Sandbag Strength Training
The key to a sandbag workout’s versatility is the simplicity of the sandbag itself – a heavy weight that shifts in complex and unpredictable ways. The more precisely defined the role of a piece of exercise equipment is, the more limited the number of uses you can put it to. A stair climbing machine, for example, can only be used for climbing stairs – but sandbag training can be done in a multitude of ways, from simple weightlifting to dynamic exercises involving walking, running, or even climbing, all with the same sandbag.
Certain exercises with your sandbag are best adapted to specific purposes, though here again, there is a lot of flexibility and room for individual styles and needs. Strength training is best accomplished with different exercises than conditioning, for example; this article takes a look at some of the most effective sandbag strength training techniques, but there are many, many more awaiting your discovery.
Sandbags are better suited to building real muscular strength (rather than a few “display muscles”) than most exercise equipment because their shifting bulk forces your body to use its entire set of muscles to compensate. In short, the fact that sandbag training uses an unbalanced, often lopsided weight is an advantage for a strength trainer who is serious about gaining true physical fitness, so just using sandbags as opposed to barbells or the like is a major step in the right direction.
The most obvious method to use your sandbag to build strength is to lift it overhead with both hands, from a standing start. The faster you boost it up, the more effective this will be at building muscles, although as usual, you should not do the exercise so quickly that you lose control and possibly injure yourself.
Another good method is to place the sandbag on your shoulder while lying flat on your back on the floor. Rolling onto the opposite side, use your arm and other muscles to lift yourself to your feet while keeping the sandbag in place and moving as slowly as possible. Once you have completely risen to your feet, lie back down again, keeping your body as straight as possible, then shift the sandbag to the opposite shoulder and rise to your feet using the other arm for leverage. Alternate until you have completed a full set.
Squats, lunges, and lifts, either involving raising the sandbag from close to floor level, or with the sandbag already raised to apply muscle-building stress to the arms, chest, and back, are all effective methods of sandbag strength training and are almost infinite in variety. Your sandbag weight should be arranged so that you can do around five repetitions of a specific exercise before needing to take a brief rest. Lifting and extending your sandbag is the key to sandbag training that will build strength throughout your body, increasing your muscle size and preparing you better for real-world physical challenges than the artificial muscles built up exercise machine repetitions will.
