Summer to me has always been synonymous with action and fun activity ever since I was a young sand devil when I used to have free reign to roam the back bays, beaches and salt marshes of southern New Jersey from sun up to sun down. My mom would dress me up like some northern version of Huck Finn complete with straw hat and out the door I would go rain or shine often with faithful dog in tow for a self directed day of non stop activity.
I guess you could classify my folks as Free Range Parents before this label became such a modern controversial topic. Thank you mom and dad for letting me be a kid who was allowed to take reasonable risks, experience failures, get dirty and thus is not afraid of their own shadow, willing to take chances, deal with adversity and actually interact with people in a socially productive manner!
It’s funny how things in life come about full circle, since I still enjoy the simplicity of actively visiting the same areas and doing the same activities as when I was a kid more or less, but now I am armed with the knowledge of turning my “play” into incredibly productive workouts that are fun and don’t waste my precious time.
Legendary rockabilly crooner Eddie Cochran used to wail that “There Aint No Cure For The Summertime Blues.” (I dig the later cover versions The Who and Joan Jett did of this song the best as they infused some rock octane into their versions, however.)
Well here’s a cure for those summertime blues if you are feeling sluggish and want to stay mentally and physically upbeat, productively challenged and keep those fitness gains rolling – A total body beach workout of ultimate sandbag clean and presses combined with bear crawls.
I absolutely love training on the beach as the sounds, scenery, smell and feel of the sand under my feet are so incredibly stimulating that intense workouts like this seem like a fun and challenging game. And I can get some fishing in to boot and hopefully catch some tasty summer flounder or net some mean old blue claw crabs afterwards!
Learn why crawls are an important component to productive fitness including a brief bear crawl tutorial:
My training is all about performing the maximum amount of sane, sustainable and results rich exercise in the least amount of time without spending hours haunting gyms doing tedious hours of sappy, ineffective, media endorsed, do-nothing exercises. Like the majority of the workouts and exercises I perform, preach and teach – there is not a muscle group that is not hit or called into action when you do this total body workout.
Why design a workout whereby your body is called upon to recruit the most muscles? Because you position yourself for maximum fitness gains and caloric burn that will pay you huge fitness dividends for the short time invested. In other words, maximal muscle recruitment means a greater total body metabolic effect translating into way more calories burned during your workout as well as keeping your metabolism stoked as you enjoy enhanced caloric burn up to 48 hours after these types of workouts. That’s a pretty good deal for your valuable time invested.
If you train in a productive and meaningful manner and eat like a sane, rational adult with a modicum of self control , you really don’t have to engage in long, drawn-out, boring training sessions. Nor do you have to starve yourself on some over hyped hollywood type fitness phony’s unsustainable diet and mindless movement routine throughout the week to get fantastic fitness results.
Training with sandbags will challenge your body in an incredibly productive way that forces your body to experience fantastic fitness dividends due to their unstable, shifting nature whereby your body must overtly and subtlety compensate by calling into recruitment muscles you rarely use.
So chase that nasty fat right off your body while priming your body for great strength, conditioning and mobility gains with this combination ultimate sandbag and bear crawl beach blast workout!
How The Workout Is Performed
Do 5 sandbag clean and presses with a challenging weight
Immediately perform bear crawls up and back for your fixed distance
These two exercises will be performed back to back which will constitute a workout round.
See how many rounds you can perform in 10 minutes
Here’s the Sandbag presses and bear crawl total body beach workout:
TIPS and GUIDELINES:
Do a brief and meaningful total body warmup before diving in to more intense workouts and activities like this beach workout.
Perform each exercise safely with good form
Pick a fixed distance to perform your bear crawls. Try starting at 25 crawl paces and adjust either doing more or less depending on your fitness level. Keep in mind that it is way tougher doing these crawls in the sand as opposed to a uniform surface environment due to the shifting instability of the terrain.
Rest as much as you need between rounds, but keep it challenging
If your form starts to falter – stop and rest a little bit more between rounds to ensure proper technique
Keep the exercise area free of obstructions and always pay attention to your surroundings
Kick off the shoes and train with your little piggies in the sand. You will benefit more as you exercise in the unstable and constantly shifting sand. In most scenarios, there are many advantages to training barefoot or with minimal footwear.
As you get better, you can increase the time to 15 minutes or experiment with the size of the sandbag, the amount of clean and press repetitions or bear crawl distance, but change one variable at a time and don’t over extend yourself in your quest to further challenge yourself.
The More Things Change…….
I still enjoy roaming and exploring the same beaches and tributaries of the Atlantic Ocean just like when I was a white haired little beach termite except now I can better focus and collect my thoughts on life during my walkabouts and plan incredibly productive and fun workouts that aren’t boring with simple fitness tools and timeless fitness principles at my disposal.
Things sure have come full circle since I was a kid – Even my hair is white again!
Stay Well! Take Action! Be Consistent! Train and Eat Smart! Get Rid of the Drains and Pains in Your Life! Value your loved ones and friends and get out and have some active, safe fun!
Your Salty Pal on the beach,
Mark Mellohusky (Mellow – Husky) Mellow as in laid back and husky like the dog
I Eat T-Bone Steaks And Train With Sandbag Weights!
Seven Stars Fitness