Other/Mixed Sandbag or keg?

[Hung]

I made a 90 kg sandbag in the past from old and cheap material (and old coffee bag as an outside bag). It serves me well for squatting.
The Tet holiday is near (about 1 month from now) and I need to update the bag if I want to put it inside of my apartment (less sand leakage + doesn't look like I pick it up from a construction).

I have a few choices:
- Ordering a sandbag from well-known brand (Irondmind, Cerberus, Project Kratus...) It may be the best option in terms of quality, but it's expensive. Bag price plus shipping to my place = (1/3, 1/2) my monthly income.
- Buying a 50 liters beer keg and stuff as much sand as possible to it. Price is cheaper, I can get it quickly (just go to the local beer). But set up looks hard and I don't really know what exercise to do with the keg.
- Ordering a cheaper sandbag from China. That was my first choice before the traffic happends. The supplier said that if ordering now probably I will get my bag after 2 months => that defeats the purpose.

So what do you guys thing? Suck it up, take a bank loan and ordering a new quality sandbag? Or make a heavy keg and train with it? Or other options? I would love to hear.

 

[John K]

Are you looking for a floppy sandbag or a stiff, packed sandbag? Do you have access to reasonably-priced duct tape, and can you find an old duffel-type bag? Are you buying sand in plastic bags, or are you digging it into the bag?

Filling an old duffel bag works well. Reinforcing it with copious amounts of duct tape works to prevent leakage... mostly.

I would not personally want to spend that kind of money on a sandbag (I don't think I could make it to the next month if half my income went to exercise equipment!), let alone take out a loan to get one. A keg would be better

 

[LarryB]

I’ve done/have the keg. You have to remove the tap and then fill with sand and or water. You then have to put a rubber cap and metal ring clamp to secure it all. It is fun but not practical. Clean and press are super hard. If you can do that you can get it to a back squat, but it’s not heavy enough to be a real back squat. Carries are good with em too. The sand shofts all around and makes it feel alive. So less weight feels heavier. Kind of like a bottoms up with kb.

 

[Hung]

can you find an old duffel-type bag

No I can't. Have looked for it for a while without success.

are you digging it into the bag

I bought sand from the nearby construction so the sand spend lots of time outside. It has leaf and branches in there when I bought it.

(I don't think I could make it to the next month if half my income went to exercise equipment!)

#metoo

 

[william bad butt]

Keg. Assuming it comes with beer.

If keg is cheaper go with that. Can you fill with water?

You can do carries, shoulders, and overhead presses.

Eric

 

[Hung]

Can you fill with water?

Sure I can, but one of the point of keg or sandbag is to hold all of the sand that I bought. I don't think I can dump all of this sand to anywhere.

 

[Period]

If you are only getting the thing for squats, the best choice overall probably would be a heavy bag (= punching bag). If you can get one that is 1.50 or 1.80 m high and 30 or even 40 cm im diameter, that will hold more sand than you'll ever need - in fact, you'll have to stuff old clothes in in addition probably.

If you want to grip the fabric, you'll need a high quality bag I'm afraid. The one from Ironmind ist quite solid (although a bit thin), but you may be able to find a local seamstress you might be willing to make you something like that for less, maybe even with better craftsmenship and materials. I know my mum had to make me a bunch of stuff like that when I was a teenager and couldn't consider buying the finished product. Most of it is still intact over 15 years later.

As for other options, a keg is quite convenient in my opinion if you fill it with water only. That means you'd need one bigger than the standard 50 liters to get the same weight.

Finally, the cheapest option probably would be to repair your old sandbag. I should point out that whether or not it leaks weight is usually due to the inner bags, not the shell. Are you using heavy-duty trashbags inside (just one or several?)? If not, that's the first thing I'd do. Second, you could repair the fabric of the outer bag or, better yet, get an addional outer bag of the same type, put one inside the other and stitch them together. If you want it to look less "ghetto", then you could either wrap the entire thing in duct tape, or put it inside an old bed sheet or something. Then you can rightly claim that this is your new ergonomic sitting bag, and that it's so great that everybody should have one. Also, completely handmade from local resources.

 

[North Coast Miller]

The repurposed heavy bag sounds like a good idea.

I've never actually done this, but you could sieve the sand to remove larger debris and pack it into plastic bags. Put the bags on a piece of carpet or heavy canvas and roll it up. Tie off the ends with constrictor knots and stitch the long seam with a canvas needle and carpet thread.

I'm thinking a rock might be as useful as the keg. Wide diameter drainage pipe filled with sand might be another option.

 

[Period]

I've never actually done this, but you could sieve the sand to remove larger debris and pack it into plastic bags. Put the bags on a piece of carpet or heavy canvas and roll it up. Tie off the ends with constrictor knots and stitch the long seam with a canvas needle and carpet thread.

Also a good idea! If sieving is not a practical option, I would get a bunch of fabric bags (the 20 kg bags for rice for example, but you can find similar ones in the hardware store for very little money) and put those INSIDE the trash bags. This way, they should protect the trash bags from being torn up.

I'm thinking a rock might be as useful as the keg.

I was also thinking of that, but it's not a highly apartment-friendly option, unless you have mats in your apartment that you don't mind being damaged. Also, a rock is not necessarily the best option for squatting due to shape - if it's heavy, you can basically only do bearhug squats with it, because you'll be severly limited in the amount you can shoulder (plus, you really don't want to drop a 90 kg boulder in an apartment building). A long heavybag on the other hand can be stood up on one end and be shouldered or Steinborn squatted fairly easily.

 

[Hung]

Sorry for not being clear: I'm not looking for squatting with sandbag right now (I get back from the gym where I can squat, dead with normal barbell).

 

[Period]

Sorry for not being clear: I'm not looking for squatting with sandbag right now (I get back from the gym where I can squat, dead with normal barbell).

So what exercises are you looking to do with the sandbag?

 

[Hung]

So what exercises are you looking to do with the sandbag?

Pick the bag up from the ground to a higher place (don't know how to call it)
Carry it around
Press/jerk/somehow bring it up overhead.

 

[Period]

Pick the bag up from the ground to a higher place (don't know how to call it)

I think it's usually called "loading". That doesn't work too well with a heavybag, you'll want a round-ish or oval shape for that.

Carry it around
Press/jerk/somehow bring it up overhead.

Carrying doesn't require a specific shape, but for pressing and jerking, you'll ideally want something to grip onto, like a grip/rim (keg) or fabric (bag). It can be done with a tightly stuffed sandbag or stone as well, but that tends to feel somewhat less secure and can also be somewhat harder on the wrists.

 

[LarryB]

If those are the things you want to do the keg should be pretty perfect. I really liked it for the oly lifts. The cleans are so tough with the shifting sand! You can still set it on the back for lunges/split squats.

 

[Period]

If those are the things you want to do the keg should be pretty perfect. I really liked it for the oly lifts. The cleans are so tough with the shifting sand! You can still set it on the back for lunges/split squats.

I agree, the keg is better suited for these exercises due to its shape. However, a 50l keg will likely not contain all that sand (at most around 75 kg, depending on the type of sand, potentially a bit more if it's fine gravel), and changing the weight - especially reducing it - will be tricky. It might make more sense to start out with a water-filled keg because it's way easier to adjust in weight, and then progress to sand once that is easy.

 

[LarryB]

I don’t think that’s a bad idea, but i like the sand. I don’t think you will need all of the sand tbh… I just put pike 70# of sand in a 30# keg to start. That was plenty challenging for a while. If you need to make it heavier i know that strongmen will fill it with concrete, or more simply for your purposes; fill it with sand, then add water to the sand.

 

[LarryB]

Also, if you don’t want all the beer….I recommend going to a local restaurant/establishment that serves beer and offer to buy/pay the deposit for an empty keg. That’s how i got mine. They actually gave me a shorty one that wasn’t being taken back too, never used it though.

 

[Hung]

View attachment 14641

Current home gym. Kettlebells and some sandbags
View attachment 14642

Shoe cabinet. I use this as a sandbag platform

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Some context: Here are some pictures of my apartment. Granite floor, without any mat or any protection. It has a crack on in since 2017 when I dropped a 36 kg bell to the ground. I totally forget to mention that the first purpose of sandbag is apartment friendly.
The bag is also quite harsh on the skin. The bigger bag has two smaller sandbags inside, but weight is quite different (60 kg the bigger one). It nearly impossible for me to pick it up in RDL style (when the bag totally lay on the ground). To pick it up, I will bear hug it, then squat up (the first 3/4 rom feel like squat, aboved not so). I mention about squatting because that's what I did during lock down.

 

[LarryB]

Ya, the keg was strictly an outdoor activity for me. I put rubber kitchen mats (also from local restaurants) down on my back-porch to help with the bells, but i’d still be scared to try the keg.

 

[North Coast Miller]

Shared this picture years ago, these were my first real training sandbags - this could be scaled up. I cinched the whole thing with paracord and a gromet kit from the hardware store but a canvas needle or automatic awl and thread would have worked just as well or better - looked a lot tidier.

Made with a 22 inch runner cut to length to fit a 60 pound tube sand bag, a small area rug maybe could be found for a better fit on larger bags. Depending on how handy you are, maybe even stitch a top and bottom to make a cylinder. Triple trash bag the sand and wrap in rags, into the rug. Will take a lot to make it leak.

If you chose a pattern that matches the decor, leave it in the middle of the room and pawn it off as a groovy seating option. I always wanted to make a cover like this for my commercial bags that would allow them to live in the family room, easier to move them for training.