Without wishing to generalise, the nation’s construction workers do have a reputation for baring more than is easy on the eye. And they don’t all look like the man in the cola ad. Which makes the appeal of the latest fitness trend from America somewhat questionable – for the fiterati are flocking to do builders’ workouts in a bid to tone up.
At the Crunch chain of gyms, for instance, the Sacked session invites members to “heave-ho their way to fitness” by hauling around bags of builders’ sand. Elsewhere, the CrossFit commando-style training programme, which has a cult following across the US, incoporates the sandbag-carry, an exercise in which a 40lb bag of sand is carried in any way but over the shoulder for a specified distance. Now Britain is getting the taste for this unlikely alternative to weight-training with the launch of Outdoor Extreme, a tough circuit held in London’s parks in which, in addition to other activities, participants lift sandbags or navigate wheelbarrows full of sand through obstacles.
According to Tommy Matthews, an instructor with Outdoor Extreme, sand is set to become the fitness aid of the summer. He says sandbags are an excellent training aid because they are “heavy, hard to handle and never stay still for long when you’re carrying one. They are great for testing your concentration when physical exhaustion is setting in.” It is for precisely that reason that they have been used for decades in military fitness training. Matthews adds that “large, multi-joint, compound movements such as those achieved through lifting sandbags, beer kegs or pushing wheelbarrows full of sand, are what your body is meant to do and what we prescribe.”
There are other benefits beyond what you get in a weight-training session at the gym. According to Louise Sutton, principal lecturer in health and exercise science at Leeds Metropolitan University, the holding and lifting of either sandbags or medicine balls (which are filled with sand, but are a more manageable size and weight) instead of working out on stationary equipment at the gym, means the body’s smaller and harder to reach muscles are brought into play, helping to improve balance and stability. “Using them can also strengthen the body through a range of motions by working across a number of different planes and through different directions,” says Sutton. “You can bend, twist and lean with them far more effectively to target muscles specific to different sports.”
Many proponents claim that because sandbag training is so demanding, an entire workout need last no longer than 20 minutes. Researchers at McMaster University in Ontario reported in the Journal of Applied Physiology that just six minutes of intense exercise a week, such as that performed in CrossFit-type sessions, can be equal to an hour of daily moderate activity. Such bursts “improved muscle health and performance comparable to several weeks of traditional endurance training,” says Professor Martin Gibala of McMaster’s department of kinesiology.
But before you go tearing off to the DIY store, Sutton has some advice. “Sandbags are effective for a reason: they are heavy and cumbersome,” she says. “Don’t expect to lift a 40lb bag straight away. With poor technique and limited strength, you will leave yourself vulnerable to injury. Start off with a lighter weight and progress until you can haul around the heavy stuff.”
… And Tim Dowling has a go
I have just purchased my latest piece of gym equipment: a 25kg sack of sand. To be more specific, it is silver sand, from Homebase, suitable for light-coloured mortars and concrete mixes and top dressing lawns. There are lots of ways to make working out seem futile, but one of the surest is to imitate exertions that are part of someone’s normal job and achieve nothing by them. Hauling sand may be great for developing strength, stamina and coordination, but if you don’t end up with a garden wall or an area of hard standing on which to erect a shed, it’s hard not to feel like you’ve wasted your time.
None the less, it seems that sand – in bags and wheelbarrows – is the latest fitness fad. At worst this seems like an insult to the builder’s noble trade. At best it’s still a poor deployment of resources: all those people paying good money to push wheelbarrows round parks with Wembley still unfinished?
I planned a more politically correct weekend wheelbarrow workout, distributing manure round my father-in-law’s garden in Cornwall. Despite this efficient combination of fitness, usefulness and obeisance, it did nothing other than make my back hurt. It still aches now, even as I attempt squats and lifts with my new bag of sand in my own back garden. The point of the sandbag is its awkwardness; its shifting weight makes it more difficult to hold up than a dumbbell. I certainly felt awkward, especially being stared at by the builders digging next door’s basement.
My final exercise is something called a get-up, the idea of which seems to be to start lying flat on your back with the sandbag on your chest and end up standing with the sandbag held over your head. This does not go to plan: once the sandbag is on my chest, I can’t move.
My children eventually discover me in this position, and find themselves rather too amused to free me. I suppose it’s one way of keeping them entertained over the holidays.
· Outdoor Extreme www.optimallifefitness.com
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