Relieve Major Stress (and Feel Like a Badass) With These 4 Punching Bag Workout Moves

A punching bag exercise, also called 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 perfect 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? Hold studying to study punching bag exercise tools, the suitable method 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 embody 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 up the impression whereas a traditional heavy bag reverberates the impression again into the joints.

In your toes, 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 price. Reams suggests focusing the warm-up on the higher physique relating to stretching, as that’s the place probably the most motion will come from.

One other professional tip: Incorporating shadowboxing, which is boxing with out making contact with the punching bag. In accordance with Webb, it is one other wonderful method 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 conversant in the shape and stance. Start together with your toes 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. “It is best to basically have the ability to draw a straight line out of your entrance toe to your again heel,” Webb says. “Knees must be softly bent, and your weight is evenly distributed. Each fists must 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 as a result of 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, “prolong 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 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 aspect 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 similar 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 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 aspect. Webb recommends dashing it up right into a circuit by alternating shortly between back and front uppercuts for 20 seconds nonstop.

The quiet down

You’ve obtained 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 an effective way to sluggish your coronary heart price whereas additionally stretching out your shoulders, which tackle lots of impression in heavy bag coaching,” she says. “Hip flexor and decrease again stretches additionally relieve stress after this sort of train.”

Easy methods to elevate your punching bag exercise

Take your heavy bag exercise up a degree with these professional ideas.

1. Solely make contact with the bag. Attempt to not transfer it. “It’s okay should you do transfer it a bit, however the purpose is to strike shortly then defend,” Reams says.
2. Hold your knees bent.“Staying low will strengthen your middle of gravity and permit you to garner extra energy in your punches by rotating via your waist,” Webb says.
3. Shield your face.“In case your fists aren’t throwing a punch, they need to at all times be up by your face,” Webb says.
4. Hold transferring. “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 on your (imaginary) opponent.”
5. Purpose for brief combos.“Repeating quick combos at a excessive depth with rests in between are greatest, moderately than attempting to place collectively lengthy combos,” Webb says.