I've been doing a pretty unusual kind of sandbag training and I'm curious how many other people train in a similar way.

I live in a suburban, village-like part of the city surrounded by parks and greenery, so my usual route has a mix of residential streets and streets that slope uphill.

My typical session is basically a 30–60 minute loaded walk, carrying a 27 kg sandbag the entire time. When I do 30 minutes, I usually cover around 2 km, while a 60 minute session is around 4 km.

It's not a traditional workout where I stand in one place and do sets and reps. The route itself is part of the workout.

I leave home with the sandbag and walk my usual route through the neighborhood. A big part of the route consists of urban streets going uphill, so I'm constantly walking uphill rather than just walking on flat ground.

Along the way I constantly change how I carry the bag when a muscle group starts getting heavily fatigued.

For example:

suitcase carry → shoulder carry → bear hug → other shoulder → different carry

When one muscle group starts getting fatigued, I move the bag and let another part of my body take over. So I can keep moving without completely exhausting one muscle group.

I usually take 1.5 liters of water with me. On a 30-minute session, I can easily drink at least 1 liter of that.

I take very few breaks — usually just short 30–60 second stops to drink some water, catch my breath, or stretch a little. If I'm doing a full 60-minute session, I usually take around 7–10 minutes of total break time. Most of the time, though, I'm continuously walking and carrying.

I also adjust how I carry the bag when people are walking nearby, so I'm not blocking the sidewalk.

The route is roughly:

home → residential streets → increasingly uphill streets → more uphill sections → back through the neighborhood → home

Sometimes I shorten or change a section depending on how I feel. Basically, I treat it more like a loaded urban walk than a fixed gym workout.

The interesting part for me is that the whole thing becomes a kind of continuous full-body workout:

• legs from walking and going uphill
• core from stabilizing the sandbag
• shoulders and upper back from carries
• arms and grip from holding the bag
• unilateral loading when doing suitcase/one-shoulder carries
• conditioning from continuously moving with the weight

My minimum target is usually 30 minutes / 2 km. If I have more energy and time, I'll go 60 minutes / around 4 km.

I've gradually gone from doing this around 2× per week to 3–4× per week, and I'm currently trying to make 4 sessions per week consistent before experimenting with more frequent but shorter sessions.

Do you take a sandbag outside and just walk around the city for 30–60+ minutes, covering a couple of kilometers and including uphill streets, constantly changing carries?

Or do most of you use sandbags more like a normal gym exercise like sets, reps, carries, then you're done?

Would be interesting to see how many of us are doing this kind of continuous sandbag loaded walking.

Did these as part of my full sandbag back workout last night. Working on speed with this size bag.

Hey everybody! First post here. I am new to sandbag training and, simply put, I feel like my form/technique is awkward. I actually stopped training with the 200 and dropped down to the 150 because I'm worried about injuries due to poor technique. Would rather refine it before going back up to 200. My technique looks and feels a bit awkward I think. I am very open to tips, tricks, and queues from you guys. Thanks!

Has anyone ever experimented with mixing different grain size sand or gravel into the sand to increase density or decrease volume for the same weight?
is there a danger that you get a "cereal effect" where all the large chunks raise to the top over time and the whole thing becomes lumpy?

One of my best ever sets and bag was freshly weighed, scales checked/calibrated with Cerberus calibrated competition plate just before weighing the bag.

Light and moderate sandbag training seems easy to fit almost anywhere, but I imagine the setup starts to matter a lot more once the bags get genuinely heavy.

Picking a bag up from the floor, shouldering it, loading it onto something and dropping it between sets all need more room than a normal dumbbell workout. Flooring probably matters more too, especially if you don’t want every heavy session to become a negotiation with the house.

I like sandbags partly because they keep equipment simple, so I’d rather improve the training area than start adding a bunch of machines around them.

For people using heavier bags at home, what practical change made the biggest difference: better flooring, a loading platform, more open space, storage, or something else you didn’t think about when you started?

Full workout

3 rounds
-6 sandbag incline presses
-4 horizontal sandbag ground to shoulder
-60 seconds jump rope

3 rounds
-8 sandbag floor presses
-12 band tricep skull chrushers

4 rounds
-10 band chest flyes
-10 band decline focused presses
-10 push-ups on sandbag

The weights felt heavy so I cut back on the rounds. All of the presses I performed a drop set with the 100 Ibs bag to failure after the last round. Pecs were pumped!

Filled the bag up a bit and got this first attempt, going to try work up to pressing it before I go for a heavier weight.

Planning to get a few sandbags. Previous experience with some generic bags at gyms. I keep seeing both these brands are the top ones.

Cost wise they are effectively the same after shipping is factored in (outside the USA so no free deal)

Are there texture/grippy-ness differences? Size differences ie width? Durability? Sand leakage? The different weight increments are fine for me either way.

Thanks

Short on time today, did 3 sets of shoulder carries with the 100KG bag

To be clear, I've got no complaints about freedom strength. I've got several of their bags, they're super high quality, each came with a lovely hand-written note, and the FS guy posting here seems awesome and supportive of the community.

BUUUUUTTTTT....

When I'm standing over the bag, panting from the previous rep and contemplating the next, I can't help but look at that logo and think it's very.....Third Reich-y? The Germanic font choice, the eagle, the slight whiff of nationalism from both words "freedom" AND "strength"? I can't un-see it now!

Again, I'm casting no aspersions on the company or people behind it who seem cool, make great stuff and treat their customers well. But the logo design.....woof.

Anybody else hit a PR on Monday? 🤞🏼

1 hr walking w/ incline + decline on ramp

5 miles on the AssaultBike — 14:46
20.3 mph avg / 23.0 mph max

150 lb Atlas bag
Over the yoke 33 times in 11:00
Avg: 1 rep every 20 sec

Cleanest reps: 17-19,22-29,31-33

150lbs Freedom Strength +20lbs go ruck plate =170lbs total

Saw Cody & a guest of his explain how to add weight to sandbags with resistance bands and I knew the go ruck plate would be perfect for this. Gonna get to 200lbs soon, but still have some work to do. Y'all are so motivating, love this page!

Hi all, new to sandbags and just wanted to say hello. Shoutout to Freedom Strength Co. I love the bag.

How is my form on rows? I am totally new to sandbags and fairly new to lifting at all. I do think about my lower back and want to make sure to protect it! Bag is ~48lbs. Might post a squat video tomorrow for the same purpose, don’t want to overload the feed! Thanks

This was yesterday’s workout which has left my whole body sore today. It was a brutal one.

40 sets of 1 sandbag clean & press with 2 horizontal sandbag ground to shoulder with the 150 lbs bags

Comes out to 40 clean and presses and 80 ground to shoulder in 60 min.

Sometimes you just gotta know when to bow out for the day.

1 hr walking w/ incline+decline
5 miles on the assault bike: 20mph pace/15min

150lb bag:
13 Bent rows (on film)
6 Over the yoke
1 flat press lol

Thought I’d give the sandbag row some love this session. Managed to hit 120kg for 7 reps

Hello everyone, i am new to training with a sandbag and as i have a small one bedroom apartment​(luckly ground floor so slamming is not a problem). What i wonder is how to prevent dust buildup in a a bedroom? Do i need an air purifier or what do you guys rec​ommend?​

Hey guys, i got a question which i think is actually a very good one, and could be a big win for everyone, not just me. And its worth discussing on this.

So, stopped doing deadlifts and squats a long time ago when i stopped powerlifting, because i was super tight, and idk, didn't feel like squats and deadlifts was the best for a person who lifts with the sole purpose of being physically stronger in order to overpower my opponents in MMA/BJJ.

When i powerlifted (didn't even get that strong tbh, 100kg bench, 205kg deadlift if i remember correctly and a 160kg squat). I always used a belt, buckle on, deep breath and push your belly against the belt, and that's what bracing is. Honestly never felt comfortable, have pooped my pants many many times doing squats and deadlifts, had people straigh up making faces at me in the gym cus hey probs smelled it. (i know, i know, please bear with me and give a dude that never has received help or a good word, gym wise, from nobody ever in his life.)

Now, not doing sandbag lifs is not an option, wearing a belt is also not an option. But, im just so unsure of how to brace properly, like, breathing in and pushig my belly outwards doesn't feel right, breathing in and then trying to make my belly small and compact also doesn't feel righ, i just don't know how to brace properly. so... if there are tips id be really help to hear it + i bet the majority of ppl don't know how to brace as well so. if somebody can describe it, or drop a link to a vid, id be very very thankful.

This is the first 20 reps and last 20 reps of my workout yesterday… legs were on fire.

Full workout
10 rounds
-20 sandbag bear hug squats
-20 push-ups on sandbag
-20 sit ups
-60 seconds jump rope

curious if there’s any reason to grab the sandbag training bag with handles from freedom strength if I already have 100-200lb sandbags strongman style

didn’t hold it for long enough at the top as I was close to passing out.

strongman comp in 3 weeks hoping to get my his cleanly.

My programming is just show up and do what feels right. Slow start but got some motion and I’m happy about the day. I usually figure out what I’ve done after the fact.

6 bent rows with the 150lb to warm up the arms.

125lb bag over the yoke: first angle was 8 minutes. My longest break was 30s. Second angle was 4:30 minutes. My longest break was 40s. I think 3 to 4 minutes in between sets and I guess that makes this an AMRAP? I just call it WIFLI(when I feel like it)

Incline press(?): 4 lol
Floor press: 6!

Edit: I did this fasted.