Why did you make those sandbags?

by Peter Keller Mar 23, 2017

fringesport • sandbag • WOD • workout

Written at 9:02AM in the kitchen of "Fringe Sport West" in Boulder, CO

Well, it's happening

We spent yesterday scouting locations in Denver and Boulder and we're coming to town. Not sure exactly where, but it seems to me that people from Boulder might be more willing to drive to Denver than vice.

We'll see how this plays out, but we should officially have Fringe Sport West (warehouse) set up in 3-6 months.

I'm pretty excited, and a little scared. We've been talking about a West location since Fringe was just an idea in my head... and it's finally happening.

What this means for you is faster shipping to the Western US, a cool location in the Denver or Boulder area that we'd love for you to come visit and hang out in, and a new local community to introduce into the #fringefam.

Color me inspired.

Oh, and here's me lifting with my buddy Kevin Wood in Denver yesterday. I love to lift with our customers family. Hit me up if you're in Denver or Boulder and I'll reach out on a future visit.

A quick warning- Kevin has been doing a lot of Powerlifting, but he agreed to do my (Atomic Athlete) programming yesterday.

And I made him run.

It's a risk you take when you lift with me :)

Kevin promised to have me box squat with bands the next time we work out, so it will all even out.

About those stickers

Apparently when you offer a free sticker to tens of thousands of people, a bunch of them take you up on the offer.

(I did that last week)

My wife and I are addressing all those envelopes and slowly mailing the stickers out. For whatever reason, I don't want to have the rest of the Fringe crew doing it. I'll get to everyone who emailed, and thank you for doing so. But I'm running a little slow on that.

On Sandbags

Since I got into strength and conditioning, I've always loved sandbag training. So of course we wanted to bring out a Sandbag trainer for Fringe.

In keeping with the methodology I outlined last week:

We surveyed the market- there were cheap, not very durable, poorly designed sandbags for $30-$50. There were great sandbags for $80-$150 (!)
We looked at what makes a sandbag "great"- Military grade YKK zippers (A huge failure point if a poor zipper is used!), double stitching + box stitching, the ability to be used with or without filler bags, durable Cordura fabric, great design and handles
We talked with manufacturers to see what we could bring to market, at what price- And here we were pleasantly surprised.

The outcome- a great sandbag trainer, shipped to your door for under $39, all-in

We knew companies could make a great sandbag trainer for $80 (plus shipping). So we decided to make a great one for under $50. And we ended up being able to bring it to you for $39 with free shipping, well under our goal.

Why it's MY favorite sandbag trainer

Great design- an awesome shape that drapes well on your shoulders, has straps just where you want them for cleans and carries (sorry, this doesn't make sandbag training any easier... maybe it just sucks a little less)
1000D Cordura- the same stuff they make military rucks out of
Genuine mil-spec YKK zippers- the best zippers you can buy.
Double stitched and box stitched where it matters
Ability to fill directly with sand/mulch/pellets OR use modular filler bags

Once you grab yours, here's what to do with it

Fill it- I fill mine with a mix of sand and rubber mulch from Home Depot. I use a large sandbag trainer and fill it to 80#
Do a sandbag getup.
Do 100 sandbag getups for time
Do AMRAP sandbag getups for 10 minutes
Do burden carries with the sandbag
Do sandbag cleans
Do sandbag presses
Do sandbag ground-to-overhead
Do partner workups. One sandbag per 2 people. Alternate carrying/exercising