A punching bag exercise, often known as a heavy bag exercise, is a boxing-style train that requires a stuffed heavy bag both hung from the ceiling or held up by a stand. With it, you get one of the best of each worlds: cardio (with pace) and power coaching (with punches). It’s not only a exercise in your arms both. A punching bag exercise is a complete physique exercise participating the chest, shoulders, legs, and core.
Specialists In This Article
- Bryant Reams, A lifelong elite athlete and former Division 1 basketball participant, Bryant Reams is now an teacher at Rumble and SoulCycle.
- Katie Webb, Katie is an ACE-certified private coach and CEO of the plant-based superfood mix firm Aila.
Able to punch the stress manner? Maintain studying to find out about punching bag exercise tools, the correct option to heat up your physique for this sort of exercise, and 4 punching bag exercise strikes that can make you feel and look like a complete knockout (sorry, we needed to).
Punching bag exercise tools
The fundamentals required for a punching bag exercise embrace a heavy bag, hand wraps, and boxing gloves to guard your arms and knuckles. There are completely different luggage to select from, together with hanging, sitting, sandbags, and aqua. Reams recommends aqua luggage as they take in the affect whereas a standard heavy bag reverberates the affect again into the joints.
In your toes, Katie Webb, an ACE-certified coach and boxing teacher, suggests cross-trainers as a substitute of operating or jogging sneakers as they permit extra lateral motion.
Punching bag exercise warm-up
To get your physique warmed up earlier than a punching bag exercise, look to traditional warm-up strikes comparable to leaping jacks, excessive knees, butt kicks, and mountain climbers to ramp up your coronary heart price. Reams suggests focusing the warm-up on the higher physique in the case of stretching, as that’s the place essentially the most motion will come from.
One other professional tip: Incorporating shadowboxing, which is boxing with out making contact with the punching bag. Based on Webb, it is one other wonderful option to heat up the muscle tissue and get comfy with the stance and type.
Do that 10-minute newbie boxing exercise with coach Michelle Sim to get your blood pumping earlier than turning to the punching bag:
4 Punching bag exercise strikes
Earlier than diving right into a punching bag exercise, turn out to be aware of the shape and stance. Start together with your toes shoulder-width aside, pointing towards the bag. Then drop the leg of your dominant facet again and barely pivot your physique to face one o’clock. “It’s best to basically have the ability to draw a straight line out of your entrance toe to your again heel,” Webb says. “Knees needs to be softly bent, and your weight is evenly distributed. Each fists needs to be by your face, defending your chin and elbows at your facet.”
1. Jab
To get your jab on out of your boxing stance, punch the middle of the bag together with your non-dominant hand main together with your knuckles. “Your hand/wrist goes to rotate in the direction of the middle of your physique as you throw the punch, creating extra energy because of the torque,” Reams says. “Do that for 100 reps, ensuring to maintain the punches round eye stage and the off-hand as much as shield your face.”
2. Cross
For the cross, you’ll use your dominant hand and arm. Beginning out of your boxing stance, “prolong your again arm out in entrance of you, making contact with the bag and rotating your fist barely inward because it leaves your facet,” Webb says. “Return it to your facet, ensuring to deliver your again fist up by your face. Your jab and your cross ought to ideally be hitting the identical spot on the bag.” Reams recommends doing 100 reps of the cross.
3. Hook
To throw a entrance hook, “make a 90-degree angle on the elbow in your entrance, arm parallel with the ground, and hit the facet of the punching bag by rotating via your waist,” Webb says. “The bag ought to get in the best way of your punch. Mimic this identical motion on the alternative facet for a again hook. Pace this up right into a circuit by performing 20 seconds of a front-and-back hook mixture with a second relaxation in between every pair of hooks.”
4. Uppercut
Prep for an uppercut by making certain your knees are bent. You’ll get energy out of your hips and decrease physique to push off the bottom. “Throw a entrance uppercut by shifting your weight to your entrance foot,” Webb says. “Drop your entrance elbow downward in order that it nearly touches your entrance hip. From there, push powerfully upward out of your legs to launch your punch up and into the bag.” To do a again uppercut, repeat this course of on the alternative facet. Webb recommends rushing it up right into a circuit by alternating shortly between back and front uppercuts for 20 seconds nonstop.
The quiet down
You’ve received the punches out. You’re feeling good. (Stress? What stress?) Now, it’s time to chill your physique down. Webb’s go-to cool downs incorporate yoga-style stretches. “Baby’s pose is a good way to gradual your coronary heart price whereas additionally stretching out your shoulders, which tackle a variety of affect in heavy bag coaching,” she says. “Hip flexor and decrease again stretches additionally relieve stress after this sort of train.”
How one can elevate your punching bag exercise
Take your heavy bag exercise up a stage with these professional suggestions.
- Solely make contact with the bag. Strive to not transfer it. “It’s okay if you happen to do transfer it a bit, however the aim is to strike shortly then defend,” Reams says.
- Maintain your knees bent.“Staying low will strengthen your heart of gravity and mean you can garner extra energy in your punches by rotating via your waist,” Webb says.
- Shield your face.“In case your fists aren’t throwing a punch, they need to all the time be up by your face,” Webb says.
- Maintain shifting. “As you turn out to be extra comfy with the punches themselves, attempt to transfer across the bag and incorporate head motion,” Webb says. “This retains your coronary heart price up and also you prepared in your (imaginary) opponent.”
- Purpose for brief combos.“Repeating quick combos at a excessive depth with rests in between are finest, reasonably than attempting to place collectively lengthy mixtures,” Webb says.
