Sandbagging It

I forgot how heavy 100lbs is.

Sandbagging can mean “deceptive behavior intended to lower someone's expectations so that they can be taken by surprise later.”

In training it usually means you underperform early in a multi-round workout and suddenly over perform in the last round. It is a way of cheating yourself of reps early so you can finish “strong” and look good at the end. As a practice, it is frowned upon because you are minimizing your ability to make any progress if you don’t push yourself every round.

Anyway, that’s not what I want to talk about today. Today I want to talk about my new fitness toy: a 100lb sandbag. 

The awesome thing about sandbags is that they offer an unstable and cumbersome weight. You have to use stabilizers and your core and odd muscles you didn’t know you had in order to move them because of the shifting that occurs. 

In my CPT studies, they mentioned that sandbags are an old form of exercise.  I did a little digging online and found this: “some think sandbag training can be traced back to the time of Egypt. That could easily make sandbag training one of the most ancient of strength training tools.”

If you think about it, a sandbag is very simple and inexpensive. You need sand and something to put it in. You can make it as heavy as you want.

Today, of course, there are companies that make heavy-duty bags with separate sand compartments designed to not let the sand out. A typical workout consists of throwing or dropping the bag, and so it needs to be able to withstand some abuse. 

Here’s a link to the one I got.

I was nervous about the weight. I’ve used 70lb sandbags before, and remember that being tough. I also did some movements with a 100lb slam ball and that was brutal. But there’s no point sandbagging with a sandbag so I opted for this weight because I knew it would challenge me.

I did a workout this morning that incorporated the bag:

10 kettlebell swings (60lb)

50yard sandbag carry

4 sandbag over-the-shoulder throws

50 yard sandbag carry

100 jump rope

15 medicine ball sit ups

The sandbag portion was the hardest by far. But doable. I think I’m actually going to outgrow this weight pretty quickly. Fortunately, they make other sizes…