Sandbag Training
Anyone else into this?
Something primal and more fun to me going after it with heavy sandbags.
I'm an old dude at 56 only back into lifting the past few years once I realized I turned into a fat weak fuck. Shit sneaks up on ya. The past 6 months has been probably 80% sandbag work - the rest on a little Marcy home gym and some 100lb adjustable dumbbells.
Thing is, what started as hey that may be a cool, inexpensive supplement to home training with traditional weights has turned into the reason why I even use traditional weights any longer - to target specific muscle groups to help me with sandbag lifting. I like working out at home so my lifting was limited with space and budget, but with sandbags - a few ruck sacks, sand, zip ties and duct tape and away we go.
Do 1 hour of sandbag box squats with 220lb sandbag and it'll reset your mind a bit. Or bear hug carries with 190 for 30 minutes. Or whatever weight, as long as it's heavy to you. Sandbags are just different, and really fun for some odd reason.
The gains are actually pretty good. While I am fully aware it's not going to compare to targeted, specific bodybuilding for hypertrophy, my back went from meh to damn wtf is that in just 6 months. Erectors are solid, rhomboids look like an alien clamped on my back. Obliques and upper/lower abs are crazy, even lats, traps and delts pop from it.
But mostly it's just fun.
Gonna switch it up to some stone lifting this summer, maybe try atlas stones.
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1970s USSR work outs right there, those dudes were strong af. Military/wrestler style training.
Sandbag training is great excersize bro. Especially with a rucksack. It's awkward so you end up working stabilizing muscles way more than normal. That's old school and military way to get strong as fuck well rounded. When you train and do sandbags you gain a different kind of strength than training weights alone. A more brutal strength that helps tremendously in hand to hand combat and balance.
Yeah good point...I did jiu jitsu for a while and I can imagine this type of training would have helped tremendously. Gorilla strength type shit.
I do jiu jitsu Wednesdays and Saturdays as well brother. I can verify it helps tremendously. I do a crossfit style cardio routine that involves sand bags with a lot of squatting under bars and over inclines while bear hugging mixed with over each shoulder rotating between the 3 with sandbags. Your the first guy here I've heard mention them. It's truly a game changer for raw strength.
I see lots of these guys with high intensity jobs continue to weight train but begin using Mike Mentzer’s philosophy of high intensity less volume and get incredible results on top of their essentially constant strength training.
I’ve seen similar many of times with guys who work in firefighting, MMA, oil rigs, construction, military, etc.
It's a game changer brother. It's one thing to be steel plate strong doing various lifts, but if you incorporate a cardio routine that involves twisting, climbing, jumping and incorporate awkward materials like sand bags you gain a kind of stability strength that you just don't get from weight training. Core strength goes way up. Throwing someone and being able to twist and move with power simultaneously maintaining strong balance like your grounded to the earth. Anyone without spinal or debilitating limitations should def try it.