Elite Sports reached out to me, a while back, and was kind enough to send me one of their Bulgarian Bags, for free, to test out and review. This is a hojo undo kigu (supplementary training tool) that I have been interested in trying out for quite some time–and I even have a tire inner tube stashed away specifically for the purposes of making one, but I never got around to it. This has provided me with the perfect opportunity to try one out, not only for myself, but for those who follow this site and my social media.
While traditional Bulgarian Bags are made of leather, the Elite Sports Bulgarian Bag is made of nylon canvas with wrist loops, and several grip points integrated into it, and has a heavy duty zipper along the inner curve for access to the inner bladder. The removable inner bladder is meant to be filled in order to give the bag weight, also seems to be made of nylon, and has a heavy duty zipper along the inner curve. You could, conceivably, fill this with any non-liquid material, such as shredded cloth, rubber crumb, or sand. I used sand, as it is cheap and easy to get, but the zippers are not perfect in keeping the occasional dusting of sand from escaping.
Filling the inner bladder was actually fairly challenging, although I suspect it would have been significantly easier if I had used a funnel, and had someone else assist me in filling it. Simply pouring sand into the bladder resulted in a lot of spillage, and a lot of stopping to re-adjust the bag to try to get as much sand in as possible. Having someone else hold the bag and a funnel while you pour the filler in would likely be much easier, cleaner, and more efficient. The next challenge was that I filled the bladder outside of the main bag, and getting the nearly-full bladder back inside was difficult, as the zippered opening is barely large enough to allow for that.
When it came to exercises, I found it quite comfortable for simply resting on the shoulders to add weight to things like squats, lunges, and stance training. When it came to the various swinging exercises I tried, it worked well, although I feel that the wrist loops are a bit too long, personally, and because it is made from nylon, it can get slick with sweat, making it hard to hold onto the integrated gripping areas. I will say, though, that some people may see that as a benefit, as it adds difficulty to the exercises.
After several uses, so far, the only wear-and-tear I’ve experienced was a single stitch popping on one of the wrist loops, which happened in my first session with the Bulgarian Bag. I don’t necessarily see that as a huge problem, because the wrist loops have a secondary row of stitching, as well. I suspect that this may have happened as a combination of the wrist straps being too long and me not maintaining quite enough momentum during a swing, resulting in the bag dropping when it shouldn’t have. All-in-all, I do think that it’s a good choice for those looking to get started with Bulgarian Bag training–just be sure to have somebody with a funnel help you fill it! If you’re interested in checking this out, I have some links HERE so you can browse their products, and you can click HERE to go directly to the Bulgarian Bag on their site.