Sandbag Training

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Sandbag Training

Postby prenna » Mon Jan 26, 2004 10:08 pm

This workout is from a website that I get my bodyweight exercise routines from (http://www.trainforstrength.com). I think it's a little out of my league at the moment but I will build up to it one day. Anyway, I thought I'd share it here:

Equipment:

Make sure you have two cones (or something you can put on the ground, like a water bottle), 3 different weight bags: 60-75, 150, 200-pounders*, Army Ruck or backpack that is strong enough to tow the 150-pounder with (I use an old white belt and caribeener to attach the bag to my Ruck), 100 pound dumbbells* or something equivalent to grip and hold, dips and pull-up bars, a big water bottle for chugging precious fluid before, during, and after the workout, and a partner to help you carry some of this stuff around.

This routine is probably best done at a local park that has playground equipment already set up and a nice open field to tow the bags around in.

*The weights for these bags were determined by my own body weight of 200 pounds at the time. Make similar adjustment according to body weight and strength levels.

The Workout:

200-pound bag: 30 second hold. Straddle the bag with your legs on either side, work your arms underneath/around it and, using your legs and keeping your back straight, drive your shoulders towards the sky holding the bag to your chest. Have your partner place a cone on the ground to designate your starting point.

Pull-ups. Perform as many as possible.

200 pound 30 second hold. Same as before.

Tow 150-pounder: for distance: Have that Ruck ready to go so you can start right away. Put the Ruck on, walk to the end of the line you have attached to the bag to take out the tension, then walk/run as fast as you can for as long as you can. Obviously you'll have to lean forward to pull the bag so use this opportunity to look down and make sure you are placing one foot in front of the other and not out to the sides with each step.
If you have a training partner, he should be carrying the smallest bag and the cone next to you. When you reach your distance limit, he will drop the bag and put the second cone on the ground.

Dive Bomber Push-ups [http://www.trainforstrength.com/ex-1.shtml]: Perform as many as possible.

Carry 150-pounder: back to starting point. Straddle the bag with your legs on either side, work your arms underneath/around it and, using your legs and keeping your back straight, drive your shoulders towards the sky holding the bag to your chest. Now, walk back to the starting cone with it. You can drop it if you want but remember, you have to pick it back up.

Chin-ups. Perform as many as possible.

200-pounder: 30 second hold. Same as before.

Push-ups. Choose any position: regular grip, Diamond grip, wide grip, etc, and perform as many as possible.

100-pound DB Farmer's Walk: 30 seconds. Grab the dumbbells and stand up straight while holding them at your sides. Now walk for 30 seconds.

Dips. Perform as many as possible.

100-pound DB Farmer's Walk: 30 seconds. Same as before.

Dips. Perform as many as possible.

200-pounder: 30 second hold. Just like before.

Tow 150-pounder: back to far cone. Put that Ruck back on and pull the bag back to the far cone.

Chest Pass 70-pounder: to starting cone. Without using handles or straps, grip the bag and clean it to your chest. You can take one step forward and two-hand pass the bag as far as you can throw it. Walk up to the bag, clean it and throw it again. Repeat until you reach the starting cone. Think of passing a basketball and you'll do it just fine.

Sprint back to far cone. Notice I didn't say walk, mosey, saunter, crawl or die. SPRINT!

Tow 150-pounder: back to starting point. You know how to do this by now.
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Postby JP » Tue Jan 27, 2004 11:08 am

Fantastic! Cheers for that.

So far i've only just walked around with my sandbag. I clean it and put it on my shoulder and just walk with. I have to change the position almost twice/minute when places go sore, so in the end of the walk i have covered all areas and my whole upper body is exhausted, taps, shoulders, neck and forearms are sore and my core muscles feel tired as well.

Will try many of the tips there for sure!
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Postby prenna » Tue Jan 27, 2004 2:39 pm

Glad you found that interesting. I'm still considering taking you up on the offer of taking a sandbag for a walk but maybe when I get a little stronger (I've been a bit slack with my training recently). Anyway, let me know how you get on if you try some of the stuff from that workout.
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Postby Pete » Sat Jan 31, 2004 8:37 pm

Hey, Joni,
what weight is your sandbag :?: I've got two 25K bags I can put into a sack to make one 50K bag (not heavy I know, but ok for little old me to lug about :D )
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Postby JP » Sun Feb 01, 2004 4:55 pm

Pete wrote:Hey, Joni,
what weight is your sandbag :?: I've got two 25K bags I can put into a sack to make one 50K bag (not heavy I know, but ok for little old me to lug about :D )


it's not that heavy, as in if you lifted it for one rep. But i carry it for about 15-20 minutes - basically i walk with billy as she takes malcolm out for a walk around the park. I try not to put it down during that time, so far haven't succeeded, but will soon!

I would estimate it's around 40kg judging from the overhead pressing i've done with it.
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Postby Pete » Sun Feb 01, 2004 7:35 pm

If I was walking for 15-20 minutes, then one of the 25Kg bags would be more than enough, & I seriously doubt I could keep it shouldered for that long! Never tried endurance stuff like that before. Did carry them home, but that's like a couple of minutes (& I rested!). Haven't got a dog walking friend & in a week or two I'll be forced to start the dreaded cardio again :shock: as the toe will no longer be an excuse. maybe I could could sandbag carrying as cardio, surely it would be, isn't it???
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Postby prenna » Sun Feb 01, 2004 9:06 pm

I got this link from another message board. It's a 52 page book on sandbag exercises that look pretty good: http://www.performt.com/manual.pdf

You need Adobe Acrobat to read it but you can download that program for free from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
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Sandbag endurance work

Postby VeganEssentials » Sun Feb 01, 2004 10:12 pm

Another simple yet effective exercise with a sanbag is just to load it into a backpack (I have a 50 lb. bag wrapped in duct tape) and throw in some additional weight as necessary. The first few times even 20 minutes or so will seem like an eternity, but after a solid month of training on this I was lugging 80 lbs. around for 45 minutes. I find it much more enjoyable than regular cardio work as I can't run without hurting my knees and stationary equipment like bikes, treadmills and elliptical machines bore me to death. Besides, what's going to transfer over to real-life more, riding a bike in place or carrying heavy weight on your back? Seems like an easy answer to me!

Once it warms up I'll be making three sandbags, 100 lb, 150 lb. and 200 lbs. to train on once I can get outside again. Been well below freezing here this past few weeks and it seems like it'll never be warm again, but once spring gets here you can bet I'll be out every day!

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Postby Pete » Sun Feb 01, 2004 11:56 pm

Thanks to both Ryan & Joni,
I try both of those for cardio & see if I prefer one or the other, sounds better than the more usual cardio work.
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Postby Pete » Mon Feb 02, 2004 12:02 am

Opps, just a bit tired, so I forgot to say thanks for the download Prenna. I'll take a look tomorrow, thanks a bunch mate.
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Postby prenna » Mon Feb 02, 2004 4:04 pm

You're welcome! All this talk of sandbags is tempting me to make my own. Having one in a rucksack while I walk round town would give me a decent workout I reckon.
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Postby prenna » Sun Mar 21, 2004 6:45 pm

Well last night I finally did some sandbag training. Joni and I took a sandbag each to the park while Billy walked Malcolm. Needless to say I had to unload some of the weight from one of Joni's sandbags so I could use it. We carried the bags to the football pitch in the park as our warm up.
The first exercises we did with our bags was 10 clean and presses (I think that's what they're called). Next we did some cardio in the form of "sprinting" the width of the football pitch carrying our bags. After taking a much needed breather we moved on to tossing my sandbag (the lighter of the two) between us. At this point I was already feeling knackered and wasn't too pleased to here Joni suggest we do some duck-walking while carrying the bag as our next exercise. We did that for the distance we could manage before moving onto to doing one-sided farmers walks with our bags, changing hands as our grip got tired. Finally we decided we'd done enough and we carried the sandbags back to Billy's.

I was really interested in how heavy our sandbags were so we weighed them when we got back. Joni's bag was 40kg and mine was 30kg. I was shocked by how heavy my bag was, I was expecting it to be much less (even though it was really hard work). I'm really pleased I managed to do all that with that weight even though some may think it's quite light.

This was a great workout that I'm definitely going to be doing again. I've finally found some kind of weight-training I enjoy. I'll probably end up making my own sandbag soon so if I fancy taking one for a spin and Joni isn't around I'll still have a bag to use. Sandbagging is the future for me I think!
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Postby JP » Sun Mar 21, 2004 7:55 pm

yes mate, it was a good session. Thing is the weight really doesn't translate to gym weights at all, so where 30kg in the gym would not be much, as a sandbag it is heavy going already.

And may i correct you that my bag was 41kg, not 40 :lol:

Good fun that bag work is - funny how just getting to the football field is already a workout in it self!
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How do you make a sandbag?

Postby Myrddin » Sun Mar 21, 2004 10:44 pm

What kind of bag do you use (where did you get it from) and how do you seal the bag up? I can imagine spending hours making a bag - to have all the sand fall out of it - any tips I ain't that handy?

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Re: How do you make a sandbag?

Postby JP » Mon Mar 22, 2004 7:03 am

Myrddin wrote:What kind of bag do you use (where did you get it from) and how do you seal the bag up? I can imagine spending hours making a bag - to have all the sand fall out of it - any tips I ain't that handy?


i bought two bags from an army surplus store. I then got some sand and placed the sand in smaller bags, tied those smaller bags carefully and placed then inside the army bag. It's handy for controling the weight as well.

I should probably tape the smaller bags up as well because no doubt they will brake soon if we throw them around like we did on saturday!

Some people who use their bags often tape the whole bag as well. But i thought i'll do that only after i've made my huge and heavy bag in the region of 80kg :)
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