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I’ve been taking KM about two months now in Charlotte and love it so far. I go 2-3 times/week, but would like to practice as much as I can on my own when away from class. I’m considering getting a heavy bag to use at home for punches/kicks, but not sure about what weight to buy, style, etc. Does anyone have advice?
Right now, I don’t use wraps in class and I’ve been fine. Went to the local YMCA recently to practice punching on the heavy bag, only to tear up my knuckles up nicely. I won’t be that stupid again and purchased some 16 ounce gloves that arrive today. Am I supposed to wear wraps under the gloves each time I practice on the heavy bag? I’ve read where wraps will help keep the wrist firm and possibily prevent injury, but I’m wondering if taking 5-10 minutes out of my limited gym time at lunch to wrap (I’m a newbie and not used to wrapping yet) is really necessary. Maybe I’m being ridiculous. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Re: Advice on Heavy Bag @ Home for Training?
Get a 50-70ib bag, make sure you have a good place to hang it up at. Do you go home for your gym time? Either way, I’d use wraps. You can buy some of the “wrap gloves” by Everlast, but I can’t comment on how useful they are because I’ve never used them.
Re: Advice on Heavy Bag @ Home for Training?
Try these. Protect knuckles and have great wrist support. No need for wraps.
Re: Advice on Heavy Bag @ Home for Training?
Some factors to consider when buying a heavy bag:
1. how much you want to spend
2. how heavy you need (e.g. how big you are, how hard you punch/kick, etc)
3. how much space you have
4. do you prefer swinging or free-standing
5. how/where will you mount/support it
6. what kind of techniques will you be working on
7. what materials do you prefer for contact/outermost layer
8. what materials/design do you prefer for inner filling/constructionPersonally, I like having 2 bags – a 6′ muay thai style cloth filled heavy bag and a smaller “headhunter” type bag (IIRC, mine is approx 14″ diameter, 14″ tall, filled with pinto beans).
I’m not a handwrap kind of guy (only times I ever wrapped was the few times I “accidentally stumbled” into a ring) but I would definitely recommend it for others. I will normally wear MMA type gloves with built-in wrist support/wraps or I will go bare knuckle. (If I’m worried about abrasions while bare-knuckle, I might put some medical tape across my knuckles). MMA style gloves will save you a lot of prep time (but if you do spend 5-10 minutes prior to actually working out, you could also look at it from “an ounce of prevention” perspective)…
I got my muay thai bag from Nazo Boxing – http://www.nazoboxing.com/heavy-bags.html they also custom made my headhunter bag to my specs…
Re: Advice on Heavy Bag @ Home for Training?
Thanks for the advice. To answer some of your questions below, I’m currently 203 lbs, 5’10. (Yeah, I’m trying to lose some lbs.) I dont really know if I punch “hard.” I would put the bag in the garage. More than likely, I would mount it on a designed frame instead of in the ceiling since I would need to move it frequently. Interesting thoughts on the mma gloves. I first considered buying those but read a lot from people who said mma gloves on a heavy bag would lead to certain injury.
As far as technique, I’d be practicing punches, elbows, and kicks. I know that sounds vague, but right now I’m still a beginner.
I’d like to stay under $300 for the whole setup. Not sure about swinging, but I figure a stable bag would be best, maybe mounted to a sandbag below to keep steady.
Re: Advice on Heavy Bag @ Home for Training?
What I’m getting at is how much you’ll be moving different sized bags around when you punch and kick. If it’s too light, it’ll be flying all over the place… I think it can be tough to find a balance between moving frequently and having a good sturdy base or platform. If you have the room and interest, a cool set up is running an I-beam across the room, having a rolling mount attached to the I-beam and hanging the bag from that rolling mount. You could have a spring loaded locking pin fix the rolling mount in place at various points (drilling holes) along the I-beam… kinda like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTiRL_vrf-A
I’ve never heard that about MMA gloves and heavy bags. Did they say why it would cause injury and what kind of injury it would cause?
Re: Advice on Heavy Bag @ Home for Training?
I did a lot of research on this a few years ago when I started. I actually started with a 70# boxing bag but that was too light and didn’t let me work in low kicks. Here is my $0.02 on the matter.
Here is the setup that I’ve settled on:
130# bag from KO Fightgear – look up some reviews and you’ll find them at the top of the list. Their standard weight bag is 100# but I wanted something heavier. You can even get custom weight and size bags. Fantastic quality and customer service. CKM and RHEK have great setups but I don’t like the Title bags they use, however you can find some good deals on them from time to time if they are to your liking.Swingarm mount from Fighting Sports – I got it on sale for $120. Its mounted on the inside of an exterior wall in my garage and let’s me swing it out of the way when not in use. The only downside is that I don’t have 360* of movement around the bag. I also put some bits of duct tape on the bag to serve as targets that represent the nose, chin/jaw, liver, and round kick targets (ribs), thighs.
Regarding Wraps – If you are hitting a heavy bag you should always wrap your hands and wear at least 8 oz gloves. You don’t want to injure a fist or wrist training – that kind of defeats the purpose. When that bag gets slippery from your sweat and you start moving around it, its easy to tweak a wrist.
Also, Bas Rutten has a great training workout for heavy bags. You can choose 2 or 3 minute rounds. Punches only or Punches, Kicks and/or Knees.
Finally, there a friend of mine just released an app in the iTunes store called FightTrainer which lets you setup rounds and strikes – and them calls them out to you.
Re: Advice on Heavy Bag @ Home for Training?
My 2 cents- forget the gloves but the bag’s solid and so’s the stand. One thing -did get weights to put on the stand so we could do heavier whacking
At the tine we got it, it was free shipping
Re: Advice on Heavy Bag @ Home for Training?
quote Don:What I’m getting at is how much you’ll be moving different sized bags around when you punch and kick. If it’s too light, it’ll be flying all over the place… I think it can be tough to find a balance between moving frequently and having a good sturdy base or platform. If you have the room and interest, a cool set up is running an I-beam across the room, having a rolling mount attached to the I-beam and hanging the bag from that rolling mount. You could have a spring loaded locking pin fix the rolling mount in place at various points (drilling holes) along the I-beam… kinda like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTiRL_vrf-AI’ve never heard that about MMA gloves and heavy bags. Did they say why it would cause injury and what kind of injury it would cause?
The I-Beam sounds cool, but that’s way more “contruction” than I want to put in for this, especially considering we may only be in our house another year or so.
From what I’m reading, the MMA type gloves often don’t offer enough padding on the knuckles, as well as not enough wrist support to prevent injury. (Reading product reviews and MBs) This might all depend on the individual though… Truth be told, I’d rather use MMA gloves so I can do open palm strikes, etc as well as straight and hammer punches. I just don’t want to have to wait 2 weeks for my knuckles to heal like I’m doing now. Here’s the MMA type “heavy bag” glove I’m looking at
Re: Advice on Heavy Bag @ Home for Training?
quote mara_jade:My 2 cents- forget the gloves but the bag’s solid and so’s the stand. One thing -did get weights to put on the stand so we could do heavier whackingAt the tine we got it, it was free shipping
Thanks for the recommendation! I think I saw your similar post in another thread. Looks like a good deal, but I’m the kind of person who’d want to touch and feel a bag before I buy it. Went to my local Walmart to check one out this weekend, but they didn’t have it. Was told I have to go to a Supercenter. To be continued… Thanks again.
Re: Advice on Heavy Bag @ Home for Training?
There are 2 basic styles of MMA gloves — 4oz fight gloves with individual fingers and not much padding, and 8oz training gloves with thick mitten-style padding. The latter, like the ones Bear linked above, have as much padding as a boxing glove. Other good brands besides Combat Sports include Hayabusa and most any made-in-Thailand muay thai brand (Fairtex, Twins, etc.) I’d steer clear of Everlast gloves except for their best (most expensive) models.
Re: Advice on Heavy Bag @ Home for Training?
YMMV with wrapping and/or different types of gloves/bag gloves. The “newer” you are, the harder you are hitting or going at it, and/or the more tired/fatigued you are, the more I would recommend wrapping and using gear that supports your wrists and protects your hands. My experience/opinions on Everlast are the same as Catapult.
Re: the everlast bag stand. YMMV also. My YMCA has one just like it. For me, that particular stand isn’t sturdy enough and the bottom supports are in the “wrong” place (interfere with my footwork/stepping, especially when you put weights on them and the weights take up more space down there).
Here is my home set up. It’s really cluttered right now because I’m injured and can’t do much heavy bag work (or anything else fun). Long story short, I’ve most likely torn ligaments in my right knee and ankle (freak accident while grappling) – just waiting to get an MRI to figure out exactly what’s torn and how bad… The the little tan/orange bag in the back is my first custom headhunter bag – 2 layers of cotton canvas, triple stitched, filled with pinto beans. The muay thai bag is from Nazo ($100 filled, picked up there at the shop). The bag stand and square sandbags are by Biltuff (looks like their website is down right now – they’re located in Alhambra, N/W corner of Mission and Atlantic).
Re: Advice on Heavy Bag @ Home for Training?
Thanks again for all the suggestions. After running it by my instructor, I’ve decided to go with the Muy Thai bag similar to Don’s set up below. I’m getting two pairs of gloves- 16 ounce for heavy bag and mma type gloves for light sparring and in-class stuff.
Hope you heal soon, Don!
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