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sandbag-clean-and-press

Sandbag Clean and Press

The clean and press is probably the most complete total body exercise in existence. This exercise incorporates explosive hip / back extension with upper body pulling and overhead pressing motions. Many experienced trainers have said that this exercise gives you the most bang for your buck as an athlete.

But you don’t need to spend hundereds of dollars on an olympic weight set to be able to do it. Save your money. Do a sandbag clean and press with your homemade sandbag instead.

Get a Grip

I like to grab folds of the sandbag. This makes the exercise extremely demanding on your grip.

Handles would be a lot easier, but one of the appealing things about training with a sandbag is just how difficult it is to manipulate.

Set Your Stance

To begin the clean and press, set your feet around shoulder width apart.

Gripping the sandbag, look up slighly and make sure your lower back is engaged, slightly arched. Keep your abdominals tight.

Explode Up!

Engaging the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back, first driving from the heels, violently extend the hips, knees, and ankles to drive the sandbag up.

Throw

I like to explosively ‘throw’ the sandbag at this point, releasing my grip and adjust for the catch and press portion of the clean and press.

Catch

Catch the sandbag at around shoulder height. Depending on how you catch it, you might have to adjust your hands. Keep your elbows pointed ahead of you here to reduce shoulder strain.

Press

Press the sandbag up to full arm extension.

Drop It Down, and Repeat!

I like to control the sandbag on the way down, as this requires further effort and makes the exercise more demanding.

How to Use The Sandbag Clean and Press in Your Workouts

  • With a lighter sandbag, you can incorporate this exercise into a conditioning circuit.
    • You could do ten repetitions of the sandbag clean and press, followed by pullups, followed by jumprope high knees, etc. You get the idea.
  • With a heavier sandbag, you can develop strength using the 5 x 5 protocol, performing five sets of five repetitions using the same weight.
    • In this case, be sure to warm up properly, don’t just walk up and try to clean and press 200 lbs!
    • You want to do a few sets of three repetitions with progressively more weight, adding 25 to 45 pounds on each set, until you get to your working weight. At that point you would begin your 5 sets of 5 repetitions. (Click for detailed 5×5 warm up info)

Adding and removing weight from your homemade sandbag is pretty simple when you modify it to be an adjustable sandbag (click for instructions).

Enjoy!