Sandbag Training
Sandbag training helps build your functional strength and fitness quickly and adds variety to your workouts.
A sandbag is simply a bag with a strong, durable outer shell, fitted with handles on the sides and ends and filled with sand. A sandbag is used instead of weights as resistance.
This inexpensive piece of equipment that you can even make at home can provide you with a challenging all-in-one strength and cardio workout.
Why is sandbag training different?
The main difference between a sandbag and other traditional resistance training equipment is the distribution of weight. The centre of mass is continually shifting. In other words, the sand keeps moving around inside the bag. This provides an unbalanced load that will feel heavier than the bag weighs, making each exercise ever more challenging.
Most sandbag exercises use multiple muscle groups and your stabiliser muscles, which have to work harder to control the weight of the sandbag and the movement of the exercise. Not only does this help to build muscular coordination, grip strength, and core strength, but it can certainly burn a serious amount of calories as well.
Sandbags can be used functionally. Sandbag training helps strengthen, condition, and improve movement patterns with exercises that mimic everyday activities such as picking up children, the laundry basket, or shopping bags.
Types of sandbags
There are two main types of sandbags. The first type is a single bag with a fixed weight that can start from 5kg (10lbs) to 40kg (90lbs) or more. The second is the empty variety, made up of several smaller bags, which you fill yourself. These smaller bags are then inserted within the main sandbag. The advantage of this type of bag is that you can make up any weight you like.
When starting out with sandbag training, we recommend choosing the empty variety. This enables you to increase the weight as you get stronger. It also allows you to increase or decrease the weight depending on the exercise that you are doing.
How much weight should I use for sandbag training?
The amount of weight would depend on the exercises you're going to be doing. Ideally, you want two sandbags, one for lightweight exercises like overhead presses and one for heavyweight exercises like a squat or deadlift.
Start with a lightweight sandbag and become familiar with the movement if you are a beginner. Add more weight to the bag once you feel comfortable with the movement and have good exercise form.
For more information on sandbag training, exercises and workouts, check out Onnit Academy.