Tyre 
 

We all know how popular tyre workouts have become. And by good means as well. Flipping a heavy tyre or carrying it for a distance provides a great calorie-burning workout. Moving around a heavy tyre can increase your functional strength and help you in your daily life to mimic such moves.

Kettlebells
 

Kettlebells have been a rage for sometime now and not without reason. They can provide a great whole-body workout. The bell engages all the muscles of the body, particularly the posterior chain of muscles with classic lifts, like kettlebell swing and kettlebell snatch. And one can also work the strength aspect by executing lifts like kettlebell clean and press, double kettlebell front squats and other grinding moves. If one wants to train for power, then there is no alternative to the double kettlebell snatch. Kettlebells provide a dynamic workout, which engages both body and mind and leaves the athlete satisfied.

Sledgehammer 
 

A sledgehammer can come in a variety of weights — 4kg-10kg or more. But don’t get fooled by the lack of “heavy” weight. Wielding a hammer can be quite challenging, especially because of the unequal distribution of weight. Due to this reason it engages your core, arm and shoulder muscles. One can get the best of both tyre and hammer workouts by combining the two.  Tyre smashes are a great way to increase your physical conditioning and grip endurance.
A sledgehammers can also double as a mace and give you shoulder-intensive workout to develop those strong traps and deltoid muscles.

Sleds 
 

Sleds are great functional exercise tools to enhance your pulling and pushing muscles. 
Basic sleds can be stacked with weighted plates and usually a long rope is tied at the front to pull it. A lot of bigger advanced sleds have ‘push poles’ for pushing the same. Sleds do a great job in engaging core and glute muscles and work the grip very well when pulling. They are also low impact and more joint-friendly.

Medicine balls 
 

Medicine balls are football-sized heavy balls weighing anywhere between 2kg and 6/8kg. They provide great dynamic workouts, and help in enhancing power output. Impactful drills like medicine ball slams or medicine ball throws work the fast twitch muscles and teach you to embrace and work the core. One can also work other areas of the body with moves, like medicine ball lunge twist and medicine ball squat press. Medicine balls are best used in combination with other fitness tools.

Sandbags 
 

As the name suggests, these are thick bags filled with sand. One can control the total weight of the load according to his or her strength/fitness levels. Sandbags pose a tremendous challenge to your entire body. Just to place a sandbag on your shoulder and walk is a great exercise for your legs, core and back as the weight is unstable due to the shifting nature of sand in the bag. So the carrier must work very hard to keep the bag in control. Sandbag drills, such as sandbag lunges or sandbag clean and squats, are very popular as part of functional training strategy.

So ditch the machines for a change and try training with these unconventional tools to give your fitness programme that extra edge!

CHECKLIST 

• Make sure you have some training experience before trying your hand with these new drills.

• Before starting any physical activity, make sure you consult a doctor about medical issues or injuries that you may           have.

• Start light and don’t move towards heavy weights too fast.

• Keep hydrating yourself.

• Always warm up before and cool down after a session.

Samrat Sen is a Calcutta-based kettlebell expert and trainer.
If you have any queries about 
kettlebell training or kettlebell sport, write to t2onSunday@abp.in