Post ballgames, I started into lifting 50+ years ago [later adding muay Thai, Catch-wrestling, Chinese yoga, and more]. Retired the barbell just four months ago, started farmer's walking [silly of me to not realize the value of CARRYing weight sooner].
Off that, suddenly/naturally decided to try sandbags.
Getting on in years, was wayyy-more measured, cautious, with so major a training change. Starting with very light bags, they're nevertheless much trickier/clumsier than barbells to grip, and of course low down to the floor. Thus initially scary - I've had some surgeries... but quickly turning irresistible.
So now the first Atlas, loaded to 60 lb. As expected, the ball-shape is a more defiant pickup/hold/carry than those tubular bags.
Bought Freedom's Strongman 75, and a couple of its bigger brothers. They're loaded and waiting... teasing, scoffing at, a lanky guy pushing 80. I'll get to each in its turn.
... slow and steady. I want another twelve or twenty years.
Ordered the Atlas 100 this morning. As I familiarize with my 75-pounder, I'll underfill the second Atlas a bit, gradually pack it up into three digit weight, then take on the bigger strongmen bags.
Great fun! Sandbagging is so brand-new and refreshing that this geezer feels... boyish!
Didn't have to try other [respected, popular] brands. Examining everybody's design details, Freedom's hidden seals, the thickness of material, advanced stitching... made my choice clear; military-grade tools from the military-grade company.
If you young powerhouses have older loved ones, warned away from such practical exercise by overly-cautious advisers... don't hog the fun and benefits; consider buying them a small Freedom training bag and guiding them in [maybe show them this part of the review]. Speaking as a movement therapist, bag training weaves/coordinates the various body parts together functionally like nothing else [surely most all of you know/feel that]. Aging people will be able to carry their OWN groceries - and do most anything else - much longer than expected/predicted by the mainstream.
