Post: #1

Do you want to get your body toned and lose weight performing simple fitness routines? Do you want to develop total body strength, stability and endurance? Do you want to develop power and explosiveness to complement your box, krav maga or personal defense classes? Do you want to have a simple, easy to use, yet useful and versatile piece of gym equipment? Then you should consider getting the Rogue Fitness Tactical Sandbag. I discovered the sandbag training during my krav maga classes, and I found it so useful that I order my own sandbag to practice at home. So, this is a little review about this product that I hope you guys find useful.

The Sandbag training system is built with heavyweight, Military Spec 1000D Cordura. It consists of an external bag which works as a container for up to three fillers which are inserted in the latter depending on the weight you want to lift. The bag has two handlers and two tails to hold and swing the system according to the exercises you want to do. The fillers must be stuffed with silica sand.

As for the specific characteristics of this product I can tell
Pros:
Absolutely the best material and the best manufacturing.
Sturdy, durable -you can use, abuse and mistreat this item as much as you want and it’d always looks like new.
The ranger green color of the product brings a positive effect on you -since the moment you look at it to lift it you feel you are going to have a bad ass training, like in the Military.
Cons:
The handles can be a problem at the beginning because they are thin and are not rubber coveted; after five minutes of training you feel the handles are digging (and slicing) your hands. You can save this problem using lifting gloves before you can develop some callus in your hands.
It has only one pair of vertical handles, while other systems have up to three (vertical, horizontal and tails) and this can be problematic when doing exercises such as vertical swings, rotations and Bulgarian bag style training.
Expensive. It’s about 50% more expensive than similar products (which have the three pairs of handles, but use softer materials and last fewer time).

If you have never trained with a sandbag you can start with these three basic routines:
Front Squats. Just hug bear the sandbag or lift it horizontally over your arms or put it over one shoulder and make squat reps. A variation of this exercise could include a press.
Burpee/ Squat Clean/ Overhead Press. It looks simple but it’s an authentic killer.
Resistance. Just put the sandbag on your back around your neck and take a walk, do a little jogging, go upstairs, downstairs or a combination of these exercises for at least 15 minutes a day and you’d develop a great body endurance. If you live in a beach town or city, take the sandbag as described before and walk down the beach, your feet would dig into the wet sand increasing the level of resistance demanding more energy from your body.
Once you are familiar with the bag you can move into more demanding routines such as those from Funk Robert’s YouTube channel:

Three final notes:
Don’t buy the small sandbag, it’s too short to place it on your back and around your neck if you want to do endurance exercises. Buy the ‘Rogue Specialist Kit’ or the ‘Warrior Kit’, instead.
To stuff the fillers you have to use silica sand of any of the following grades: 0-10, 10-20 or 20-30. Don’t use an upper grade of sand (like 50-60 used in Zen gardens) because such material is too fine and over time you can have leaks. As far as I understand you can find this sand at Home Depot sold as ‘playground sand’ or ‘sand for swimming pool filter’. Don’t use mortar sand –it’s too heavy.
Although the specifications say you can insert up to four fillers per bag, this is not true –There is no way you can fit more than three fillers into each bag.
There are other less expensive sandbag options which have better handles than this one I featured. Problem is, I have been told, they are not sturdy and last very few time.








You can check out the glorious photos of my sandbag bellow.

Post: #2

Empty Filler



Empty Medium Sandbag



Three Stuffed Fillers and Bag



Silica Sand

Post: #3

and wait, theres more!!!!

sandbag training is legit, but you don't need to buy some contraption to to stuff a bunch of dirt inside a bag.

Post: #4

Obligatory Ross Enamit plug:

http://rosstraining.com/blog/low-tech-hi...-training/

He also has a ton of videos about sandbags, including many construction options.

Post: #5

(06-16-2015 07:09 PM)AntiTrace Wrote:  and wait, theres more!!!!

sandbag training is legit, but you don't need to buy some contraption to to stuff a bunch of dirt inside a bag.

Yes, I once tried one, but it got many leaks.

Post: #6

(06-16-2015 07:09 PM)AntiTrace Wrote:  and wait, theres more!!!!

sandbag training is legit, but you don't need to buy some contraption to to stuff a bunch of dirt inside a bag.

Cheap ass wheat hulls make great filling for a heavy bag as does corn. Also if you are just carrying the bad quality matters far less that it does if you are practicing striking on a heavy bag.

Post: #7

Personally I think the Ironmind sand bags are much more functional and much less of a military novelty;

http://www.ironmind-store.com/Large-Toug...info/1390/

Have a beach vacation coming up and worried about missing the gym? Just take these with you, stuff them in your suitcase and fill them up when you get there. Take some duct tape to seal them shut.

Post: #8

Can I use this to do squats on top of my bosu ball so I can build functional strength?

I only do functional training and muscle confusion for my workouts.

Post: #9

(06-17-2015 07:03 PM)RioNomad Wrote:  Can I use this to do squats on top of my bosu ball so I can build functional strength?

I only do functional training and muscle confusion for my workouts.

Yes, actually the first day you can do 3 rounds of 3 minutes each and you'll be done.

Post: #10

(06-17-2015 06:28 PM)Vaun Wrote:  Personally I think the Ironmind sand bags are much more functional and much less of a military novelty;

http://www.ironmind-store.com/Large-Toug...info/1390/

Have a beach vacation coming up and worried about missing the gym? Just take these with you, stuff them in your suitcase and fill them up when you get there. Take some duct tape to seal them shut.

It looks a good product and less expensive.

Post: #11

My friends say I should just use something called a "barbell", it looks like this:


But it doesn't have a badass name like "Rogue Specialist Kit" or "Rogue Fitness Tactical Sandbag", and it doesn't look 'military'. Will it still work as well?

Post: #12

(06-17-2015 07:03 PM)RioNomad Wrote:  Can I use this to do squats on top of my bosu ball so I can build functional strength?

I only do functional training and muscle confusion for my workouts.

Rio - you're right to have that attitude. The whole 'sandbag industry' is verging on a joke.

One caveat: Instead of these silly ergonomic things with handles, if you use a military duffle bag with serious weight (100kg plus) you can brutalise your grip shouldering the things. Carrying them for distance is also cheaper in a home gym set up than farmer's or buying a prowler.

Sandbags = Heavy and for finishers only.

Post: #13

Sandbags are great bits of kit. Personally I wouldn't bother with anything more fancy than a military duffle bag. I've had mine for several years, thrown it over and over again on gravel and concrete, as well as training outside with it year round. It's coming to the end of its life, but it only cost me a tenner, and that is pretty cost effective. Anything with a handle on it is missing the point. It is an awkward object, if you put a handle on it you are changing its purpose, and just making it inferior to a barbell.

I'd disagree that they are only for finishers and carries. Pressing overhead, floor pressing, rowing, cleaning, front squating, and shouldering/loading them are all fantastic strength builders, and it is possible to develop a massive amount of strength with nothing but a sandbag.

Post: #14

Man, I need to get out of the military. That way I can get people to pay me so they can do all the shit I hate doing.

You could always get a pack of the real thing and build a fort. Over there, now over there, no, the first place looks better...

http://www.campingsurvival.com/sand-bags.html