Photo Credit: Mountain Tactical Institute
In last month’s Mountain Fitness installment, we highlighted the fact that you don’t need to break the bank or get overly complicated when it comes to your mountain or backcountry hunting preparation. With a little creativity and a few simple pieces of equipment—many you likely already own—it is entirely possible to design and implement an efficient (aka time worthy) and effective (aka field applicable) training program at minimal cost.
The one piece of equipment recommended in that article that is without a doubt worth the investment is a sandbag. The versatility of these simple tools cannot be overstated. If you don’t own one or have access to one at the gym you frequent, buy one. Today.
The most obvious use-case is as an easy-to-adjust and measure weight-system for rucking/hiking but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. From multi-modal circuit training to power and strength training a sandbag can be utilized within a variety of scenarios to produce backcountry applicable adaptations that will get you mountain ready year in and year out.
When we had Rob Shaul, Head Coach and Founder of the Mountain Tactical Institute, on the Beyond the Kill podcast back in May, he went so far as to say that sandbags are one of the most important training tools they employ with all of their mountain athletes. Given their extensive background within the mountain, military and law enforcement fields this is no small endorsement.
So with this in mind, we wanted to expand upon last month’s column and showcase some of the creative ways you can utilize a sandbag to build a mountain worthy chassis by sharing MTI’s “5 Foundational Sandbag Exercises” that they have found, through experience, to be the most effective for mountain and tactical athletes.
Whether it’s at the gym, at home, or in the backyard each of these exercises deserves a place in your program. These are a great way to stay sharp and get a solid but efficient training session in while juggling the demands of home, work and pre-hunt prep before the bulk of the Western Canadian and US seasons kick-off. Stay alpha…
