The One Accessory to Add to Your Training for Improved Back Endurance
Want to improve your back endurance so that it can sustain long, grindy workouts without blowing up? Look no further! Adding in this one accessory piece to your training can help you improve tremendously if you suffer from a lack of posterior chain stamina.
What is it? Heavy bearhug sandbag holds or carries!
Why Bearhug Sandbag Holds and Carries?
Bearhug sandbag holds/carries provide athletes with a wide range of benefits, like mental fortitude and grit, as well as physical adaptations that happen with regular sandbag carries. That’s why we program them frequently in our competitive online programs.
Physical Adaptations from Sandbag Accessories
Holding the sandbag in a bearhug will force you to engage your abdominal muscles and will turn on those spinal erectors to help you stabilize. All of this stabilizing will help train your body to have a stronger back that resists excessive flexion…without a ton of heavy loading!
This has a massive transfer to movements like high rep deadlifts where, once fatigue sets in, extensive flexion creeps in and back endurance goes out the window. The bearhug sandbag (or any odd object) hold/carry challenges and strengthens your stabilizers muscles so that they become bulletproof.
Any movement with high rep hip flexion in CrossFit will benefit from this training piece since strengthening the stabilizer muscles surrounding the core will help keep an athlete’s back locked into position for longer periods of time.
Plus, sandbag holds/carries will yield other benefits as well! Not only does it require just one piece of equipment but your grip strength will improve as well as your mental toughness. Try adding these finishers into your training:
Option 1
400 Meter Bearhug Sandbag Carry
(heavy; don’t allow yourself to set the sandbag down more than 3 times)
Option 2
Six sets of:
Against a 60 second clock, perform a max distance carry of:
30 seconds Sandbag Bearhug Hold (heavy)
30 Seconds Sandbag Bearhug Carry x Max Distance
Rest 30 seconds
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