5 Heavy Bag Punching Tips

Incorporating these 5 heavy bag punching tips and advice is a critical step for novice boxers, street fighters and martial artists. Punching the heavy bag combines resistance exercise with cardio-vascular and skills training into one complete package, preparing the body with both the conditioning and the skills to fight. It is hard to imagine boxing or striking in other martial arts without a heavy bag workout  These 5 heavy bag punching tips will help you get more out of your heavy bag routine while avoiding injuries that would disrupt the momentum of your training regimen.

1. Always wear hand wraps. The human hand and wrist are fragile, and on their own they are not up to the strain of punching an 80 or 100 pound bag for five to ten rounds every time you work out. Properly wrapped hands bind all the small bones of the hand into a single, stable unit and offer the wrist extra support. Wearing hand wraps is a key safety step and you should never punch the heavy bag without them.
2. Spend some time punching the heavy bag without bag gloves. Most of the time, you should wear bag gloves because they give the hands and wrists more protection from wear and tear and make your hands heavier, increasing the difficulty of the work out. However, periodically you should punch the bag without bag gloves and use only your hand wraps. This helps toughen up the hands and wrists. Boxers might do this for one round a work-out, while a street fighter might want to spend up to half of their rounds punching the heavy bag without bag gloves.
3. Never stop punching. Rain a continous barrage of blows onto the heavy bag. Even when you are resting and working on defense, you should stick jab after jab into the bag. This makes your workout harder and focuses on the thing you are punching the heavy bag to do, namely work on your striking.
4. Pay attention to your defense as you punch. Do not just stand in front of the heavy bag and wail on it. Move around it and punch. Keep your guard up at all times, and work slipping into your combinations.
5. Always maintain proper form.  Never raise your workout to such a level of intensity that your form becomes sloppy. Punching the heavy bag should consolidate your skills, not ruin them. At least once a round, slow down enough to pay close attention to your form and your balance. If your form is good and you are balanced, pick the pace back up. If not, shift the focus of your heavy bag routine to work on what is wrong with your form or balance until the problem is cleared up.