as confirmation of training methods that have been used for centuries. One of these in particular is sandbag training.
Most athletes have experienced sandbag training in some form or another because sandbags offered coaches an inexpensive way to train their athletes. However, modern science is giving more validity to this training method and it is quickly becoming a cornerstone of all combative athletes.

Increased Power and Kicking Power

Biomechanics is just confirming what martial artists new for years. All the force for kicks and punches comes from the force the body applies into the ground. There is a specific rotational pattern that the foot creates that helps translate this power up through the entire body and can be seen in amazing kicks and punches.

This has not been trained too greatly in strength training circles because it would be hard to emulate. Sandbags because of their shape and configuration allow us to accomplish this goal. Exercises such as shoveling, half moon snatches, and around the world drills all train the body to focus on explosive movements all created by a pivoting
motion of the foot and hips.

These sandbag drills help teach the athlete how to create force, absorb force, and maintain balance during awkward loading. The rotational drills performed with sandbags will place the athlete in positions they may experience during both training, fighting, and competition. Sandbags may be the perfect sport-specific tool for martial artists.

Better Core Strength

A strong core means the martial arts athlete will be resilient to injury as well as have improved performance. The more stable the core functions the less likely low back and hip injuries will become. A strong core allows transmission of power from the trunk and hips to the extremities to create powerful punches and kicks.

There are numerous methods promoted to help the specific trunk strength found in the martial arts. Yet, only a few are truly effective and even fewer are easy to learn. The goal of a strength program for a martial artist should not only to be effective, but easy enough to learn where they can spend the majority of their skill development to their art and not strength and conditioning.

Sandbags allow the martial artist to have a strong and explosive core because the foundational movements train the posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, and low back) as well as the grip and trunk. Drills such as shouldering (where the sandbag is explosively brought to the shoulder) is more challenging on the body than the classic barbell power clean and yet much easier to learn. Because of the shifting load of the sandbag and the changing form, sandbags require more stabilizers and muscles to lift it efficiently.

Squatting drills such as shoulder, zercher, and bear hug variations not only allow the athlete to perform a better squat, but challenges the core in ways barbells and kettlebells could never. The sandbag allows for variation in placement of the load so that the body has to move while under an awkward load, needing to maintain posture.

Shoulder squatting a 140 pound sandbag can tell a great deal about an athleteʼs core and lower body strength.

Complete Conditioning

The martial artist has a limited amount of time to devote to strength and conditioning. The majority of time must be spent in the development of their skills. That is why identifying efficient means of improving both strength and conditioning are needed to build a complete athlete. Sandbags accomplish this goal, wrestlers has been using sandbags for centuries and in the famous book, “The Encyclopedia of Wrestling Conditioning”, John Jesse states: “The use of heavy sandbags and their large circumference forces the lifter to do
his lifting with a round back instead of the traditional straight back lifting with a barbell. It is this type of lifting that truly develops a strong back. It develops the back and side muscles in movements that are identical to the lifting and pulling movements of wrestling.”

Although wrestling and martial arts have many differences, we could infer some similar benefits for the martial arts athlete. Heavier sandbags can build tremendous hip and trunk strength while smaller sandbags can develop the anaerobic system as well as rotational power. Definitely an important tool as sandbags are the only training implement than can replicate the awkwardness of working against a live opponent.

What Can You Do?

If sandbags are so great the obvious question may be why were they never highly promoted? Old time homemade sandbags often leaked, were impossible to change the load, and did not offer a great deal of versatility. In my own desire to have the benefits of sandbag training I created, the Ultimate Sandbag. The Ultimate Sandbag solves many of those common sandbag problems and with the idea they would be used for strength and conditioning they offer the versatility of over 300 drills and durability to be trained by the most elite athlete.

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Josh Henkin is a graduate of Arizona State University where he received his Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science/Physical Education and was a member of the Men’s Basketball Team. Coach Henkin is the owner of Innovative Fitness Solutions, a premier strength and conditioning company in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is a prominent member of the fitness and sports performance arena.

Tagged as: conditioning, fitness, sandbag training, strength training