If you want your home work out sessions to be quick as well as efficient, you can start incorporating sandbags into them. A sandbag can bring about the much-needed change in your everyday repetitive workouts.
Moreover, if you like weightlifting and a full-fledged workout routine but do not have access to weights, lifting platform, barbells, or other such equipment, including a new fitness regimen with sandbags could be perfect for you.
Benefits of Weightlifting Sandbags
- Stability: The sandbag’s center of mass is always shifting. Trainees can build their strength and stability while trying to control it. Steady weights like dumbbells are more comfortable to lift and work with; however, a sandbag is harder to hold, let alone train with it. Thus training with it can increase your ability to lift awkwardly shaped objects and strengthen your stability and durability.
- Affordable: Unlike traditional steady weights, sandbags are way more affordable. Moreover, you can easily add extra weight at a meagre cost or sometimes even free of charge.
- Do it Anywhere: You can do workouts with sandbags anywhere you like. Whether it is in your local gym, somewhere outdoors, or right at the comfort of your home, you need a sandbag and some viable workout regimes to continue.
- Improved performance: Weightlifting Sandbags are not only good for strength exercises but also for a cardiovascular workout. Also, they are ideal for posterior chain development.
How to Integrate Sandbags in Your Home Workout?
If the concept of sandbags is totally new to you, it can be a bit difficult to find how to incorporate these into your daily workout. How you integrate it totally depends on what you want out of the exercise, whether you wish resistance training or just want to increase your strength. Here are three ways you can integrate weightlifting sandbags into your home workout:
- If you already have an existing workout routine, you can start by simply replacing the regular lifts with sandbags. You can do this twice/thrice every month to get accustomed to holding and lifting the sandbag.
- You can use various sandbag exercises that are either strength-based or condition-based and add a complete session to your workout that comprises just sandbag exercises.
- The more primitive (and the most popular) way of using sandbags is just to push and pull it on the ground. This will increase your body’s overall strength and stability.
Sandbag Exercises
Sandbags are more than just a replacement for your steady weights, but you can treat it as a replacement as well. You can easily change your sandbag’s weight by dumping out some sand until the bag acquires a weight that you feel comfortable working with. Once you invest in a good weightlifting sandbag that, for instance, can hold up to 100 pounds of sand, you can easily limit the amount of sand in it and lift any amount of weight up to a hundred pounds.
Here are some sandbag exercises that you can include in your home workout routine:
1. Front and Reverse lunge
Holding the sandbag’s side handles in front of your chest, put one leg forward and lower down to make a lunge. Make sure that your elbows are bent. Now to take it up a notch, swing the sandbag when you bend down towards the side of your bent leg. For instance, if you start lunging by putting your right leg front, then swing the sandbag to your right while lowering down.
Now for the reverse lunge, keep the sandbag behind your neck by holding the side handles. Step one foot back and lower into a lunge. You can start out with a few reps of these lunges and then increase the count as you get familiar.
2. Windmill
Windmills with a steady weight are hard, let alone with a sandbag. The constantly shifting centre of mass of the weight lifting sandbag will make sure that you develop strong shoulder stability and flexibility. To do this, you have to hold the main handle of the sandbag with one hand, say your left hand, and try to touch the left foot with your right hand. Repeat the same with your other hand.
3. Floor Press
The floor press exercise is a great exercise to add to your workout to increase your pushing strength. Doing so with a sandbag can improve your overall strength and stability vastly. Lie down on the floor with bent knees and holding the sandbag right above your head. Push up with your hips to form a bridge and then hold for a considerable amount of time. Then lay down and repeat for as many times you want.
4. Deadlift
Doing a deadlift can be useful but, if done correctly. As per the nature of the deadlift, it may hurt your lower back too. But by just taking a few precautions perform a deadlift with a sandbag gives you wonderful results. Stand on your feet widely open than your hip-width and hold the sandbags with the handles facing your body. Keep your back straight and send the butt back down towards the floor to lower the bag. Now by using the power of your legs, flip the sandbag to rest in the crooks of the elbows.
5. Shoulder Press
This is another useful exercise to keep you fit with the help of a sandbag. Stand by placing your feet slightly broader than your hip-width, and rack the sandbag on your shoulders. Send your hips back and lower to squat. Press your bag overhead as you stand through the heels by keeping your ribs closed and core engaged. Return-back to the initial position and repeat the shoulder press exercise.
6. Burpee
Adjust your feet distance wider than hip-width and hold sandbag from side handles. Form a hinge at hips while lowering the bag to the floor and bend your knees to attain a high plank position. Bring feet back to hands by jumping and drive through the legs for standing. Use your lower body momentum to lift the bag as you rise. Take a quick motion and drive elbows towards shoulders. Flip the bag and press it overhead. Lower it again and return to starting position.
Final Verdict
Weightlifting sandbags are one of the most versatile tools you can consider for your daily exercises. With the center of gravity of the sandbag continuously shifting, it effectively engages your core and gives you better resistance-training than steady weights like barbells and dumbells. With several benefits of using sandbags stay-fit and stay-healthy at less cost and less space.