My Sandbag Get Up

So, I escaped from Sacramento, leaving part of my Kettlebell setup behind. When I got back to Vermont, I was kettlebell-less. That kind of sucked since I really was starting to get attached to doing get-ups. Low ceilings in my basement require weight that I can put overhead that doesn't go over the top of my hand, which rules out dumbbells.

So, what do I do?

Okay, this is all build-up. I've done sandbag get up work for quite a while before I bought my latest bag. I've modified my form a few times. Actually, I took the words of a semi-wise man to heart and not gotten terribly stuck on the form of the get-up. Why complicate things? Put a weight in your hand(s) and get up. So, after screwing around with this a little, keeping in mind the low ceiling thing, I came up with my way to do them and to the best of my knowledge, HIGHLY UNIQUE



No, really! I liked it enough to share here.

I start out with the bag laying on me, half of the weight on my stomach, the other half over my shoulder (don't get too fussy and precise here) . I wrap an arm around the bag and hug it close to my body. Like this...

Since the ceiling is just barely 7', I don't have the clearance to do the get-up with the weight overhead. Oh well, there's some other fun stuff ahead on this one. After all, this is the BWF's and here we don't dwell on what we don't have. We just find ways to work around that kind of stuff.

Here's part of that fun: hug that fucker close tight enough so none of the sand can slide down to the bottom of the bag. Now, start getting up. Chances are, you'll need to thrust the hips upward to get up.

When I get up, I try to stand up STRAIGHT. Sometimes I do, sometimes I get tired...

Now, I may have sounded like a form nazi with bag placement when I got started but this is where I gets fun. If you squeezed hard enough and got up smoothly, then that sand is still over the shoulder. Good bicep work isn't it? Now, as you reverse and lay back down, that weight is going to sit on the neck. So, you'll have to keep the neck really stiff to hold it in place. When you lay down, chances are you'll eventually be breathing hard and that other half of the sand on your stomach is going to get heavy as you try to breathe. It's just more incentive to get your ass moving.

That's the way that I like to do get-ups with the sandbag. Like I said earlier, there's no wrong or right way. This just happens to be my way. Don't ever get stuck on specifics. Find a way to work around and get a good workout!