Here’s how to make your own adjustable, durable, and mess-free sandbag. The basic idea is that you will create “filler” bags that will be of varying weights, and these filler bags will then be placed in the larger, tougher outer bag.

By doing this, we not only make the sandbag easy to customize weight-wise, but is also contains any potential bag breakage (unlikely, but can happen if you drop it from a height) to prevent messing up your training area. Here’s what you’ll need and some example links of what you are looking for:

Sandbag Items:

• Contractor Cleanup Bags (~3 mil)

  • 2 for every filler bag you intend to make

  • I used Husky Contractor Clean-Up Bags from Home Depot

  • http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/jsearch/product.jsp?pn=100063659

• Canvas Duffel Bag

  • I got mine at a Sportman’s Warehouse, but Army Surplus stores are also good places to look. You can also find them online.

  • Go for the “top load” bags as opposed to the zippered. Zippered has a bigger chance of breaking under pressure.

  • http://www.perretsarmysurplus.com/Duffel_Bags_and_Packs/Duffel_Bags-Tool_Bags

• Duct Tape

• Twine

• Scissors

• Scale

• And of course, sand (dry)

  • You can get this at any Home Depot or similar store.

  • You don’t want wet sand for 2 reasons: 1, it can alter the weight of the bags should it evaporate and escape the bag at some point. And 2, it will freeze the sand into a brick if left, say in the trunk of your car in single digit temperatures. It happened to… uh… a friend.

When I constructed mine, I made 6 “filler bags” weighing 25 pounds, but you can use whatever size you feel is appropriate for you. I wouldn’t go heavier than 50 pounds per bag for fear of the filler bags bursting, or less then 10 as it seems a waste of materials. There’s another method for making smaller filler bags that I’ll describe at the end. For the sake of this example, I’ll use the measurements I used when creating my sandbag. OK, let’s get started.

1. Open a contractor bag and start filling it with sand. Use your scale to put approximately 25 pounds into the filler bag.

2. Once loaded, slide the sand down into one corner of the bag and force the air out of the bag. Leaving air in the bag will lead to breakage.

3. Tie off the bag with twine such that the area of the bag below the twine is roughly 2/3 full of sand, 1/3 empty. This gives the sand more room to shift when lifting and again minimizes chance of breakage.

4. Once you have it tied off, cut the top of the bag off, leaving enough excess bag at the top to be able to grip it with your hand with 2 or 3 inches of bag to spare. These filler bags can double as poor man’s dumbbells as well!

5. Now start duct-taping the bag excess from the twine all the way up to the top. Go around at least twice being sure it’s sealed. This will also be your sandbag dumbbell handle.

6. Now for the sake of preventing breakage, we take the currently sealed filler bag we just created and place it inside another contractor bag. Repeat steps 3-5 to complete your durable filler bag.

7. Place the newly created filler bag inside your larger, canvas bag.

8. Repeat steps 1-7 for the total number of filler bags you intend to create.

And voila! You have yourself a fully functional, customizable training sandbag for probably less then $50! As I stated above, there is a way to make smaller filler bags. Instead of using contractor bags, use sandwich bags. Fill the sandwich bags part-way with sand and completely cover and seal them in multiple layers of duct tape. You can double or triple bag them to make them tougher. Place these bags inside larger sandwich bags (like the zipper ones) and then do the same. Bags this size can range from about 1-5 pounds and can make progressing in weight on certain exercises much easier.

Have fun with your new best friend. Good luck and good lifting!

Tony Lukasavage, aka “Maverick”