Why sandbag training

Back in 2009 when googling for TRX exercises, I came across something called sandbag training. I was intrigued and decided to give it a shot.

Being in Singapore, you don't have the luxury of land, so I had to run down to a local landscape company and bought 4 small bags of sand. I also went down to Beach Road to buy a medium army duffel bag to try it out.

The results? I liked the workouts, but the bag was limiting my exercises. It was too small, so not much sand can be placed inside it, and I couldn't grip onto the fabric well.

I researched on custom sandbag training equipments and found only the Ultimate Sandbag available online. I found it to be on the pricey side so I gave it a pass. Also, with no indication of the material of the product, I was very skeptical that it can withstand a lot of abuse.

Fast forward to 2012, moving back to Kuching provided me several obstacles. Everything is far (if you want to walk) and public transportation is scarce. I don't have a car, so I can't go to the gym on a regular basis. And even if I did, I don't like that most of the gyms I go to, I get bugged by resident muscle man, who keeps asking me "whatcha training", and giving their comments on why my training is not effective in size gains, why I should train with a partner, or always cutting queue on an equipment just because they've been going there longer or they "own" the place.

So the idea of a home gym came back into play. I have the space, I have *scarcely* the time, and the backing of my father-in-law (he was Aikido master and mid-weight boxing champ back in the day), so why not? While having my suspension trainers works very well for me over the past years, I still wanted to to train with something heavy (not my own heavy ass).

So I looked back into sandbag training. I had an old duffel bag made of cordura that I knew can take some abuse, and started training. Being larger in size compared to my first sandbag, it truly allowed me to feel the benefits of sandbag training. Imagine, I can do 48kg of shoulder presses, but could barely lift 30kg on my first attempt.

I wouldn't go into details on why sandbag training is beneficial. There's a lot of website where these info can be found. All I can say is that, for me and my goals, it meets my current expectations. I want to be strong enough to carry large and heavy objects, or even throw an adult, with not much muscle to show.

Sure, I do wanna be big(ger), me and my wife are more or less the same height, and with her slender frame, she looks taller. So I wanna be bigger so my children can remember me as "my well built father". Nothing can protect my children better than a "my dad can beat up your dad" statement. But with limited time and transportation to go to the gym, I guess a real heavy sandbag can suffice.