Conway, AR -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/30/2014 -- Dale Kirksey is an early-retired Texas high school teacher who lives in Arkansas. He spent his summer vacations backpacking in the Rocky Mountains. This required extensive strength and conditioning training to do. He would climb football stadiums with chains around him, and do other exercises. He has been doing functional fitness workouts since the 90's.

In 2007 he bought a set of workout sandbags to use at home for strength training. He used them for 3 years. In those 3 years, he redesigned them to be easier to grab but also be more shifty and unstable for better exercise benefits. The fitness sandbags he came up with look different than any of the other ones being sold now. Their different appearance has a function: to make the sandbag somewhat awkward and more shifty to the body's stabilizer muscles. He accomplished this while making them easier to grab with built-in handles. These handles have been complemented by many users.

In 2011 he began selling his fitness sandbags online. Before that year was out, he had sold some to a pro football team and an ivy league college. He was off and running. Today he sells his product to gyms and individuals worldwide on his website, http://www.workoutsandbags.com.

Rather than making the workout sandbags like a duffel bag like the other guys, he makes them like a giant beanbag with heavy duty rubber handles sewn directly into the bag. These handles allow both a better grip and a better delivery of the shifting sand effect. It is this shifting sand effect that is the greatest benefit of sandbag training. The shifting sand allows the body's prime mover and stabilizer muscles to work together as a team.

"The older you get, the more you need exercise", Kirksey says. He continues, "But there is a right way and a wrong way to exercise. Never do the same exercises or workouts over and over again. And never work out every day. Do it every other day. This allows the body and its muscles to recover and rebuild. Your workout should last half an hour or less. This minimizes the body's exposure to cortisol, its stress hormone. Regardless of what you do, just do something, even if it is go for a walk. Stair or hill climbing is great exercise. And I think that sandbag lifting is the best way to strength train." Whether you do MMA, Tuff Mudder, Crossfit, GoRuck, or have no name for it, you need to use somebody's sandbags for the right strength training that delivers real-world results.

Kirksey has sold his workout sandbags to pro and college football teams, gyms, and individuals around the world. Next he wants to supply the Navy with sandbags for use in cramped spaces such as submarines and ships. But exercise sandbags are a great workout tool for any gym, whether it is military, civilian, or personal. They are safe, quiet, portable, affordable, but most importantly, effective.

Sandbags are 21st century strength training meets 12th century. Here's to your health and fitness!