If you’ve been bitten by the bug that gets some of us sometimes and feel the need to hoist a heavy weight without the safety and predictability of a barbell, then check out these tips that I’ve learned the hard way.

Tip #1: weigh your sandbag regularly

This applies most to those of us who keep our sandbags out of doors.  I use a piece of tarpaulin to keep it (mostly) dry but it still gets a bit damp occasionally.  The extra water in the material (I use an army surplus bag to hold my sand) makes it heavier and the amount that the bag can vary will surprise you.

Tip #2: use small weights plates to increase the load incrementally

There is nothing sadder than training with the same weight implement day after day after day.  For improvement to happen, we usually need to increase the load carried.

However, adding extra sand to your sandbag is both time-consuming and tedious.  I’ve found that it’s perfectly possible to use a few spare weights plates to bump the weight up by 5kg (10lbs) or 10kg (20lbs) before adding extra bags of sand.  That way, I can programme sandbags into my routine and steadily work the weight up from week to week.

One extra tip, though, if you are going to use weights plates as extra ballast.  Don’t forget where the plate is in the bag.  I tend to use quite tightly packed sandbags and if I put the weight plate on the side that I approach the sandbag to pick it up , it digs into my chest.  It’s an easy solution: just turn the sandbag around and grasp it from the other direction!  Not what you want, though, if you’re working to the clock!

Tip #3: decide what you want to use your sandbag for most and set it up to do that

I have used my sandbag for a number of different exercises, including:

• Lifting and carrying;
• Lifting and loading; and
• Cleaning to the shoulder

I found that I preferred the sandbag to be quite solid for lifting and carrying but I liked the bag to have a bit of material free to hold onto for lifting and loading.  On the other hand, for cleaning to the shoulder, it’s easiest if the bag is nicely floppy.  I decided that I probably benefited most from the lifting and carrying, since I could use most weight that way, so I’ve set my sandbag up so it behaves more like an oddly-shaped Atlas stone.

Wrapped tightly and tied off for easy lifting

Why sandbags?

• Sandbags are a good training tool for forcing your body to translate the strength you have built using a barbell into the real world: they are irregular in shape and difficult to pick up.
• Sandbags make you contract your core muscles forcefully to stabilise the weight in a way that seems much more effective than conventional barbell exercises.  I think this is because you can get away with using your lower back more on barbell movements, whereas with sandbags it seems harder to cheat.
• Sandbag training is fun.  There is more to think about.  You try one grip, shift a bit, look for a better grip, lift it, put it down again, lift it again, stagger across the way and dump it down. 
• Sandbags are cheap and easy to make (as I show in my article on how to build a cheap sandbag).

My sandbag programme

To make things interesting, I’m going to have two sandbag exercises (partly because I have two sandbags and partly because I am like the idea of a push and a pull).

Sandbag lifting (and carrying)

Quite simply, I lift the sandbag up and carry it across the garden before dropping it down again.  I use a small platform so that I don’t round my lower back too much.  I do allow a small amount of rounding, though, because of the depth of the squat and the fact that I have to come over the object (you’ll see from the photos what I mean).

I treat this as if it were an Atlas stone lift (not that I’ve ever lifted an Atlas stone before, I’m just imagining).  There is quite a lot of upper back involvement to pull the weight towards you as you stand up.

The real strain, though, happens in the abdominals.  I never feel my abs as acutely as when doing a sandbag lift.  The pressure feels like I’ve swallowed a beach ball and then started pumping it up.

I’ve started with a 60kg (135lb) sandbag and I’m hoping to work my way up to 100kg over the next couple of months.  I’m doing about 5 walks each workout of 15ft.

Sorry that I start out facing the right and end up facing left.  I did photos from both directions but these were the only ones that came out.  The weather was really bad and my cameraman (er… camerawoman) kept going inside at key moments.

Sandbag loading

I first saw sandbag loading at Gym Junkies and it captured my imagination.  The sandbag starts on the ground and I clean it to my chest before pressing it onto the shed roof (carefully).  If I slip and the shed shakes, I get shouted at…

You use a slightly smaller sandbag than for lifting and carrying.  I’m using just 40kg (90lbs).  I feel like I could put this up quite quickly but I want to groove form more on this exercise as it feels a bit wooden at the moment.  Great fun, though!  I’ll probably ease up to 50kg (110lbs) slowly and see how it feels.

Try not to hit your feet when you drop it like I did.  The next photo in the series has me hopping about swearing…

What I did last summer

Here are a few articles I wrote about what I did last summer…

• How to build a cheap sandbag
• How to make cheap farmers’ bars
• Introducing farmers’ bars
• More interesting ways to do cardio

What I want to do this winter

I want to keep using my strongman tools.  I really like the farmers’ bars and the sandbag for building overall strength.  I like the way they teach my body to work as a whole unit and to exert maximum force by producing whole body tension.

I want to use the space I have outside.  I don’t have the world’s biggest garage so I can’t really do farmers’ walks or sandbag carries for any appreciable distance.  By the time I get started, I have to stop again.

I like being able to trudge up and down the patio with my homemade farmers’ bars swinging out each time I turn a corner.  I like pretending to be Mariusz Pudzianowski loading Atlas stones onto a platform when I’m moving my sandbag from one end of the garden to the other.  I know, I’m sad that way…

But the weather is not delightful

But it can be really grim outside at this time of year in the UK.  Cold, dark, wet and windy.

(This picture comes from John Hee, with his kind permission).

The other day I caught myself trying to argue that I could drop the sandbag carries.  I rationalised that it was OK to do deadlifts or squats and then a few extra sets of one-arm rows, reasoning that the combination of the two exercises would be the same as sandbag carries.  No way.

Reasons I find training outside daunting

To help get over the problem, I jotted down the reasons I found training outside daunting during the winter.  I reasoned that if I could write them down and then think of ways to get around the problem, I could find ways to train outdoors again.

• It’s raining
• It’s dark
• It’s cold

 It’s quite a short list, really.  But when I thought about it, I reasoned that I can probably get round all of these quite easily.  For example, I could:

• Wear a waterproof coat
• Fit an outside light (or just open the downstairs curtains)
• Wear another jumper and a hat

So it’s not really the elements that are defeating me.

When we moved house I shifted gravel

When we moved in to our house 3 years ago, the back garden didn’t exist.  It was just gravel.  I took 3 days to wheel a couple of hundred barrow loads of gravel round to the front of the house, where I dumped them in a skip.

When I moved the gravel, it was a May bank holiday weekend and it rained for 3 days solid.  I used to set my watch for 45 minute intervals.  I’d do 20 minutes of shifting wet gravel followed by 15 minutes of sitting in the kitchen squelching my toes in my socks and drinking hot tea.  I did that 7 or 8 times a day.

Then I got up and did it again the following day.

Why?

Because I had a goal of getting all of the gravel shifted in 3 days.  I had motivation.

Getting motivated

The real problem is that my sandbag carries are at the end of my workout.  They’re a distant priority to pushing up my main lifts (deadlift, lumberjack squat, bench, dip, pull ups and chins).

I’m seeing them as assistance exercises and I need to commit to them more.  I need to commit to putting the weight up every week: true linear progression with no cop outs.

My new sandbag programme

To make things interesting, I’m going to put two sandbag exercises at the end of each of my lower body workouts (because I have two sandbags and because I like the idea of a push and a pull).

Sandbag carries

I treat this as if it were an Atlas stone lift (not that I’ve ever lifted an Atlas stone before, I’m just imagining).  There is quite a lot of upper back involvement to pull the weight towards you as you stand up.

This is me at the start of the lift.  Once I’ve stood up, I then turn around and walk about 15ft and put it down again.  I’m aiming to do this about 5 times each workout.

Sandbag loading

I first saw sandbag loading at Gym Junkies and it captured my imagination.  The pressing element should be fairly obvious from the picture.  Bascially, I start with the sandbag on the ground, clean it to my chest (sort of continental style) and then press it (carefully) onto the roof of the shed.

I’ll do a more detailed post on these two exercises later.  I’ve also got some more thoughts on keeping myself motivated to do them.

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!