Moving to Germany and having a weight limit on our household good forced us to find a lightweight solution for weightlifting at home. After researching, shamelessly on Amazon.com, empty sandbag kettlebells and larger bags were the obvious solution. The smaller start at $10, the larger bags were $25, and sand at the local store was €3 for 25 kilos making it super practical. It literally took 15 minutes to fill up 6 bags and 3 bags fitted perfectly into a larger bag for a 50 lb sandbag.

After setup and using the bags for the first time, honestly, felt weird. This lead to research on using sandbags instead of kettlebells, dumbbells, and medicine balls. Benefits of using sandbags include enhanced core use, dynamic resistance, and real life functional carryover. Carrying a sandbag does require the use of your torso and hips, in which strengthens you core. The sand in the bags shift forcing you to stabilize the weight through different movement planes. This resistance creates the ability to react to movement and you become me agile. The training from sandbags and mimic real world situations like picking up bags from gardening or moving furniture around.

When training with the bags, it’s ideal to only do as many reps you can do clean. When you feel like you’re losing control, this is when you can injury yourself. Always remember proper form over number of reps to stay safe.

lockalcordo, The Buzzed Badger

High on Life. Dedicated to Fitness. Obsessed with Health.

Reference: barbend.com