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 the most effective of each worlds: cardio (with velocity) and power coaching (with punches). It’s not only a exercise on your arms both. A punching bag exercise is a complete physique exercise participating the chest, shoulders, legs, and core.
Able to punch the stress approach? Maintain studying to study punching bag exercise gear, the precise method to heat up your physique for this kind 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 gear
The fundamentals required for a punching bag exercise embody a heavy bag, hand wraps, and boxing gloves to guard your fingers and knuckles. There are totally different luggage to select from, together with hanging, sitting, sandbags, and aqua. Reams recommends aqua luggage as they soak up the affect whereas a standard heavy bag reverberates the affect again into the joints.
In your ft, Katie Webb, an ACE-certified coach and boxing teacher, suggests cross-trainers as a substitute of working 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 basic warm-up strikes corresponding to leaping jacks, excessive knees, butt kicks, and mountain climbers to ramp up your coronary heart fee. Reams suggests focusing the warm-up on the higher physique in terms 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. In response to Webb, it is one other wonderful method to heat up the muscular tissues 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, change into accustomed to the shape and stance. Start together with your ft shoulder-width aside, pointing towards the bag. Then drop the leg of your dominant aspect again and barely pivot your physique to face one o’clock. “You must primarily be capable of 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 aspect.”
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 degree 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, “lengthen your again arm out in entrance of you, making contact with the bag and rotating your fist barely inward because it leaves your aspect,” Webb says. “Return it to your aspect, ensuring to convey 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 aspect of the punching bag by rotating by your waist,” Webb says. “The bag ought to get in the way in which of your punch. Mimic this identical motion on the alternative aspect 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 guaranteeing 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 virtually 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 aspect. Webb recommends rushing it up right into a circuit by alternating rapidly between back and front uppercuts for 20 seconds nonstop.
The calm 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. “Little one’s pose is an effective way to sluggish your coronary heart fee 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 pressure after this kind of train.”
Tips on how to elevate your punching bag exercise
Take your heavy bag exercise up a degree with these professional suggestions.
- Solely make contact with the bag. Attempt to not transfer it. “It’s okay if you happen to do transfer it a bit, however the aim is to strike rapidly then defend,” Reams says.
- Maintain your knees bent.“Staying low will strengthen your middle of gravity and let you garner extra energy in your punches by rotating by 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 transferring. “As you change into extra comfy with the punches themselves, attempt to transfer across the bag and incorporate head motion,” Webb says. “This retains your coronary heart fee up and also you prepared on your (imaginary) opponent.”
- Purpose for brief combos.“Repeating brief combos at a excessive depth with rests in between are finest, relatively than making an attempt to place collectively lengthy mixtures,” Webb says.
