Slosh Pipe Workout

Slosh pipe! wow, this is seriously hard. anything you do with the pipe is really hard.


If you haven’t heard of the slosh pipe before, you are probably wondering what on earth it is. The basic design, and that’s the beauty of it, there is NO complex design, is a 10’ PVC pipe, 4” diameter , filled part way with water, and fitted with 2 end caps. You can use either the glue on, hard plastic style caps, or removable rubber caps that come with plumbers tape- the screw on, adjustable kind


What is so great about the slosh pipe? It is a simple tool that is incredibly effective at training the whole kinetic chain with every exercise. It falls into the realm of what is known as odd-object lifting, along with sledgehammers, tractor tires, and sandbags. Because it is only partially full, the water is able to slosh back and forth with every minor movement you make, continually changing where the weight of the water is inside the pipe. As the water moves toward the end of the pipe, it creates a larger moment of torque. This creates an extremely variable load on the entire muscular system as the water never stays in place. Continual load shifting requires micro-adjustments from every muscle in your body, which puts more demand on your system, and recruits far more muscles than any traditional version of the same exercise would. The slosh pipe is to the barbell what the stability ball is to a bench.

Imagine the pipe is on your shoulders crucifix style and you are standing up, and you are not maintaining perfect balance with the pipe- all of the water moves toward whichever end of the pipe is lower. If it all flows to the right side, you now have your right arm working to elevate the pipe, your left arm pushing down to lower the pipe, your back trying to keep your spine upright, your core muscles trying to maintain complete body stability, and your legs shifting back and forth to keep you from walking around. Every muscle is working synergistically to coordinate this balancing act- all of your stabilizers are working non-stop; all of your muscles are working non-stop. The first time you pick up a slosh pipe YOU WILL NOTICE EVERY muscle in your body activating at the same time. In the long run this means you do more work in less time!