I finally built my own sandbag. Not sure what took me so long, I guess I was just having plenty of fun with the tools at my disposal. Recently, I’ve been wanting to lift heavier things more often, and the thought of lifting something heavy that was also really awkward sounded really good! I’ve been practicing Highland Games skills with my buddy Charlie Reid, and the sandbag is also a good conditioner for that. To boot, I somehow came across a pdf download of Ross Enamait‘s sandbag construction method. It was either linked in one of his blog entries, or on someone else’s. All of those factors came together to create “The Perfect Storm” and get me off my butt.
I’ll detail my sandbag construction here, then tell you about my first workout with it.
Step 1 – Buy the materials.
I bought four 50-pound bags of Quickcrete’s medium grade sand, a box of contractor-grade (4-mil thickness) trashbags, and two heavy canvas duffel bags at the local Army surplus store. I already had duct-tape and scissors. My total cost for all of those items was about $60.
Sand, Scissors, and Tape
Step 2 – Pour the sand.
I poured roughly half of each 50-pound bag of sand into one of the contractor bags. I was doing it by feel, so some of the bags might be a little heavier or lighter. Not important to me.
25 pounds of sand in the garbage bag
Step 3 – Secure the bags.
I then tried to get all of the air out of the bag, and then tied a knot in it. I flipped the bag upside-down, and wrapped the rest of the bag around it, giving it a semi-double-thickness. I secured the open end with duct-tape.
Tied Bag
Flip it over
Tape the open ends down.
Step 4 – Stick it in a sack.
I stuck four of the 25-pound sandbags into each duffel bag. One is a gift for a friend. The other is my gift to myself. For whatever reason, I didn’t take a picture of either of the two finished sandbags. I’ll be sure to get a pic and post it up soon.
Step 5 – Make it yours.
A 100-pound sandbag is no laughing matter. I can handle a 100 lb dumbbell or two relatively easily – for bench press, farmers walks, whatever. A sandbag is completely different.
For my first workout, I chose “Circuit Mania,” from Ross Enamait . It looks like this:
Circuit Mania
Sandbag Carry – 1 min
SB Circuit 1 x 3
- SB Clean and Press x 6
- SB Zercher Lunge x 6 ea.
- Fingertip Pushups x 15
- Lateral Jumps over SB x 20 ea.
- 1 minute rest
SB Carry – 1 minute
BW Circuit x 3
- Burpees x 10
- Pushups x 15
- Rest 30 seconds
SB Circuit 2 x 3
- DL’s x 10
- Rows x 10
- Zercher Squats x 10
- Core Twist x 12
- 1 minute rest
Core Circuit x 3
- V ups x 15
- Bicycles x 30
- Supermans x 15
- 30 seconds of rest
Sandbag Bear Hug Carry to Failure
According to my heart rate monitor, my HR was up to 190 by the end of the third round of circuit 1. Brutal. Granted, that was the toughest circuit, but man, it was totally relentless.
I can’t wait to do it again!
