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what do you use to add weight to a pack for training hikes?

Want/need to be able to easily adjust the weight up or down easily.

Don't want water jugs moving around and making a heavy bottom.

Whats a good solution?

I’ve been pack training for a long time now like 15 years. Over time I’ve shanked how I do it. When I’m actually hiking with the pack like climbing mountains etc, I keep it from 30-45 to avoid injuries and just have some extra resistance for the workout.

When I do really heavy training, I prefer to do it in a more controlled environment like box steps or some sort of gym machine like a treadmill. That’s when I’ll throw in 75-90lbs.

That has worked really well for me over the past few years.

I use a couple of bulky and heavy old sleeping bags to fill up the bottom 2/3 of the pack and various bladders and water bottles in the top 1/3. I have a couple of MSR 6-liter bladders and a bunch of old bpa Nalgenes that I don't drink out of any more, easy to add or subtract weight and dump the weight if I ever need to.

I stay around 45 pounds for training weight. I use bags of birdseed taped to maintain their shape. I might go heavier once in a while but only in the treadmill where I can keep the elevation steady. I find it’s not the uphills that get me sore, those downhills get the knees.

MM

I use different sizes of plastic jugs filled with sand, and use old blankets for filler and space the jugs of sand out in the pack. Empty windshield washer jugs work great.

Jugs with water separated with bulky clothing usually...

I wrap kettlebells and/or dumbbells in old blankets and towels and duct tape them.

I would try to distribute the weight by using more, small items in order to train realistically.

Appreciate the answers. I’ve managed to maintain some semblance of shape (of which round is one, right?). I’m nowhere near mountain-hunt shape right now.

The spacers and wraps are something I just didn’t think of for some reason. I was trying to avoid having a 50# pendulum of water jugs bouncing off my ass.

This gives me ideas, hence my OP.

Thanks, all.

I use 2 liter pop bottles filled with water . Old blankets and shirts to separate and make up volume. They weigh about 5 lbs each which makes it easy to increase or decrease my training weight .

I have a 20lb and a 30lb slabs of ductile iron. I have light, medium, and heavy training days where one or the other, or both are in the backpack.

I use 25 or 40 lb. bags of water softener salt.

A couple of those 6 gallon water containers should be good enough for you, at least until you are back in shape.

Bunched/rolled up rain gear works well to take up some space, and keeps stuff from moving around. Plus, you probably have lots of it.

Thanks. I was thinking a blue 30 gal fuel barrel filled with wet sand for starters.

5-20# bags of rice, sewn into sleeves made of old BDU trouser legs.

Doubles as shooting bags.




GR

Don't neglect your arms. It will help with tightening straps.

I've used 5 and 10 lb bags of sugar. i usually put them in 2gal ziplocks in case they crack open.

The Southpark version is more better

I have a bunch of homemade sandbags. I used a piece of painters drop cloth from Home Depot and bought some bags of gravel. I made them in 5lb & 10lb sizes. I use these to condition not only me but my llamas so I have over 300lb of them. There are several ways to keep them up off the bottom of a pack. Put them in side pockets, for example, or stuff something else in the bottom of the pack.

A bag of pellets for a pellet stove weighs 40lbs and comes in a reasonably strong bag. They also take up a bit of space in your pack similar to a game bag filled with meat. Easy in and out.