What do I need to make a sandbag?

All you need to make a sandbag is:

• a suitable bag;
• some sand;
• weighing scales; and
• something to keep the sand from spilling out of the bag (like plastic bags or sheets).

What does a suitable bag look like?

A suitable bag looks like this tough army duffle bag:

What sand do I put in the bag?

I used normal builders’ sand from the local DIY store.  It costs less than £1.50 per 20kg bag.

How do I put the sand in the sandbag?

If you put the sand in the sandbag loose, it will all drain out the holes in the end of the duffle bag, right?  So it needs to go into the sandbag inside plastic bags.  The next thing to decide is how heavy you want the sandbag to be.  I decided that 40kg would be good for conditioning work.  However, I thought it might be useful to be able to change the weight of the sandbag quickly and easily.

So I used one of the 20kg plastic bags full of sand from the DIY store (wrapped with extra-strong packing tape to keep it together) for the main weight.  I then added several smaller bags, which I made myself out of a sheet of plastic that we had lying around (I think it had been used to deliver something to us).  I knew the DIY store bags were 20kg because that’s what they were sold as.  I used a weighing scale to measure 4 lots of 5kg of sand into smaller bags made out of the plastic sheeting I had to hand. 

So I ended up with 1 bag weighing 20kg and 4 bags weighing 5kg each.  So if I decide that 40kg is too heavy, then I can drop down to 35kg quite easily.  Similarly, if my girlfriend wants to have a go, she can start with a lighter weight, as she only weighs 50kg wet through…

How do I tie up the sandbag?

My army duffle bag came with four eyelets at the open end.  I tied these together with some twine.  Then I folded the loose material of the sandbag over and wrapped two more lots of twine around it to hold the bag in a sausage shape.  Hopefully, these wrappings won’t come loose too soon.

By the time I had finished, the sun had gone in and I was getting a bit cold.  I took the bag inside to warm up, picked it up a few times to test it and within seconds I was bright red and sweating.  Conclusion: it works.

In this article, I’m going to show you how I made a sturdier pair of farmers’ bars out of a couple of old pieces of wood I had lying around the shed plus my trusty dumbbells again!

How to make cheap farmers’ bars

First of all, you need a piece of wood.  I found a piece 6 feet long and cut it into two halves like this:

Then, I put the weights plates that I planned on using most at either end of one of the pieces of wood.  With the weights plates in place, I was able to mark on the wood where I wanted the holes to go.

Yes, I know, I’m not exactly David Bailey.  If you look carefully, you can see my toes at the bottom of the picture.  Once I had marked the wood, it was time to get the drill out!

I used the largest drill bit that would go into my drill and I drilled four holes next to each other.  With a bit of jiggery-pokery, I was able to knock the holes through to one another using the drill.  This then created a hole for the dumbbell handle.  I repeated this until I had holes at each end of both pieces of wood.  But before I put the dumbbell handles into the holes, I needed to make a handle.

Using a tape measure, I found the centre of each piece of wood and then put nails in 3 inches either side of the centre.  I then added another nail slightly further out and threaded a sling through the middle like this:

Then it was time to put the dumbbell handles into the holes in the wood.

Once I had that all set up, I added some weights plates onto the dumbbells.  I added the weights asymetrically so that the bars would hang predominantly to one side, making them easier to handle.

Then, I took them for a test drive round the garden!

And that was all there was to it.  I think it took me about an hour, including working out how to build them in the first place.  Obviously, there are downsides to this approach, like the fact that I need to dismantle them if I want to use the dumbbells, but to say that they cost absolutely nothing, I have to say that I am delighted with them.

I hope you found this helpful and, as always, if you know of any other tips or tricks to create strongman equipment on the cheap, please do let me know.

I have since had a go at making a pair of farmers’ bars that are a bit bigger, using some spare pieces of wood but I’ll write about that next week…

What you need

You don’t really need very much.  That is the attraction.  However, you will need:

• 2 dumbbell handles (with or without the collars)
• Four 2ft slings or similar lengths of rope
• 2 carabiners (ask a friend who is a climber if you don’t know where to get them)
• some weights plates (but you have these already, right?)

How to set up the dumbbells for farmers’ walks

First, put a prussik knot on one end of a dumbbell handle using one of the slings.  A prussik knot (also known as a lark’s foot) starts like this:

And then you do this:

Once you’ve got one end on tightly, then you can do the other.  Together, they should look like this:

After that, repeat with the other dumbbell handle and one of the slings so that you have two the same.  You can slot the carabiners on at this point too.

Once you’ve got your farmers’ bar handles, you can add your weights.  You can do this by looping your other 2 slings through some weights plates and then clip them to the carabiners like this:

You’ve finished!  All you have to do now is take them for a walk.

I hope you found this useful and if you know of any other easy ways to make farmers’ bars or other strongman implements, please do let me know.

1. Climb stairs – a brand new article about climbing stairs with chains from Elite FTS, just when I need it.  The only problem is that I don’t have any chains.  Hmm, this could be tricky.  Plus, the stairs in my house turn two corners and there’s a big plant at the top which sticks out.
2. Combine running with circuits – Mike Mahler suggests combining running with swings and things.  I like it but I’m not sure I can think of anywhere locally where I could leave a dumbbell lying around and it wouldn’t walk off discretely while I was 200 yards away.
3. Hit things – Mike also gives advice on how to hit things with a hammer.  Sounds good.  I would love to take out some of my hunger-anger out on an inanimate object.  Now I just need a tire and a sledgehammer… damn. 
4. Complexes – Chris Shugart has four complexes from four of the best strength coaches in the world.  I hate complexes.  My form goes to hell after the first one and then my joints hurt for days afterwards.  I am sure there are lots of people who are skilled enough to do these safely but I am not one of them. 
5. Bike intervals – Dave Draper reminds me that 30s on 30s off for 12 minutes on the bike is as good as anything else these days.  Probably sage advice given the trouble I have finding a routine that I like.  I must confess, I really miss having a Concept 2 rower handy.
6. Hill sprints – Charles Staley recommends hill sprints, which is frustrating as there is a really great hill about 10 minutes jog away from my house.  Frustrating because if I jog there and back as well as running sprints for 20 minutes, it turns into the best part of a 45 minute workout once I’ve put my shoes on and off.  How is that a bad thing, I hear you ask… well, let’s just say I’m not really a cardio king and leave it at that.
7. Lift sandbags – Ben Hanson at ChasingKaz has a great selection of suggestions on how to make use of sandbags for conditioning.  I bought an army duffel bag online about a month ago for £5 and it’s been lying on my dining room floor looking at me accusingly ever since.  Fortunately, the two bags of sand I bought from the local DIY store are round the back of the house so I don’t see them so often…
8. Farmers’ walks – Matthieu Hertilus suggests that I just go and carry heavy stuff around.  Now this sounds promising.  I went through a phase of improvising farmers’ walks in the summer while the weather was nice.  A couple of laps around the garden (it’s quite small, really) and I was definitely feeling it in my upper back and forearms.  I used slings and carabiners to hold 20kg (45lb) plates on dumbbell handles.  Not pretty and they tend to swing around a bit and knock into your legs (especially when you turn corners) but better than nothing.  I’ll do another post tomorrow with some pictures.

 Well that’s quite enough cardio for one day.  I need to go and relax on the sofa after all that hard work!

As I mentioned on an earlier post about my workout plan, I’m going to try and maintain as much strength and muscle mass as I can during the next 6 weeks, while losing some fat.  And if I can get down to 72.5kg, it should give me a good chance at hitting my goals of:

• a double bodyweight chin;
• a double bodyweight dip; and
• a 1.5x bodyweight pistol.

So where am I starting from?

Yesterday morning, after getting back from a week away (with no garage gym), I weighed in at 76.2kg!  I was hovering around the 75kg mark before I went away for a week so I am hoping that some of the extra 1.2kg is water from eating more carbohydrates.  I can’t believe that I am capable of putting on over a kilo of fat in a week…

So I need to lose 3.7kg to get down to 72.5kg in 6 weeks.  That’s just over 600g per week.  At that point, if I have maintained my strength, I should theoretically be able to hit my goals.  However, the last time I cut weight, I lost strength at the same time.

What I did last time

Last time I cut weight was straight after the winter.  I had been on a “squats and milk” programme that was quite effective.  As in, it was effective in making me a lot stronger and a lot fatter.  I put my back squat up 50% from 80kg to 120kg over a couple of months but also put inches on my belly.  My weight went up over 80kg for the first time in my life.

In disgust at myself, I started a 12 week cutting cycle.  I began with my normal 4-day workout plan of low rep pull ups and dips and tried to go for a 30-minute walk most evenings.  I kept my diet as low-carb as possible and I cut back on snacks.

For 8 weeks, very little happened.  My weight drifted down incrementally.  My first week’s weigh in was 78.7kg and, after 6 weeks, I weighed in at 77.8kg.  I got desperate and started a German Volume Training programme.  The weight fell off me.  After another 6 weeks, my weight had plummeted to 72.3kg and my waist was down from 31.4” to 29.2”.  But the weight loss came with a heavy toll, I lost over 2” of muscle off my shoulders and my pull up and dip performance suffered horribly.  It was 2 months before I regained the strength I had lost.

What I am going to do this time

This time, I am determined to maintain the strength I have built by keeping the low rep sets of pull ups, chins, benches and dips.  To burn some calories and create an “afterburn” effect, I am just going to have to do some real cardio.

I have been playing around with some dumbbell snatches and swings for a while as part of my general-messing-around-but-not-really-working-out-time.  A little while ago, I came across an article about 36:36 and 15:15 protocols by Jordan Vezina.  I think there are other people writing similar programmes but I haven’t done the research yet.

The 15:15 protocol requires 15 seconds of snatches followed by 15 seconds of rest.  The number of snatches tends to be between 6 and 8.  This is then repeated for 5 minutes (i.e. 10 sets).  You then rest for a minute and repeat 4 times.  Sounds great, right?  Right…

The idea is that by doing a resistance exercise as cardio, you don’t lose muscle mass because the muscles are being worked, albeit at a lower intensity.  My fingers are very firmly crossed.

I’ll keep you posted on progress.