Last updated 21:18, Thursday, 29 May 2008

IT’S NOT often I get a compliment, but to my surprise it felt worthwhile writing these articles each week when Dr Mark Bellamy, the owner of the powerbag, called me to tell me how much he enjoyed the articles I produced on powerbag training.

I almost feel obliged now to pay homage to the wonder of the powerbag again.

It surprises me even now how little is known of the powerbag and its benefits. In a world where the most useless of inventions are being promoted, the powerbag stands tall as one of the best.

I sometimes sit there on the yellow brick road wishing I had a brain to create a wonderful piece of kit like this but unfortunately I was last in the queue for brains.

How many of you have picked up an uneven weight and fought with it just to keep it still? Some of you probably haven’t. Think harder though, have you ever picked up a bag of compost or a bag of cement?

The hardest items to pick up are the ones which create an uneven weight balance, not the items that work one part of the body but create a stress on the whole body.

Making the full body work harder is what extreme fitness and conditioning is all about. The conventional barbell exercises have a balance, they don’t allow you to fight to maintain that balance.

Its only now that the wonderful crossfit is opening peoples eyes to that fact. Only recently I seen a crossfit workout where they purposefully placed an uneven weight on the barbell which meant the client had to work all that harder to maintain balance.

Maintaining balance needs a great amount of core stability. Having a strong core is the backbone of everything fitness.

I’m not a hater of barbells and dumbells, in fact I think they were one of the best inventions the fitness industry has seen, however I do believe with more emphasis being placed on core stability the powerbag offers that better alternative.

Don’t believe me? Well perform a clean and press with a barbell, nice and smooth wasn’t it? Now perform the same exercise with the powerbag, oh dear you seem out of breath and you looked as if you were working that bit harder.

This is what training is all about, working that bit harder to get the gains you want in a quicker time. I swear with six weeks of training on the powerbag to develop the perfect clean and press the barbell will seem like a walk in the park.

Powerbags should be every gym’s delight and would play a huge part in benefiting any sports team, emergency service or the day to day gym goers.

Every sports centre, gym or leisure club should have them and if you don’t already know what they can do then visit www.performt.com and this site devised by Dr Mark Bellamy will give you the chance to understand the benefits the powerbag can bring.