Fitness and Training Bag: Traditional Heavy Bag Workout

Heavy bag workouts are great for increasing overall cardio and muscular endurance. As a fighter, heavy bag workouts are an essential part of training for a fight. They allow you to visualize your opponent and target your striking to specific body parts. You utilize footwork when the swaying of the bag causes you to evade and defend against your imaginary opponent’s counters. You can unleash all of your power in sprint drills to mimic the intense exhaustion you’ll experience each round.

A traditional heavy bag hangs from the ceiling at about 4 feet in length, weighing from 75-120 pounds. This means it’ll sway in reaction to your punches, elbows, kicks, and knees. Throw combinations to warm up your body, using footwork to maneuver the movement of the bag. Get used to throwing jabs as you work your way around to fend off your opponent’s advances and prepare to set up a new combination. 

Sprint drills are ideal to build up cardio and muscular endurance; you’ll get your heart rate up and train your muscles to last through every round at 100%. I usually split my sprints into 30-second increments for 3-minute rounds. For example, I’ll start with throwing my favorite combo, a Jab-Hook-Cross, for 30 seconds. 

Then, I’ll throw left leg roundhouse kicks repetitively for 30 seconds. I’ll finish with 30 seconds of right leg roundhouse kicks.

The clinch is my favorite place to be in a Muay Thai match, so I’ll grab onto the bag and practice clinch knees for about 30 seconds between other combos. When you’re training the Muay Thai clinch on a heavy bag, use your forearms and palms to grip the bag (instead of your hands grabbing the top straps) for a better workout that’s more realistic to handling an opponent.

And then start from the top for a total of 3 minutes. I’ll rest for a minute and do another 2-3 rounds in the same way. Feel free to switch it up with your own favorite sprints and combos, but I promise this style workout will beat you up!