Advice on using a heavybag

[el_guitarrista]

After some careful negotiating, my landlady has agreed to let me use her garage to stick a heavy bag in (score one for keeping a tidy flat on inspection day...!) But I have a few questions.

 

Firstly, any recomended bag makes\brands available in the UK would be gratefully recieved, also any ideas of what to look for in a good bag.

 

Secondly, what are the limitations of bag work? What won't it train, and what should I work on to compliment my bag time?

 

Finally (thanks for bearing with me...), what are the advantages, what drills will improve my stamina for karate sparring. (A little more specific than 'hit it lots for long periods of time') How long should I work out for? Should I work out every day? Every other day? In 3 minute (round) lengths, or longer. Maybe for a continuous half hour at low intensity?

 

Thanks

[KnifeHand]

I also recently got a heavy bag, and I posted workout questions on here, with some really good answers. I have now formed my own workout that I find works really well. I work the bag every day that I am not in class, for a half hour. Here is my workout:

 

5 mins stretch

 

1 min backfist

 

1 min reverse punch

 

1 min front snap kick

 

1 min roundhouse kick

 

1 min other kicks

 

1 min knees, elbows

 

3 min of backfist/reverse punch combo with intensity

 

5 min sparring combos, all techniques for rhythm

 

3 min sparring combos all out with intensity (this is where you get tired)

 

3 min kata review (to cool down)

 

5 min self-defense techniques, stretch out

 

This works great for my style and my dojo, and of course you can substitute things as you find necessary. Doing a single technique for just a minute straight really develops the form and power of that technique, making it more applicable in a real situation. Some days I also do weapons work (bo, tanbo, suntetsu), using foam weapons. I just like to use this as a basic and flexible guideline, and it's a real workout. I also use weighted bag gloves and ankle weights for the entire workout. Needless to say my speed is improving...

[tommarker]

I'd add to be cautious at first when hitting the bag. You cannot hit the bag with full force until you have good mechanics down. Spraining your wrist is a sure fire way to end up collecting a lot of dust on your heavybag

[Sinar89]

1) i would liek to congradulate you on your bag. it is my favorite work out equipment. not, i 'm not in karate yet (getting ready to be in a few weeks) but i do workout and the bag has helped greatly. first, i would recommend getting wrist wrapps or wrsit gloves. that way you can punch alot and not hurt your wrist. after a week or 2 your hands will get use to it and now i don't wear gloves usually. for its limitations, it won't really get you "stronger" meaning it won't let you be able to bench 250 if all you do is the bag. saying that, it gets you strong fight wise. what i mean by this is your punch will be great. i just found this out lol. i thought my punch was just liek a normal guys and i do the bag alot though. so i figured it didn't really improve my punch. this guy i know wanted to trade arm hits as hard as we can so i agreed and he told me to go first. backround, this guy always lets other guys hit him. him and his friends broke off a guitar string by accident and kept hitting each other with it and it kept cutting them. so usually ihe can take a hit. i didn't even step into it and as soon as i hit him he was like "holy s--t" and started rubbing his arm. he was like,"screw this i quite" and the other guy watching was like "whats wrong?" and he was like "he swings like fu--ing mike tyson" and it went on like that for a few mins. so, while your not going to be showing off in the gym, this will be a god send for your punches. have fun and good luck.

[G95champ]

I have had an everlast bag from about 10 years now. We have beat it to death and it has tape all over it but its still hanging and doing well.

 

1. Start hitting the bag with speed and add power as you get used to it. This will stop you front hurting yourself. To often we just want to bang.

 

2. My personal exp. unless you wrap your hands or train in gloves stay away from punching the bag. Its heavy 40lbs or more depending on the size and stuffing. Use backfists, backhands, knifehands, palm, and elbows. LOTS OF ELBOWS.

 

3. Stay away from kicks that would danger you knee. Such as spinning hooks and cressants. The bag is to heavy and you can get your knee jamed. For that matter its hard to use a front kick on a bag as well. I usually only use my round, side and spinning thrust kicks when I do bag work along with knees.

 

bag work is great it teaches you power but pace yourself because you can burn out on it quick and its not safe espcially if you go to hard to fast.

[el_guitarrista]

Thanks everyone, some great ideas there.

 

I've got just one more question, based on your replies:

 

Is it better to wrap my hands\use gloves when I use it, or simply start of with low power techniques. I can see the advantages of using wrist wraps etc, but I would have thought that all I would be doing is conditioning using equipment. If I ever actually threw a punch to hurt someone (heaven forbid I ever have to) it would be without gloves. By training with them, aren't I just inviting injury in a 'real-life' situation?

 

I take the point about the weight of the bag, but doesn't an adult weigh about 50-60kg? Hitting them in the torso isn't going to be any easier than hitting a bag...

 

I would have thought that hitting a bag without protection would present no problems unless I tried to do too much too quickly. By training without protection, won't I slowly (and I intend to advance power slowly), condition my wrists and hands to take higher impacts safely?

[Omega14]

Thanks everyone, some great ideas there.

 

I've got just one more question, based on your replies:

 

Is it better to wrap my hands\use gloves when I use it, or simply start of with low power techniques. I can see the advantages of using wrist wraps etc, but I would have thought that all I would be doing is conditioning using equipment. If I ever actually threw a punch to hurt someone (heaven forbid I ever have to) it would be without gloves. By training with them, aren't I just inviting injury in a 'real-life' situation?

 

I take the point about the weight of the bag, but doesn't an adult weigh about 50-60kg? Hitting them in the torso isn't going to be any easier than hitting a bag...

 

I would have thought that hitting a bag without protection would present no problems unless I tried to do too much too quickly. By training without protection, won't I slowly (and I intend to advance power slowly), condition my wrists and hands to take higher impacts safely?

 

Hitting a human is very different from hitting a bag. Hitting certain areas of the body are softer than others, and more effective.

 

As for the taping part, that would be up to you. But, I will tell you this: your strking technique will likely be different depending on whether you tape your wrist or not. As for the conditioning, personally I don't think you can "condition" the wrist that much. If you look at boxers, they still tape their wrist for all of their practice/matches.

[VinnieDaChin]

id post this same question in the boxing/kickboxing forum

 

anyway, a common mistake of the heavy bag is people literally put everything they have into each punch, which really isnt the way to do it. speed is power, so practice hitting hard but still reasonable.

 

http://www.rossboxing.com/thegym/thegym18.htm

 

http://www.rossboxing.com/thegym/thegym24.htm

[seersin]

Well this is my first post here so I hope I make it worthwhile.How you hit tha bag will greatly vary depending on what you plan on working.For example if you wanna hit tha bag to work on speed,I would suggest wrist wraps,or if you wanna shell out a little more money,get gloves with tha wrap around band on them.

 

Now if you wanna hit tha bag to work on strikes or how you would hit a person go bare knuckle with nothing,mainly I say this because if you have to defend yourself your not gonna have time to slap on gloves or wrist wraps.But going raw can really shred up your knuckles sometimes.

 

 

 

If your looking to harden your hands,I'd say get a sandbag and blast away on it.For kicks I'd start out somewhat slow,just to get accuracy on point.Then gradgually kick harder and faster for longer periods of time.Then gradgually work in to kicking low mid then high,then switch it up a little at varying sppeds with all of tha kicks. I hope this helps

[Sinar89]

i would say start off with gloves/wrapping first. it conditioned my wrists real quickly so know i can punch the bag as hard as i can and it doesn't hurt. also, hitting a bag is alot different then hitting a human. alot of human areas are soft and, the main thing, humans stand. when you hit your bag hard you will notice, if hit in the middle, the bottom will swing out, then the top, and repeated real fast. if you hit the top then it swings wildly. when you punch a human, it feels like more of a conection and your hits actually do more damage. trust me, the bag will deffinitly give you power