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sandbag-training

Sandbag Training:

Heavy Weights on a Budget

Sandbag training is ideal for the athlete on a budget. How else could you get 150 lbs of weight equipment for around $20?

Let’s face it. If you want to get stronger, one way or another, you’re going to have to lift more weight. That could mean altering a bodyweight exercise (from bodyweight squats to one legged squats, for instance). But conventionally, athletes have used weights to gain strength.

Where does that leave the athlete on a budget? Even used dumbbells are around $.50 per pound, so to buy a used 75 pound dumbbell, you would spend around $40.

Sandbag fitness is a great alternative to training with traditional weights. Not only can you buy a 75 pound bag of pea gravel (a great, less messy substitute for sand) for under $4, sandbags are also more challenging to lift and exercise with. Their unstable nature develops strong, adaptable core stability, and when you don’t use handles, just hanging on to the beast causes gains in forearm and grip strength. After you make your sandbag, try out the sandbag clean and press.

Check out how I made homemade sandbag training equipment for around $20:

UPDATE – How to make an adjustable weight sandbag.

What You Need:

  • Large canvas top-load duffel bag from army surplus store, with all handles, straps and pockets cut off. Cost : $16
  • 75 pound bag of pea gravel. Cost : $3.80
  • 2 large zip ties. Cost : $.20
  • A couple feet of duct tape

(Thanks to Ross Enamait’s Sandbag Construction Kit Guide for the pea gravel suggestion!)

Load it Up

  • Open up the bag of pea gravel and dump it into the sandbag.

Tie it Up

  • Tie up the bag with the two zip ties, leaving some space in the bag for the gravel to move around.
  • This makes the sandbag harder to lift and will give you some folds to grab on to.

Cut it Off

  • Cut off the part of the zip ties that has been pulled through.

Wrap it Up

  • Take some duct tape and wrap it around the cut zip ties, so that you don’t get cut.

That’s It!

Now you have made yourself a 75 pound sandbag training device.

Lift it, carry it, throw it, again and again…

Stay tuned for detailed sandbag fitness ideas…