Every Type Of Punching Bag Explained For Boxing & Kickboxing
If you are a beginner in striking based martial arts, you would be forgiven for thinking that all types of punching bags are the same. Whilst there are many similarities between heavy bags, there are also subtle differences between each style.
When you are completely new to boxing or kickboxing, it doesn’t really matter too much which type of heavy bag you practice on since your main focus is going to be technique. Whilst it isn’t completely irrelevant which kind of bag you’re using, for the most part, it’s best to work on your footwork and form of throwing punches. This is going to be far more important than a bag, especially if you want to regularly spar other resisting opponents.
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What Is The Benefit Of Using A Heavy Bag In Boxing?
The main benefit of using a heavy bag in boxing training is the effect it will have on your body. Quite simply it will condition your knuckles, shins, or whatever else you are hitting the bag with. Secondly, it will help increase your power, since hitting a heavy bag over a period of time is pretty strenuous and will help build muscle and explosiveness. Lastly, it will condition your arms and core muscles, as well as increase your aerobic fitness.
It is also possible to better your boxing technique whilst practicing alone on a heavy bag. However, this is not advised and is better achieved with a sparring partner as this is a much more efficient use of time.
Is It Ok To Hit A Heavy Bag Without Gloves?
Unless you are very experienced and know exactly what you’re doing. It is always better to use some kind of hand wrap whilst hitting a heavy bag. This will help protect your hands against any kind of injury. If you’re new to boxing it is 100% recommended you use a wrap, since hands are a lot more delicate than a bag.
What To Use Each Type Of Punching Bag For
Different bags have different uses. Some of these are subtle differences and some of them are vast. The list below shows the true purpose of each individual bag. However, even if you train boxing professionally, you will likely not need to use more than 4 different kinds of bags. There is a lot of overlap between each design and a lot of training choices will be down to personal perception.
Pros & Cons Of Each Type Of Punching Bag
Each bag listed below has different benefits and drawbacks. As a general rule, the more static a bag is, the less movement you will have to do and thus can use fewer angles. The lighter and more flexible a bag is, the more you can move around it and practice your coordination and technique.
Mostly you will find that heavier boxing bags are used to build power and condition your bones, ligaments, and muscles, whereas lighter speed boxing bags are used to build hand-eye coordination and movement.
Types Of Punching Bags
Regular Heavy Bag
The most common and well-rounded bag you will find in any gym is a regular heavy bag. These are always hung from the ceiling or a small mount with chains, thus allowing you to move around them and work on various techniques. In boxing gyms, you will find they are hung a little higher than MMA gyms. This is because practitioners of boxing only want to punch, whereas MMA fighters need to practice low kicks.
Regular heavy bags typically weigh anywhere from 70-120lbs and are around 5ft in height, although you are able to buy kids sizes that weigh less and are smaller. Heavy bags are normally filled with cut up fabric if bought from a retailer. If you fill your own heavy bag, you can use anything from corn to old clothes to fill the void.
A typical price for a solid heavy bag will set you back anywhere from $120 – $300 from an online retailer.
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Stand Alone Heavy Bag
Great for those who just started, a freestanding heavy bag is the best choice for beginners who want to train boxing at home. As you can simply fill the base of a stand alone boxing bag with water or sand, it does not require you to drill holes in your ceiling and is a little more portable. As a result, you will almost never see this style of heavy bag in a boxing or kickboxing gym.
Of course, once you are a more powerful and explosive boxer, a freestanding heavy bag begins to wane in usefulness. This is because it is rather stationary and is easily knocked over by a very powerful puncher (or kicker).
However, for the average beginner, this is the best and cheapest heavy bag you can buy.
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Angled Heavy Bag
Angled heavy bags offer a similar kind of use as a regular heavy bag, but are more suited for those who like to throw a lot of uppercuts. Due to the linear shape of a regular heavy bag, it is not really suitable for landing specific types of punches (such as the uppercut). The angles on this kind of heavy bag allow a place for your fists to land safely, making sure you won’t damage your hands.
Much like regular heavy bags, angular heavy bags are hung from the ceiling or a bracket. In general, they are around 50% less tall than a regular bag and therefore around half the price too.
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Aqua Training Bag
If you have weaker wrists than average, the Aqua bag comes highly recommended. By no means is punching an Aqua bag soft, but it does put less pressure on your hands and wrists than a typical heavy bag that is filled with something solid.
As you may have guessed by the name, an Aqua bag is one that you fill with water. This has other benefits than just absorbing impact such as being able to drain it, move it to another location and refill it – something which is infinitely more difficult with a standard heavy bag.
In summary, Aqua bags are extremely similar to tear drop style heavy bags from a practical training perspective. But offer some hidden benefits that you may not have thought about.
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Wrecking Ball Heavy Bag
As you can see by the shape and name of the heavy bag, this type of bag is a lot smaller than almost all others, but has a very large center of mass in a confined space. Depending on the quality of a wrecking ball bag, they cost anywhere from sub $100 to $250.
In general, you will find that it is almost exclusively boxers using a heavy bag since most kickboxers do not want to kick something this solid at such a height. On the whole, wrecking ball heavy bags weigh around 70lbs, whereas a human head weighs approximately 10lbs. Therefore you will find most of the shots thrown on a wrecking ball bag are suited for close up and clinch fighting such as uppercuts and elbows.
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Wall Mounted Heavy Bag
A fairly uncommon sight, wall mounted bags are mostly used in gyms where there is a lack of space. As they are permanently fixed to a wall, this provides a way to generate use out of otherwise empty space.
Due to the fact that a wall mounted heavy bag offers no movement whatsoever, it should only really be used to improve power and conditioning. By hitting a still target, hand-eye coordination will not be improved too much compared to other exercises.
Wall mounted bags are also fairly expensive and cost $200 upwards. Overall, there are far better heavy bags available for a cheaper price, since their use is very limited, unless space is an issue you shouldn’t buy one.
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Speed Bag
A speed bag is certainly not a heavy bag but gives a lot of essential skills that are required in boxing. For a start, hitting such a small and lightweight bag will drastically improve your hand speed and hand-eye coordination. There are only a few other ways to do this, so practicing on a speed bag is ideal, especially since they’re relatively cheap and don’t take up a lot of room.
Secondly, speed bags will condition your arms. As they’re placed around head height, this is an unnatural place to keep your hands when starting out. So you will learn to defend yourself by holding a high guard, as well as strengthening muscles in your arms and shoulders in order to keep your hands this high for an extended period of time.
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Double End Bag
The ultimate bag for improving movement and speed. A double end bag will help your overall footwork, as well as hand speed and hand eye-coordination. The fact that it moves around so fast yet is stuck in a somewhat stationary position mimics the movement of an opponent as well as any other bag would.
Overall, a double end bag is the one piece of boxing equipment that is going to increase your speed and general athleticism when compared to anything else.
The drawback of a double end bag is that it takes up quite a lot of space and requires a certain level of distance between both the floor and ceiling. For this reason, they aren’t too common within gyms and are heavily outnumbered by regular speed bags.
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Bag With Spinning Bar
Another great boxing bag for those who want to train at home, or simply don’t have a sparring partner. Whilst a bar will never replicate the movement of another human being, it will at least hit you if you’re not being careful enough.
Being hit by a spinning bar doesn’t particularly hurt too much, but if you get hit by someone else it will. Therefore it is a good way to help your body learn to get out of the way and duck under punches, rather than running backward or getting into any other bad boxing habits.
Generally, this type of boxing bag will cost between $150 – $300, so is reasonably priced compared to other bags.
