Making the Homemade Bulgarian Bag
Sunday, July 19, 2009 at 5:01PM It all started with this post of mine on Twitter:
Feeling inspired today, gonna make a homemade Bulgarian bag:http://bit.ly/g4kNSthanks @ZEvenEsh
The video on his site shows Matty Wichlinski building a bulgarian bag from some easy to buy parts.
I have recreated the process here with using rubber mulch (wood pellets are seasonal, its summer, and Home Depot did have some but we would have needed a fork lift and a team to get them so I opted for rubber mulch)
So my trip consisted of
- Autozone for the car tire inner tube ($15)
- Home depot: Rubber Mulch ($9), Zip ties ($2)
- Total: $26 + tax
- Weight: 11lbs
(I already had the Duct Tape in the house, so no cost for that)
First I took the inner tube and cut through the tube on either side of the air plug.
Then I grabbed one end and twisted. This helped me figure out how long the handle would be.
The inner tube has a great curve for a bulgarian bag, I grabbed the other side of the tube until I found a place that felt comfortable for the second handle and cut the excess tube off.
I then zip tied where I wanted to start the first handle and duct taped the sip tie down (once around)
This gave me a great place to start the handle. I grabbed the rubber for the handle and rotated it like I was wringing out a towel.
I then duct taped the handle going in the direction of the wringing spiral.
Now I was ready to start filling the inner tube with rubber mulch.
I started with scooping the mulch with my hand, but that got tiring and I instead used a plasting cup instead.
Once the mulch was filled up to where I wanted the 2nd handle all that was left was to repeat the handle creation process.
(Wringing the tube... sounds dirty :-)
Here it is all done!
Using the rubber mulch made it a bit light but great for a beginner: 11 lbs !!
I am sure wood pellets will be a bit heavier or even rubber mulch with sand!
(Edit: I ended up wrapping the handles in Hockey tape for a better grip)
Have fun making your own now!
Rich Borgatti
P.S., This walk through is one of the most visited posts on my site and I am trying to gauge interest in more DIY projects. Please leave a comment below and let me know what you thought of this write up.
Thanks!
Rich
Reader Comments (2)
Hi Rich,
I got this idea from youtube having looked on the "official" bulgarian bag website and seeing the price.
I did exactly as you have but used sand instead of rubber mulch. I was lucky enough to get 3 inner tubes from a local tyre centre free. They were old ones but nothing wrong with them for my needs. Bought a huge bag of sand and I was off. Now I have 3 blugarian bags, 30lbs, 40lbs and 50lbs.
I have also fitted out my entire garage with home made conditioning equipment for a total of £27 (roughly $50). Would you like me to send you the contents of my home gym.
Alternatively you can look me up on facebook and I will add you where I have vids and pics etc.
Cheers, keep up the training.
(for facebook search my email address)
Regards,
Will (UK)
Hi Will,
This is great! How did you distribute the different weights? Did you add any filler besides the sand? What kind of sand did you use?
Do you have any directions on how you made the equipment in your gym.
Sent an invite to you on FB.
Rich