by Matt Weik, BS, CSCS, CPT, CSN
Imagine sculpting your body into that of a warrior — strong, resilient, and ready for battle. Back in ancient times, warriors honed their combat skills with the heft of sandbags, an age-old tradition that still holds relevance today. Sandbag workouts, used in military and combat training circles, offer a unique path to strength and conditioning.
While we may romanticize the warrior’s journey, the truth remains: sandbags are unmatched in their effectiveness. Versatile and powerful, they stand as a testament to the warrior’s spirit.
I’m a huge advocate of being fit to fight and harder to kill. Clearly, if you’re already training hard, that’s not an issue. However, to change things up and shift away from strictly pushing the iron around, sandbag workouts are a nice change and challenge.
In this article, we will dive deeper into the importance of the age-old sandbag workouts to understand why you should consider trying them and implementing them into your training.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to treat or diagnose any condition. It is recommended that you speak with your doctor before starting any exercise program.
What is Sandbag Training?
Sandbag training involves incorporating a weighted bag, typically filled with sand or similar materials, into your workout routine. The versatility of sandbag training allows you to exercise almost anywhere, whether it’s at a gym, in your home, or even outdoors in a park. Best of all, it’s not gigantic that you can’t simply toss it in your vehicle and take it with you.
One of the key advantages of sandbag training is its space-saving nature. Unlike bulky gym equipment, sandbags can be easily stored under a bed, in a closet, or tucked away in a corner of the garage, making them ideal for small living spaces.
Sandbag exercises are known to enhance grip strength, muscle strength, stability, and overall sports performance. Athletes often include sandbag training into their routines to reap these benefits and improve their athletic abilities.
The Benefits of Sandbag Workouts
Here are some of the most important benefits of sandbag workouts.
1. Better post-workout metabolism
Metabolism is the body’s way of converting food and drinks into energy. A higher metabolism means you burn more calories, making it easier to reach and maintain a healthy weight.
According to a 2018 study, researchers looked into how sandbag training affects metabolism. Participants did a 16-minute workout with sandbags, doing three circuits of eight different exercises involving multiple joints.
Compared to running on a treadmill, the sandbag workouts provided a more effective metabolic boost for up to 30 minutes after exercise. This suggests that sandbag workouts could be particularly helpful for people looking to shed some extra pounds.
2. It builds stability
Sandbag training requires you to constantly stabilize the shifting center of mass, which strengthens both your muscles and stability. This has practical benefits for those who need to handle awkward objects in their daily lives, work, or sports.
While stability training often involves unstable surfaces like stability balls or wobble boards, training with unstable objects like sandbags offers a unique set of strengths and skills that can be valuable in various situations.
3. Focus on core muscle
Another significant advantage that sandbag workouts offer is that they significantly improve the engagement of core muscles.
According to a 2019 research, it was revealed that during weighted carry exercises, the activation of core musculature skyrocketed, particularly when individuals lacked sufficient hip strength for bearing heavy loads.
Moreover, the study highlighted that when hip abduction torque surpassed abductor strength, the body instinctively enhanced torso stability through the obliques and quadratus lumborum. All in all, incorporating sandbag workouts and carrying them in your routine can effectively strengthen the torso and hips, leading to improved force transmission during various exercises.
4. Adds variations to your workout
Variations in your workout are crucial for overall physical fitness, whether you’re a competitive athlete or not. It not only prevents monotony but also helps in achieving a well-rounded physique. And let’s face it, if you do the same workout every week for months, you’re going to get bored with it, and it turns into you simply going through the motions on autopilot.
Sandbag training offers versatility, allowing you to seamlessly transition between strength and conditioning exercises. This flexibility allows you to diversify your routine whenever you crave a change.
5. A useful test for athletic conditioning
Athletes and tactical professionals often undergo conditioning tests to assess their readiness for competition or duty.
A study indicates that sandbag throws provide a sensitive measure of conditioning levels, particularly useful for discerning fatigue disparities among athletes of different weight classes.
By integrating sandbag throws into client assessments, trainers can gain valuable insights into their fitness levels, making it easier to develop personalized workout programs to optimize performance and readiness.
6. Benefits carry over to the real world
Beyond enhancing core strength, incorporating sandbag training into your routine offers practical benefits for real-world scenarios. Unlike traditional weights, sandbags present an awkward and shifting form of resistance, simulating the challenges of lifting and moving irregular objects in daily life.
This training teaches you to brace and stabilize your body effectively, preparing you for tasks like household chores and yard work, where lifting often involves objects with less-than-ideal lifting positions.
7. Improves grip strength
A study found that gripping a sandbag leads to higher muscle activation in the hands and forearms compared to holding a barbell of equal weight.
This suggests that sandbag training, particularly without handles, can offer unique benefits for strengthening hand and forearm muscles, potentially enhancing grip strength and overall upper body performance.
