Many functional fitness folks are using sandbags now for workouts. But where do you get them? You either make your own or buy them online. There are several online merchants selling them, some with different designs. Some have the same basic design. All will give you a better workout than barbells or dumbbells.
One of the benefits of exercise sandbags is that they are compact. They can fit into that extra bedroom in your home. They are also portable. They can travel with you or the army.
Most of us make our own before we decide to buy one. There are many online plans for homemade workout sandbags, but here are some better options for making your own. My options go from good to better to best. Your first option is to go to Goodwill and go to their luggage department. They usually have many pieces of luggage there. So pick out some soft-sided piece and buy it. Then buy some 2 mil thick contractor bags in the 45 gallon size. These will hold the sand. Put one contractor bag into the other, add sand. Put the inner bags into the soft sided luggage piece, and add sand until it is filled loosely. You want the bag to stay loose so the load will shift. Fold the inner bags over and duct tape shut. Zip up the luggage piece and you are ready to exercise.
The next option many people use is to go to an army-navy surplus store and buy a cotton duffel bag. They are very large and in fact are too large for filling with sand. But, you can use other filling materials. I suggest using rubber mulch pellets from a home center. Again, put them in the doubled-up contractor bags. Keep it loose. This is where many people stay for their sandbag training.
Keep going. The third option is the best. And you can use sand with it. If you do the above option, you will find that what you save with the duffel bag is spent buying rubber mulch.
You can use 18-wheeler truck inner tubes for your outer bag. And, they do not need inner bags to hold the sand. So, call around and find a tire store that sells these monsters. Go buy one or two. Use heavy duty scissors to cut across the inner tube either side of the valve. This will give you a circular tube with the cut ends meeting up. Add about 40 pounds of sand into one end. You can use a bathroom scale to weigh the sand in a 5 gallon bucket. Then take one of the ends and roll it up over itself by folding flaps about 4" wide over and over again. Tape the folded-up part around and around with duct tape. This both seals the sand inside and makes a handgrip. Now, this next part is important. You have the weight of sand you want in the tube. Now carefully see how far it goes. Add about a foot and a half to fold up the other end. Cut the other end. Fold it up and duct tape it again. It is very important you do not cut it off too short. It is important that the sand be LOOSE in the tube. It is the looseness that gives the functional fitness benefit.
Now weigh out about 80 pounds of sand and do the above again. The 40 pound bag should take up about one third of the inner tube. That leaves you almost 2/3 of the inner tube to make the 80 pound bag. So, fold up and tape one end. Add the sand. Leave enough room to fold up and tape the other end. Cut the other end. Fold up and tape the other end. Now you have an 80 pound sandbag.
If you really want to do this right, you will have bought a second inner tube. So weigh out about 120 pounds of sand to make you a large sandbag. This should take up much of the inner tube. Repeat the above processes to make the large inner tube. It will probably take much of the inner tube. Use it for strength training exercises in which you do low-rep moves.
That brings us to the second part of the third way to make your own fitness sandbags. This time you use a somewhat smaller truck inner tube, possibly a 10" wide one. Or, you can use a motorcycle inner tube, or a car inner tube, if you can find one.
This time you do not cut the inner tube. You will fill it with water! Keep it whole. You must take out the valve from the stem. It requires a tool. Then you need to put water into the inner tube. You will fill it about halfway. To put the water into the tube, you will need a special tool. Get the air/water adapter kit (part #20073) from Slime (.com), or one of their retailers. This part will connect a standard garden hose to the air valve on the inner tube. Fill the inner tube about halfway. Put the cap back on. You can get a better cap than the plastic cap that comes with the inner tube. You can get aluminum caps to go over the valve stem.
Now the inner tube is a super shifty tool to use for functional fitness strength and power training. You might want to use it outdoors.
So there are your options. I think they get better as you go down the page. Just in case you don't want to buy from an online supplier, here are your options.
Whatever you use for your sandbag training, keep it fun and safe!