Here is a great example of a sandbag training circuit that really burns fat and improve your grip strength. Doing sandbag complex type circuit workouts will really increase fat burning and give you a high intensity workout within a small time frame. You no longer have to spend hours working out. Run through a circuit like this 3 times and you’ll be golden.
Not all training sandbags are created equal, to borrow a very well-worn but often appropriate phrase, and picking the correct configuration for your sandbag can help you achieve the exercise goals you are aiming for. The differences are not necessarily huge, from a visual standpoint, but you will be able to feel the divergence between these sandbag variants when you are carrying out certain exercises.
The first thing to consider is sand size. When you are constructing the internal bags which will be contained inside a duffel bag, the size of these bags will depend on what type of sand you use. Very fine sand has less air space than larger grains of sand, and a given volume of it is therefore denser and heavier. A small bag of fine sand will weigh the same as a noticeably larger bag of coarse sand. If you have a large duffel bag, then you may want coarser sand so that more of the interior is filled with bags of this substance.
On the other hand, fine sand (assuming that space is left in the bag, with about 25% empty space being optimal most of the time), tends to make a floppier bag as well. Since it occupies less space, fine sand can make a more concentrated “center of mass”. More of it can fit into a small area, meaning that training sandbags with bags of fine sand in them will be potentially more challenging than those with coarse sand, since you will be dealing with the shifting of a more concentrated weight.
The tightness with which you pack the sand into the individual internal bags, and the amount of space these bags occupy inside the duffel, will both have an important effect on how the sandbag performs. You usually do not want extremely tight packing. In both cases, this will make the sandbag more stable, firmer, and less able to give you the all-round workout it is supposed to. On the other hand, it is also possible for the sandbag to be too loosely packed, in which case it will become nearly impossible to handle because it will simply wrap around your arms and dangle freely towards the floor, regardless of position.
A long, slender sandbag tends to be somewhat easier to handle than a more compact one, because it is easier to control it by draping. You are usually not looking for ease of handling, of course – it is the very instability and awkwardness of the training sandbag that makes it so useful for developing all of your muscles and leaving no weak points in your overall level of fitness.
As anyone even slightly familiar with modern exercise techniques will know, there are two very different approaches to exercise with two highly divergent goals. Strength training is meant to build muscle mass, increasing your physical power and bulking out the most critical muscular areas. This training usually involves weightlifting as well as lunges and similar exercises. However, it is poorly adapted to reducing your weight – in fact, you will probably gain weight, since muscle tissue is heavy.
Aerobic exercises are meant to strengthen the heart, burn off excess fat (leading to a trimmer, leaner body), and expand the lung capacity. This builds your health directly, and also has the benefit of increasing your stamina, meaning that you will be able to use the set of muscles you have built longer before you begin to succumb to fatigue. Sandbag workouts are not only good for the first kind of training, but for the second as well, demonstrating the versatility of this exercise technique.
Using training sandbags for aerobics and similar types of conditioning is carried out in a somewhat more passive fashion than strength building. You should not be lifting the sandbag and throwing it around like a barbell or set of dumbbells while using it for aerobics. Instead, the goal is to enhance regular aerobic exercises by adding the shifting weight of sandbag to them, making your heart and lungs work harder to supply a wider range of muscles with blood and oxygen.
Walking and running can both be made more effective for quick, thorough cardiovascular workouts by using training sandbags during your laps. Whether you are walking or running outdoors, on an indoor circuit, or on a mechanical treadmill, putting a sandbag on your shoulder will greatly increase the effect of the exercise.
With that shifting, sliding weight to balance, every muscle in your body will become involved in your jog or walk, and your leg muscles will build faster in response to needing to carry the extra weight. When you run without the sandbag, you will be astonished at how fast you can skim over the ground without it.
Squats and similar exercises can also be turned into more potent fitness tools by the addition of training sandbags. Even though, strictly speaking, these are not sandbag exercises, clasping the bag against your chest, holding it on alternate shoulders, draping it over your shoulders like a yoke, or holding it out at arm’s length will all boost the effects of your workout session.
You will see better results faster, your heart and lung health will be augmented more, and you will tone dozens of less frequently used muscles at the same time as you get the other benefits. You will also burn more fat with the extra effort of carrying the back – yet another proof that sandbags are among the most useful exercise devices currently available.
Superficially, there might seem to be little difference between sandbag exercises and kettlebell exercises in terms of effectiveness. After all, both of them belong to the family of “instability-based” exercise devices – those whose unusual shape challenges you to use a far greater range of muscles manipulating them during a workout, and which therefore offer an intense, extremely thorough muscle building program that doesn’t leave the weak points in your musculature that more regular exercises tend to produce.
Instability exercises are based on the well-proven idea that an asymmetrical, shifting weight produces far better exercise results, because it forces your body to compensate and work out dozens of accessory muscles that otherwise would not see use. Using well-balanced, symmetrical exercise equipment such as dumbbells or exercise bikes causes you to develop only a very specific set of muscles, leaving many of your thews flabby or understrength.
However, there is a critical difference between kettlebells and sandbags for exercise purposes. Kettlebells have their weight distributed asymmetrically, since they consist of a bulbous weight section attached to a looped handle that you grasp to move them around. However, although they are asymmetrical, their weight remains predictable. The heaviest point is always the heaviest point, and the handle is always in the same place relative to the kettlebell’s center of mass.
In practice, this means that many people end up using kettlebells in a very regular, repetitive fashion. Because the position of the center of mass is constant, you can swing or lift a kettlebell in a way that will use only one or two muscle groups. These, of course, are also the easiest ways to use the kettlebell. Without even realizing it, your body is likely to seek the path of least resistance, just as water always flows downhill. This will eliminate the advantages of the kettlebell unless you are constantly vigilant for this tendency, and take active steps to prevent it.
A kettlebell can be used for instability exercises, but it takes constant thought and effort to do so. It’s all too easy to slip into the rut of just doing mechanical, identical repetitions of a specific movement because this is the easiest thing to do, particularly if your mind wanders.
On the other hand, a sandbag is a loose, limber object, whose center of mass changes constantly as the bags of sand slide around inside the duffel bag in response both to kinetic energy supplied by your limbs and the pull of gravity as the bag changes position. In effect, the sandbag “keeps you honest” because it cannot be used in a stable, repetitious manner – you will find yourself carrying out instability exercises whether you are consciously trying to do them or not.
Sandbag exercises are more certain of giving you the thorough, well-rounded exercise that will quickly boost your strength and fitness, and prevent weak points, than kettlebell exercises are. In conclusion, it is possible to declare that for instability exercise purposes, kettlebells are excellent, but sandbags are even better.
Fat loss is a goal of many people who are getting involved in fitness, with workouts viewed as a way both to trim excess weight and to build a useful, healthy set of muscles at the same time. Losing fat and getting a trimmer, leaner physique serves several very important functions. For one thing, it makes you more attractive and dignified. For another, it lessens the number of weight related health problems you are likely to undergo and literally adds years to your life. Sandbag training is an excellent method for trimming your weight for several reasons.
Other exercise methods can also help with fat loss (as will eating a proper diet – which is not, as many think, a starvation diet, which may prompt the body to stop losing weight as an emergency measure because it believes you are in danger of starving; though this lies outside the scope of this article). All exercise will help somewhat with weight loss, since you are using energy in order to carry it out, and if your energy output exceeds your food intake, you will soon begin to experience fat loss.
Sandbag training is especially good because it is so thorough. A properly constructed sandbag is unstable, with a center of weight that shifts constantly from place to place within the bag, and which continually “tries” to slip from your grasp while you are moving it through exercise movements. It is precisely this awkwardness that makes sandbag exercises so effective in nearly all areas of fitness training.
Lifting a sandbag or moving it through exercise movements cause the sand inside to shift irregularly, pushed by kinetic energy and tugged by gravity. There is no such thing as a perfect movement during sandbag training; you will need to compensate for sudden, almost random shifts in weight and balance that are different each time you lift, move, or position the bag. This has the effect of working out all of your muscles, not just a few selected groups.
Needless to say, this is great for fat loss as well. Muscles burn energy as they are worked, and the intense workout provided by sandbag training represents an even more concentrated use of energy than regular exercise. Your body uses dozens of muscles to carry out each motion, not just three or four major ones, and all of these extra muscles also need chemical energy to operate.
You can use a sandbag for weight loss without even carrying out actual sets of exercises. Lift the sandbag and move it steadily from one position to another, using your muscles to keep the shifting bulk under control as you do so. Just doing this will burn plenty of fat, while the effect can amplified even further by carrying out aerobic exercises such as walking or squats while holding the sandbag in various positions.
The barbell has so long been established as the iconic king of fitness and strength that other weight training devices, such sandbags, look uncouth and strange by comparison. The first thing that springs to mind when someone mentions weightlifting, or even just strength training, is some immensely powerful athlete lifting a colossal set of barbells over their head. Training sandbags, however, offer advantages which the much-famed barbell and its small counterpart, the dumbbell, cannot equal.
Barbells undoubtedly build muscles, but the problem is that they only build the set of muscles which is used for lifting them. Since barbells can only be lifted in certain ways, this means that some muscles will never be used at all while lifting them, while others will be exercised only peripherally. Those who have developed their muscles with barbells may discover that their sinews are astonishingly weak when they try to use them in certain directions.
These weak points or flaws in your muscular development can be quite serious. Their effect can range from inconvenience – if you find you are unable to shift a heavy object that you can only pull or push from a certain direction, for example – to danger – if you suddenly shift a weight that you are carrying onto a set of muscles that cannot cope with, potentially wrenching muscles, joints, and even your back.
Because they are sloppy and shift their weight constantly as you manipulate them, training sandbags, despite have less advertising time than the flashier barbells, force you to work out all your muscles when you exercise with them, not just some. Thus, they tend to fill in weak places in your muscular development quickly, leaving you all round better able to cope with physical tasks and challenges.
Essentially, the biggest difference between barbell workouts and sandbag training is that the barbells are likely to leave gaps in your muscular development that sandbags will not leave. Barbells are well-balanced weights which travel along predictable, smooth paths when you apply force to them, which means that they will always use exactly the same set of muscles to perform a specific exercise.
Sandbag training uses sandbags which are by definition and design anything but well-balanced. Their weight is almost always distributed asymmetrically within their volume, and this asymmetry shifts as you lift them, move them, and generally subject them to varying amounts of kinetic energy and allow gravity to work on them from different directions. Thus, they are constantly threatening to move off course in very different and very unpredictable ways.
This forces your muscles to constantly readjust in new ways as well, using every muscle in your body thoroughly and leaving no “gaps” in your overall fitness. Clearly, sandbag training is superior to barbells for producing well-rounded muscular development and reaching your peak potential strength, fitness, and endurance. Barbells produce “show muscles” around a series of weak angles and underdeveloped sinews, while sandbag training produces a seamlessly powerful physique.
At first glance, most people think that exercise is best done in a series of smooth, even repetitions, such as pedaling steadily on an exercise bicycle, jogging on a treadmill, and so on. The real fact is that although these exercises will increase your fitness, they will not unleash your full potential in either strength or endurance.
Their very regularity narrows their effect to a certain set of muscle groups. It is for this reason that most fitness enthusiasts are unable to match the combination of strength and endurance that farm workers, sailors, soldiers, and ranch hands often exhibit. The artificial limits of stable, unvarying exercises produce essentially “plasticized” fitness results. This is not the case with instability exercises, however, such as sandbag workouts.
Instability workouts involve using a weight which is lopsided or uneven in some way to force more of your muscles to work at each movement. Kettlebells, which are basically a large rounded weight with a loop-like handle, are one example of instability-based exercise equipment. Even more effective (and cheaper), sandbags also provide many of their unique fitness benefits because they are unstable and asymmetrical. The weight inside them will shift as you move them in unpredictable ways, compelling you to use a broader range of muscles to keep them in your grasp and move them where you want them.
The benefits ‘of instability exercise such as sandbag workouts include that they involve many more muscles than the standard, “symmetrical” exercises. Making a motion on a rowing machine will use precisely the same set of muscles in precisely the same way, over and over again. However, as the bags of sand shift and slide within their duffel bag container during sandbag exercises, with the weight changing unpredictably, you will use a different set of muscles each time you lift the sandbag, even if each lift is theoretically just another repetition of the same exercise.
Besides the thoroughness of muscular involvement noted above, instability exercises cause a more intense workout as well. Sandbag training works your muscles constantly because your body needs to adjust every second in order to keep the shifting bulk under control, balanced, and held where you want it. It is precisely because an instability exercise device is difficult to control that it works out your muscles more vigorously than the tame, easily controlled forces of an expensive exercise machine.
Those who work out with instability exercises will find their muscular strength and overall endurance increasing more rapidly than if they were using the limited muscle building of a gym. Their muscle tone will also be developed in a far better-rounded manner – no muscles will be left weak and underdeveloped. As such, your fitness will reach higher levels faster, and you will be better able to cope with the demands of actual physical labor and action as well.
I did a short sandbag workout where I modified the sandbag to cut the weight in half so I can focus on my technique.
2 Rounds @ 30 lbs
8 Deadlifts
8 Bent Over Rows
8 Power Cleans
8 Front Squats
8 Shoulder Presses
8 Back Squats
It wasn’t very tough because the weight wasn’t all that heavy. I’m still however getting used to the barbell to sandbag translation.
Where strength training aims to build muscle mass and create the most muscular body possible given the level of training and the general capacity of the person undergoing the training, conditioning training is designed to increase your aerobic fitness (heart and lungs) and increase your endurance. In short, strength will allow you to do some physical feat, while conditioning will increase the length of time you will be able to do it. Sandbag exercise can be used for conditioning, too, once again showing how useful and flexible this simple but effective fitness device can be.
Sandbags are well suited to conditioning training, to build your endurance, because they involve your whole body in the exercise process. This can easily serve to increase both your heart strength and lung capacity, depending on the sandbag exercise you choose.
When you are conditioning yourself with sandbags, you want to focus much less on actually lifting the sandbag or throwing it around in space, and instead use it to add weight to various aerobic style exercises that you are carrying out. This will enhance the effectiveness of the exercises by a considerable margin, while keeping the focus on building tone and endurance rather than muscle mass.
Walking and squats are the main sandbag training exercises for conditioning, though the adventurous (and highly fit) may want to try throwing in some running or sprinting as well, to boost the effect on heart, lungs, and stamina. The key to a successful conditioning session with this unusual but practical piece of fitness equipment is to work in several short sets of around five to seven minutes, with a one to two minute break in between them.
During the set, you should never put down the sandbag, even if you pause to catch your breath for a second. The sandbag should always be working its magic on your muscles, prompting your heart to beat faster and your lungs to expand with oxygen, during a given set. You can put the sandbag down during your brief rest periods, of course. Carry out as many sets as you can without bringing yourself to total exhaustion – probably three to four for a reasonably fit person, and more for an athletic type.
You can open a typical set by holding the sandbag against your chest and walking for the first part of the set. Then, shift it onto your shoulders and start doing squats. Do a set of squats with the sandbag on each of your shoulders, then held in your arms in front of you. Alternate squats with more walking, with the sandbag either held against you or held between extended arms, or raised to your shoulder. Sprinting is best done with the sandbag on your shoulder or held against you, since running with the sandbag held out at arm’s length could affect your balance.
Sandbag workouts are a great way to develop whole-body fitness, and offer a versatility that few other exercise techniques can match. Unlike the basically fixed exercises offered by most highly expensive exercise equipment – you cannot vary the routine offered by a rowing machine very much, for instance – sandbags can be used in a huge range of situations, including while standing, lying, walking, sitting, and so on. Better yet, their weight shifts constantly as the dry particles of sand slide around inside the bag, creating a constant challenge for your muscles and ensuring that your workout is truly thorough.
Making your own sandbag for exercise is fairly easy and points up another advantage of this exercise technique – it’s a lot cheaper than most of the others. A decent quality exercise machine can set you back anywhere from three hundred dollars to several thousand, and if it breaks, then you may need to pay for its repairs if the warranty period is past.
A sandbag, on the other hand, is made out of very thrifty materials, including a bag, some sand, and some way to tie or fasten the bag shut. If it breaks, your replacement expenses will be minimal, and you can clean up the mess with a dustpan and broom, rather than hauling a three hundred pound wreck to the nearest recycling center. In short, sandbags are effective and cheap, so sandbag training is a great method both for those who are serious about getting fit and those who want to do so without taking out a second mortgage on their home to fund their exercise equipment.
To make a sandbag for your own sandbag workouts, there are several factors you need to keep in mind. One is that the bag needs to be flexible in order to give you a proper workout, since it is the flopping and shifting of the bag that forces you to use every muscle in your body to keep control of the sandbag while you’re exercising. If you pack the bag so tightly that it is hard, then you might as well just lift an ordinary barbell or a big chunk of wood – it will have lost its unique sandbag advantages.
You also want to make a weight that is challenging, but will not give you a hernia – in short, if you can adjust the weight of the bag, so much the better. One very viable option is to make a number of smaller bags, which you then place inside a small duffel bag and use this while exercising. In this way, you can adjust the weight quickly by adding or removing individual bags of sand.
Cheap sand can be bought at most hardware stores if you do not have your own supply, and you can then place this into heavy-duty garbage bags bought from the same source. If necessary, you can put two or three bags inside each other. Tie off the bag securely a little way above the sand (leave a bit of excess space, to allow the sand to shift properly), and cut off any excess plastic beyond the tie-off.
Reinforce with duct tape and you will soon have a number of small sandbags that you can add to or remove from your duffel bag for weight adjustment. You can make the smaller bags weigh either five or ten pounds apiece, depending on your fitness at the moment. If you are strong and fit already, then ten pound bags are appropriate, while five pound bags are better if you are a little out of shape. Be honest with yourself, since your goal is to improve your physical condition, not destroy it with a hernia or slipped disc because you’re trying to “prove something” too soon.
As can be seen, making your own sandbag for invigorating sandbag workouts is cheap and easy, and if you opt for this method, you will soon be sporting the set of muscles you desire.
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