Sandbag Throws

TrainingEvent GuidesLoading EventHip Hinge
Written By Greg Schiltz

Athlete CJ Krause throws a sandbag over a 14 foot bar at the Official Strongman Games 2021. Photo: Blackjack Images

Throwing a weight has a long history in strength sports. For strongman, throws were first seen in WSM in the form of keg throws over a bar. That event became a somewhat uncommon event since but sandbag throws are gaining in popularity and becoming a common event in local and high level contests. This guide is centered on throwing sandbags, but the technique cues can easily be translated to any vertical throws including kegs or highland games weights.

Table of contents

Basic Execution

Warming up

Stance

  • Where do I stand? This is usually the first question a strength athlete asks the first time they try to throw over a bar. There is not much to this step but it may be more important than you think. If you have a crossbeam to stand under, start by getting directly under it, and taking one full step forward. Your throwing motion may require you to move forward or back, but this is a good starting point.

    Equally important is your stance, or how far apart your feet are. Since most athletes are used to kettlebell swings which don't require vertical force, they default to a wider stance. Additionally there is the (reasonable) fear that they will hit their legs with the bag on the way up, fall over, and become a meme. Despite this temptation, you want to stand with your feet just outside of the bag. This may seem narrow, but once you are down in your throwing motion your legs will open up with plenty of room. If you do hit yourself frequently, despite perfect form, you can obviously move your legs accordingly.

    Think about it, the goal is to provide force upward. If I asked you to jump as high as you could, I doubt you would bend over with your legs in a wide position. As you read on you may notice that this stance is also useful given the following steps.

Throw Phases

We have broken down the throw into 4 phases to be able to analyze and explain the movement. The throw consists of the Push, the Return, the Extension, and the Release.

1. Push

One of the most common areas for improvement for throwing events is the backswing. Typically, athletes do a practice swing or two, then allow the bag to flop down somewhere random between their legs before ripping the bag upwards. If you watch elite-level throwers in the highland games, you will notice that they get the weight very far behind them through their legs with great consistency. This is because they think of the backswing as an active and intentional part of the throw.

Start with a gentle forward swing to generate momentum, as the bag goes through your legs push it through your legs, about as far as your range of motion will allow. A common cue used in highland games for weight-over-bar is “push your armpits through your hips” or something similar.

The main reason for this cue is that it will force your hips to drop slightly prior to bringing the bag back through and up. This gives you more tension in your hips and knees with which to apply power. Additionally, your torso will move forward acting as a counterbalance, much like with a medieval trebuchet. Now you are in a position where on the upswing you have more power to generate, and your torso will shift upright as a lever.

Photo Above: Note the vertical drop of the hips. Many athletes stop around the middle photo, but the position on the right looks much more primed to generate explosive upward force.

2. Return

Now that you have begun the movement with a forceful push, it’s time for patience. Avoid the temptation to rush and begin pulling up on the bag as soon as it changes direction. You want to allow the bag to return on its own as you guide it along its descent to prevent it from hitting the floor or flopping downward. Your speed and timing should be planned around keeping the bag from losing tension. Begin your pull upward when the bag reaches the back of your legs or heels.

Above photo: See how the athlete’s doesn’t initiate any extension or “jump” until the bag reaches the midline. His arms don’t begin to bend and pull upward until the last photo.

3. Extension

Now that the bag has returned to its place around your midline, it will be at its highest tension. This is where you can generate and apply the most power to get it moving upwards. Explode upward from your hips, the primary movers of the bag. The first 2 steps have prevented maximum tension from building when the bag is too far in front of you leading to a poor arc.

As the bag whips upward and you approach full extension, your arms will guide the bag up in a way that somewhat resemblers a high pull or an upright row. It is common for athletes to keep their arms straight like in a kettlebell swing, but this creates a circular arc with too much horizontal momentum you have to fight. Ideal vertical displacement allows for a better trajectory to get over higher bars.

4. Release

The goal is to release the bag at the highest possible point, to prevent wasting any force that could still be delivered. Your ending position should be with your chest out and arms fully extended overhead like you are a referee signaling a “touchdown”. This follow-through can also help guide the bag upward with just a slight backward momentum. Releasing without" “finishing” your throw might cause the bag to go straight up vs. over the bar.

You might notice some skilled throwers may not end in this position but still get their bags over. This is because they have enough power to complete the throw without follow-through. This is quicker and therefore probably desired for timed bag throw series events. However, for maximum height or weight events, you may be robbing yourself of some power and accuracy with a lazy follow-through.

Trajectory

The diagram below shows the rough path from the end of the "Push" phase through rest of the throw. Consider the x-y intercept to be the location of the crossbar, y to be the height of the cross bar, and x to be the distance from the crossbar at ground level. The graph next to it represents various paths/trajectories of projectile motion. Assuming each angle of release has the same force, you can see that higher release angles with the same force has the highest Y value. This is the desirable outcome for an overhead throw. The only horizon distance we "need" is enough to clear the whole bag over the width of the crossbeam. This is why in the Stance and Position portion we only recommend stepping as far in front of the crossbar as you absolutely need, and to address technique first before moving further from it.

Above is a rough diagram of what the bag path would look like from the Push phase all the way until it goes over the crossbar (Y-axis).

Troubleshooting and Corrective Drills

Troubleshooting and Corrective Drills

Bag is not going as high as you want it to

Make sure you are throwing primarily with your hips, not your arms. For athletes struggling to keep their upper body from taking over a throw, one of the drills to try is an open palmed throw. The athlete will put their throwing bag aside and get a slam ball, large rock, or flip a kettlebell over and hold it by the body. Practice your throw and normal queues using this implement instead. The open palm grip prevents the athlete from being able to rely on upper as heavily. This may help the athlete focus on lower body queuing without as much "noise" from the upper body.

See how the athlete does not start to extend and begin his jump until the rock has reached his legs. Also notice the ending position with full-body extension.

Make sure you are pushing the bag far enough through your legs. Unlike a kettlebell swing, the goal is to get your hips down and coiled with your downswing to allow for a much more forceful extension. Imagine trying to jump as high as you can from a position where you are bent forward with your hips high and knees straight. While this movement uses primarily your posterior chain, recruiting more force from your hips with an addition from your quads will only help put more velocity on your implement.

Try a static push with a bag or any other implement (dumbbell pictured) where you don’t start with a forward swing.

You may be trying to swing the bag over instead of throwing it. Those who are experienced kettlebell swingers might struggle a bit to get this movement down. This is about generating power with your hips and knees, and finishing the throw with your arms like an upright row. It will take practice to get the stiffness out of your throwing motion, which is why we recommend following the cues and throwing often.

Bag is getting the height, but not going over

You might be releasing the bag too early. Timing your release can mean the difference between your bag making it over the uprights or flopping in front or behind you. Ideally your release point is when your handle has reached its maximum height while still have tension on it. This is why we recommend having a good “follow-through” or “completing the throw”. Be patient and let your power bring the bag all the way up before releasing into your position with arms fully extended and chest out.

You may be too far from the uprights. If your throwing motion is correct, and the bag is landing ~5 feet or so behind you, you might simply be standing too far away from the uprights. Try taking 1 step or so in front of them so the peak of your throw arc is more centered with the height of the bar.

Bag is going backwards too quickly and not getting height

You might be pulling the bag up too early. Patience is important between your push phase and your extension. If you start pulling the bag at the very bottom of your push, you will not get to drop your hips into the proper position where the most force is needed, and could send more momentum behind you instead of upward.

You might be keeping your arms straight out on the upswing. The goal is to upright row or snatch the bag upward, not to keep your arms locked straight out. This will put more backward trajectory on the bag, setting you up for missed height.

You might be releasing the bag too late. This is less common than releasing early, but remember your release point is when your handle has reached its maximum height while still have tension on it, which can be different for each athlete. Be sure that you don’t feel any backwards motion of the bag when you release it.

You might be too far under the uprights. This is also a possibility. Try to experiment with what distance seems to work best with your throwing motion.

Since we all have to limited time to train and there is a lot to learn with throws, take a look at our cue hierarchy to help you decide what to work on first, and how much to expect to gain from practice.

Event Variation and Technical Alterations

Series

This event involves you throwing multiple sandbags, usually of increasing weight, over a fixed height. This brings with it a few opportunities for skill development that will help you perform better on contest day.

Practice moving the bags to your throwing spot. They are typically lined up several feet away from where you want to be throwing from. If you are especially strong and confident in some of the bag weights, sometimes you can throw from where they are, but this is not usually feasible or recommended for most athletes. If you know that you can be fast with the series, grab 2 bags at a time from their starting position and move them to your throwing spot.

Practice throwing with sets that have at least as many reps as the competition event. Throwing is one of the most acutely taxing events you can do, where your explosiveness can get sapped in your first 1-2 attempts and recovery will require a full rest period. If you are throwing multiple times per week, we recommend making one of them light enough so that you can get the number of reps that you need in the allotted time, before increasing in weight.

Example Programming for 3 days per week: Do throws before other lifts or alone, preferably not the day after heavy lower body volume.

Day 1: Throw singles to contest height until you reach the highest contest bag weight you can complete throws reliably.

Day 2: Throw 6-10 sets of doubles or triples with weight from day 1.

Day 3: Try to simulate the competition, throw around 5-8 sets of the competition rep number. If you have multiple bags, increase weight as close as you can to the event. If you only have 1-2 bags, utilize a weight that allows you to get all of the throws over or very close.

Max Height

This variation has athletes throw a fixed weight bag to a maximum height. Similar to a max lift event, the bar will usually start at a level that most athletes can hit, and then increase by a foot after everyone who wants to attempt it has. As with other max events, sometimes they will allow you to attempt as many heights as you want, or limit you to 3, but there is usually a time limit, about 30-60 seconds for you to throw. If there are only 3 attempts they usually go by Wessel’s Rule if there are ties, meaning the athlete who took their first attempt higher will be the winner.

Programming for max height is a little simpler than max weight since you can utilize the same bag for your throws. You may want to throw some lighter bags as part of your skill development though, especially if the contest bag weight is hard on you.

Example Programming for 1 days per week:

Day 1 (Volume): Work up to a height that you can hit 9/10 times and throw 6-10 sets of triples with a goal of no misses

Day 2 (Height): Work up to the highest height you are hitting that day with singles, increasing by small increments. When you miss 2 in a row by height you can stop for the day or do a few more singles at a lower height.

Max Weight

Some contests will have athletes throw over the same height bar, but the winner is who can throw the heaviest weight over it. This won’t change anything about the throw, but might change how you wish to train for the event. While you do not want to abandon throwing light-medium bags, you will have to practice throwing heavier ones. We recommend throwing 2-3 times per week, with only one of those utilizing heavy bags, meaning those which you might not consistently get over the prescribed height.

Example Programming for 13 foot max weight sandbag throw:

  • Day 1: Throw singles over 13ft, increase the weight until you are not reliably getting it over.

  • Day 2: Throw 5-10 sets of triples with a weight you almost always get over.

  • Day 3: 10 sets of throwing drills with a ball or rock.

*Note: If you only have a couple bags, try adding small (2.5#) change plates to increase the weight since you can easily take them out for lighter sessions.

Kegs

A throwback to this event’s origins in strongman, some contests ask you to throw small kegs over a bar for height, weight, or series. The general mechanics for throwing these is similar to sandbags, with a few simple differences. First, you will probably have to widen your stance further than for sandbags as the keg is going to be bigger and still needs to get through. You still want to push it back far between your legs and get some spring from your legs, but it might be less pronounced. Second, you will want to choose if you wish to throw the keg with one or two hands. This might depend on the size and weight of the kegs. If you choose 1 hand, see the next section about tips for throwing the highland games weight.

Highland Games Weight

Some strongman competitions utilize the traditional Highland Games weights, which are usually solid metal cubes or spheres with ring handle attached by a short chain. Similar to keg tossing, the mechanics are mostly equivalent to the throwing sandbags. The primary difference is that the highland games weight is throw with one hand instead of 2. Because this event is really about leverages and throwing with your legs and hips, most people can throw just as high or higher with 1 hand.

The key difference with 1 hand throwing is that you only want to push one arm through your legs as far as it goes. The cue many highland games athletes and coaches use is “put your armpit through your legs”, or something similar and less PG rated. The athlete can almost twist their body to get one side further between their legs, generating more backswing and coiling of the legs for a big jump and explosive throw.

Equipment

  • Throwing sandbags come in various sizes and shapes, but there is not as much difference as there is in other implements as they are all roughly the same size and shape. Handles differ significantly with some having thicker, rubberized handles, and some with thinner, slicker handles.

  • A common question is what to fill the sandbags with? The most obvious answer is… sand, but there might be a benefit to adding other things. Crumb rubber will make the bag more full and less floppy, which is more important for lighter ones. People have successfully added gravel, woodchips, and more based on what they have around or to find a desired consistency. It’s best to have a mostly full bag as the extra space in a floppy bag can reduce its life.

  • Since many competitions have series of bags, and/or you and your training partners are in different weight classes, customizability can be an issue to get by with purchasing less bags. Adding change plates (preferably old/not being used) can bump the weight up or down without too much of an impact on the balance of the bag. You can add and remove other materials, just note that the opening for most sandbags is very small. A 2.5# plate is the largest thing that can fit in the opening of our Cerberus throwing bags.

Brands and differences

  • The three main manufacturers seen in competition as of the writing of this article are Cerberus, Rogue, and Brute Force. The main difference between them is their handle. We recommend Cerberus or Rogue due to the thick, wide, and grippy handle, and the fact that these are the most ubiquitous in competition.

Alternatives

We recommend practice throwing any item that you want to (safely). A good-sized rock, a medicine ball, or a slam ball are all good choices. Kettlebells can work too, as long as you do not let them cause you to revert your form to a standard swing. Learning the throwing motion with these odd implements can be just as helpful or more than practicing with the actual bag.

Practicing Without a Crossbeam

Practicing without a crossbeam is the most common issue for athletes training for a bag throw since they require time, money, space, weather, and/or effort to set up. Some alternatives might be to find a local park with a high fence and sticking a pvc pipe through at the height you want, or a personal favorite of ours, finding tree branches and measuring their height. You may have some success filming your throws from the side and comparing to your own height in view, though this is subject to a lot of error.

This sequence below will show you a great way to practice without a crossbar, with the benefit of built-in technique evaluation.

Programming Considerations

Due to the fact that throwing bags requires some solid lower body warm-up, and then requires some practice with technique and explosion, it makes a great way to prepare for heavy lower body days. Try getting some quality throws in before lower body strength days, or explosive full-body lift days such as barbell or implement clean and jerks.

  • Recovery burden: Low

  • Energy Systems: ATP/Phosphagen

  • Skill Level: High

Accessory exercises

  • Olympic lifts - Clean and jerk, snatch

  • Plyometrics - Box jumps, Counter-movement jumps

  • Kettlebell snatch or clean and jerk

  • Squats, both front and back

Recovery

  • Musculature 

    1. Minimal to no recovery required for a moderate amount of sets.

  • Central

    • Due to the explosive nature of this movement, it can tax your central nervous system and therefore depending on your volume it may impact subsequent exercises requiring maximum power output.

  • Due to the high level of skill requirement as well as being a “power” dominant movement, this movement will be more heavily impacted by your other training. We recommend putting your technique work or learning this movement early in a mesocycle or when your training fatigue is low. Practice existing skills and work on power when your training fatigue is moderate. Do only light power based drills and easy throws when your training fatigue is high. This will help prevent training too slowly, and practicing poor technique.

Special Credit to Sara Fleming.

Most of the instruction, technique, drills and corrections are brought to you directly from Sarah. Sarah was kind enough to meet with us in order to provide the sport with the highest quality information possible.

Greg Schiltz
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Sandbag Carry