Medicine Ball Sandbag Shouldering

How to do it

Place a sandbag on the floor in front of you. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, squat down and wrap your arms around the bag. Drive through your legs to lift the sandbag to your lap, then reposition your grip underneath it. Explosively extend your hips and knees to pull the bag up and guide it onto one shoulder. Stand tall, then lower the bag back to the ground and repeat, alternating shoulders if desired.

1. 1Drive through your hips and squeeze your glutes at the top; you should feel them powering the movement
2. 2Extend the joint under control; you should feel the working muscle contract without locking out
3. 3Move deliberately and with control rather than relying on speed or momentum

Common mistakes

• ×Don't feel pain or strain in unrelated areas; adjust your load or range if you do
• ×Don't hyperextend or lock out your joints; avoid using momentum to complete the movement
• ×Don't use momentum or rush through the reps, quality trumps quantity

Muscles worked

The medicine ball sandbag shouldering mainly works the glutes, quads, and hamstrings, with the lower back and calves assisting.

• GlutesPrimary
• QuadsPrimary
• HamstringsPrimary
• Lower BackSupport
• CalvesSupport