Howto: Make a Sandbag.
On Wednesday I blogged about the joys of sandbag training, later I had many of questions from friends of mine regard how I made these. So here is a handy howto:
- My sandbag was not a sandbag, it was in fact, a Pea Gravel Bag.
Materials Needed
- Pea Gravel/Shingle (Here for £1.82/25kg)
- Heavy Duty Rubble Sacks (Here for £3.06/10 bags)
- Canvas Kit Bag (Here for £3.00 (£7.00 delivery so buy a few))
- Tie Wraps (Here for £3.94/100)
- Duct Tape (Here for £1.19)
Instructions
- Leave the Pea Gravel inside for a while to dry, I spread mine out on a plastic sheet to speed this up.
- Fill up Heavy Duty Rubble Sacks with how much weight you want in Pea Gravel. I filled up 3 bags with 10kg to make 30kg in total.
- Now put all these smaller bags into the Canvas Kit Bag.
- Tie wrap the bag closed and duct tape over the tie wrap so it doesn't poke you while lifting the bag.
- Cut off the strap.
- I then like to write the weight of the bag on the bottom so I can easily see how much each one weighs.
Photograph by KaCey97007 on Flickr.
Heavy Duty Rubble Sacks
Cycling with Google Street View.
This is exactly as what I created my blog for, a simple mix of fitness and technology.
Aki created a virtual reality cycling environment using a Vuzix VR920, Bike Sensor and an Arduino to cycle through Google Street View. So instead having to look around a dull garage he can instead, look around Hollywood, LA or even Australia.
More information here.
Sandbag Training.
Sandbag training is simply, training with a big ol' bag of sand.
Okay I lied, it doesn't necessarily have to be a bag of sand. It could be a bag of pea gravel, wood chippings, rubber mulch, or any other dense material. I've recently made a 40kg one for myself and so far I've been having great fun with it. Here are two of my favorite exercises:
Sandbag Get-ups
Sandbag Clean and Press
Pull-ups and Chin-ups.
Pull-ups and Chin-ups are by far my favorite exercise. I love them!
I got my first chin-up bar when I was around about 13 from Argos, it was a door mounted one and cost me around £10. To this day I still use the very same bar. Every time I walk past it I bang out 10 or so. Currently I can do around 25 Pull-ups or Chin-ups in a row.
While browsing the Internet one day I found a tutorial on One-armed Chin-ups on BeastSkills. After reading up I went out and purchased a Captain of Crush #1 and a Dip Belt (By "I went out and purchased" I of course mean "Logged onto Ebay.co.uk and purchased.")
My reasoning behind the Captain of Crush is, that it requires 145lbs of force to close, so if I can close it, I should technically be able to grip the bar to hold up my body of 135lbs. I still haven't closed it.
My reasoning behind the Dip Belt is quite simply, if I can add extra weight to my chin-ups and pull-ups. I should get stronger and and eventually be able to pull myself up with one hand. My current one-rep max is a chin-up with 35kg added, the total weight for this chin-up is 100kg.
Chin-up photograph by The U.S. Army on Flickr
P90X. Does it work?
Okay so as you may or may not of known that I've just finished 90 days of P90X. In case you don't know
P90X is a home exercise system developed by Tony Horton in conjunction with Beachbody, which aims for an improved physique in 90 days through rigorous interval training.
P90X The Complete Package
P90X from what I hear, is quite big in America. But is relatively unheard of in England. It offers promises of a complete body revival in just 90 days! A simple google image search will reveal lots of pictures of this.
When I explain to people that I've been doing P90X the main question they ask me (after the "Whats the **** that?") is "Does it work?" The simple answer is "Yes it works." But of course it does, after all you're working out for at least an hour a day for 6 days a week, while sticking to a strict diet. Now can you get the same results while pigging out on junk food, barely breaking a sweat and frequently skipping workouts? I doubt it. The thing with P90X is that, you really do get out what you put in.
