Find Your Strength With This SandBell Workout

The end of the year is a great time for renewal and recommitment to our physical, professional and spiritual goals. While the new year might ring in with messages of short-term weight loss and trendy new diets, the last few months of the year give us space to reset and start taking real steps toward real long-term goals.

When it comes to building confidence, feeling empowered, growing healthier and acting with purpose, there is no goal that checks all the boxes quite like strength training. Making a commitment to build strength, inside and out, is a decision you won’t regret.

The discipline required to create a routine, show up for a workout and properly fuel your body will build tremendous internal strength. The commitment to educate yourself, move with intention and train sustainably to avoid injury will build tremendous external strength. And after just a few months on a strength-training regime, you will find yourself sprinting into the holiday season with a renewed sense of focus, clarity and power.

The best way to start is by using your body. Your body is the most versatile, accessible and functional weight around. Basic push-ups, squats, lunges, planks and sit-ups are the building blocks of strength, and they allow you to put form first by perfecting each motion before adding weight.

When you’re ready to kick it up a notch, adding a SandBell goes a long way toward increasing muscular strength and endurance, without throwing your body off kilter by adding bulky dumbbells. You can move from slow, focused push-ups right into explosive plyometric squats, with easy to grip shifting weight flexible to your every move.

Mix this weighted circuit into your strength-training schedule to see increased gains and accelerated results.

Strength and Agility Workout

Instructions: Choose a SandBell weight that challenges you. Complete six rounds of these six heart-pumping, strength-building moves, performing each move for 30 seconds with 10 seconds of rest between each.

SandBell Butt Kickers

• Begin standing with your feet under your hips, holding a SandBell at your chest.
• Kick your right heel toward your butt, then kick your left heel toward your butt, alternating legs as you run in place.
• Keep your chest lifted as you hold your SandBell at your chest.

SandBell Sumo Squat

• Begin standing with your feet wider than shoulder width, toes turned out. Hold a SandBell in both hands, and let it hang in front of you.
• Sit your hips back and down into a squat, bringing your knees to 90 degrees and keeping your chest lifted.
• Press through your heels to return to stand and repeat.

SandBell Mountain Climber and Push-Up

• Begin in a prone position, with your hands under your shoulders and your toes on the floor, hip-width apart. Make your body one strong plank from heels to head. Balance a SandBell on your upper back/shoulders.
• Perform a few mountain climbers, driving your right knee to your chest, then shooting your left knee toward your chest as you send your right leg back.
• After a few reps, perform a push-up by dropping your chest to elbow height. Try not to let that SandBell slide off your back.
• Repeat, alternating between mountain climbers and push-ups.

SandBell Lunge Jump

• Begin in a standing lunge position, with your right leg back and your left foot in front. Hold a SandBell at your chest.
• Drop your back knee toward the floor until both knees are at 90 degrees. Keep your chest lifted and your front knee directly stacked over your front ankle.
• At the bottom of the lunge, drive up to jump, switching legs so your right leg is in front and your left leg is back, landing in a lunge.
• Repeat, switching legs and landing in a lunge.

SandBell Plank Shoulder Tap

• Begin in a prone position, with your hands under your shoulders and your toes on the floor, hip-width apart. Make your body one strong plank from heels to head. Balance a SandBell on your upper back/shoulders.
• Bring your right hand off the ground and tap your left shoulder. Place it back on the ground.
• Bring your left hand off the ground and tap your right shoulder. Place it back on the ground.
• Alternate hands and brace your core to keep from rotating side to side.

SandBell Speed Jack

• Begin standing with your feet under your hips, arms holding a SandBell at your chest.
• Jump your feet wide as you bring the SandBell up overhead. Quickly bring your arms back down as you jump your feet together.
• Repeat, performing your jacks as quickly as you can.

Photo credit: g-stockstudio, Thinkstock