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With the plethora of home fitness equipment currently in the market, keeping fit at home has never been easier. In fact, the pandemic served as a helpful reminder of how easy it is to perform a full workout regimen right inside our houses.
One of the best ways of working up a sweat in your home is to use a punching bag. A session on a punching bag will improve strength, coordination, endurance, and muscle. And you don’t even have to be a professional boxer to enjoy these amazing benefits.
Think about it. You need almost every large muscle group in your body to throw a punch, which by the way, travels at an average velocity of 11 meters per second, from your feet to support your weight to your knuckles as they hit the punching bag.
We have rounded up some of the best punching bags for home use but first, here are some compelling reasons you should get yourself one:
Table of Contents
Why You Should Buy a Punching Bag
Punching bags aren’t just for Olympic athletes and sports personalities. Many people now choose punching bags as their ideal workout tools and outlets for releasing pent up steam. Here are 5 more reasons you order a punching right now:
1. Cardiovascular Exercise
There’s absolutely no need to give you an earful about the benefits of good cardiovascular exercise. You already know the health benefits and you’ve probably heard the lecture thousands of times.
Cardiovascular exercise helps your heart stay healthy and help protect it from diseases. A good cardio workout burns calories and trains your heart and respiratory systems to always function at optimum levels.
But we understand, cardio has always been boring. If the thought of you huffing and puffing on a treadmill isn’t particularly exciting, then working a punching bag for a few minutes can help you achieve the same results.
2. Stress Reliever
A wise man once said, “the world is no longer clay in our hands but iron, and men have got to hammer out a place for themselves.” This means that there will be more things to stress you out in modern life.
When you are undergoing a stressful period or at the end of a long, gruelling day, taking a quiet walk or running a bath may feel like the most Zen thing to do. But sometimes, you want to punch something (or someone) and punch it hard. If you don’t want to smash your hand against the wall or your boss’s face, a punching bag is the absolute best option. Get your gloves out or your hand wraps and go work that punch for a good half hour and you’ll be feeling relaxed in no time.
3. Working Out Your Self Defense Skills
Throwing rapid-fire punches demands a lot of your motor skills such as balance and coordination. In truth, not many people can effectively throw a punch or a nice kick. A punching bag will not only give a proper workout but will also improve your ability to kick and punch, both of which may come in handy when you need to defend yourself.
Constantly developing your ability to kick and punch will develop the necessary muscles and coordination, and at the same time, help you gain more confidence in the fact that you can also hit back hard when you find yourself in those kinds of situations.
4. One-time Purchase, Life Time Benefits
A punching bag is specifically designed to take punches and kicks. Purchasing a high-quality brand means that you will reap the benefits for quite a lengthy period of time. And since there are different types of punching bags available on the market, you can pick the perfect one for your specific home environment.
For instance, if your ceiling can’t safely hold a hanging punching bag you can go for a free-standing one. Therefore, if you acquire a decent quality punching bag, you can use it for quite a while without having to replace or repair it. And there’s a slim chance you’ll hit it too hard and destroy it. Unless you are Chuck Norris.
5. Saves You Money
A recurring gym subscription or periodically having to fork out money for an aerobics session can be costly. A punching bag is a one-time acquisition and with the proper and regular workout, you will achieve the same level of fitness without having to pay for every session.
A punching bag designed for home use requires only about 3-5 feet of space, which means you can almost fit it anywhere around the house. Freestanding punching bags can be positioned anywhere there’s a space, including your backyards. You simply purchase, position, and start punching your way to full fitness.
How to Select the Perfect Punching Bag for Home Use
The truth is that punch bags are pretty much sporting items and therefore, they are an absolute must-have for any aspiring boxer, kickboxer, mixed martial arts sports personalities and other related athletic sports.
However, anyone can own and benefit from the great workout one can achieve, even if they don’t want to be an Olympic athlete. Therefore, sports considerations aside, here are a few questions to help you select the right punch bag for home use;
Do you want a punching bag for sports training or just for fitness?
This is perhaps the first consideration for anyone before you begin to scour the internet for the best punching bag. While many punching bag varieties can be used both professionally or at home for personal fitness, some of them are specifically designed for non-professional use. Figuring out your specific goal will help make your search much easier.
Where are you going to place your punching bag?
Punching bags do need space, as well as support. You can hang them from the wooden trusses overhead if you happen to have an open garage. But if you don’t have the luxury of space or an open garage, you may have to install a platform from which you can hang your punching bag. Or you can simply hang it outdoors.
Luckily, there are freestanding punching bags that don’t need to be hanged or suspended. They simply stand on their own and are absolutely ideal for people that don’t have a lot of space to work with. Most of them have a base, which you simply fill with water or sand for added stability. Of course, they don’t provide the same resistance but they are great investments for people who have limited spaces but still want to enjoy the benefits of a punching bag.
Filled Vs unfilled punching bags; which one should you buy?
As you scour the internet for the best punching bags for home use, you’ll quickly discover that there are unfilled and filled punching bags, which basically means that the unfilled bag comes empty and you’ll have to fill it up before using it, while the filled punching bag comes prefilled and ready to use as soon as you install it.
Both these options have their merits. An unfilled punch bag is ideal for a serious athlete or sportsperson who wants the right feel when they hit the bag, i.e. the right amount of resistance when they throw the punch. The downside of this is that you have to figure out what kind of filler to use, how much of it should you use, and other details.
A filled punch bag is essentially the ‘plug-and-play’ version of punching bags. You just hang it or position it and punch away, which is absolutely convenient if you just want to get some proper workout.
Best Punching Bags For Home Use
Of course, there are hundreds of punching bags to choose from online. We’ve taken the guesswork out of your search and rounded up a few of them for you to consider. Here are eight of the best punching bags for home use(in no particular order):
This all-purpose punching is made out of heavy-duty material, from its outer shell and inner lining to its hanging straps and bungee cord slot. The construction makes it absolutely perfect to practice a range of combat sports, including Karate, Muay Thai, boxing, kickboxing, and self-defence training. It’s particularly ideal to soak in kickboxing blows since it has reinforced stitching and a bungee cord slot.
Features:
- 4 feet height
- Made out of heavy-duty PU leather
- Super easy to clean
- Unbreakable stitching all round
- Comes with a zippered top or head closure
- High impact shock absorbers
- Heavy-duty hanging hooks
- Comes with hanging straps already
- Comes unfilled (saves you shipping costs)
- Several colours to choose from
- Ideal for multiple combat sports, which means a wide range of exercises
- 10-year manufacturer’s warranty
It’s perfect for a home gym, or any space you can create around your home and ideal for both adult women and men.
It’s made out of premium leather and high density foam to soak in all the punches for many workouts. No surprise that it’s highly rated by many amateur boxers and beginners.
Features:
- Stable, rounded ABS base tank with 12 strong suction cups to prevent movement during your workout (fill base with water or sand).
- Multi-purpose, heavy punch bag with tear-resistant leather
- High density foam, with new absorption technology for added resilience
- TPU absorbers and springs to ensure less vibration when doing intensive exercises
- Super easy assembly
- Perfect for boxing, kickboxing, or when you just want to throw some rapid fire punches to work out.
Features:
- Stands at 50” long (top to bottom) and 18” wide when hanged with the chains
- Strong and well-made bag made out of a beautiful red, black, or white canvas material
- Quality heavy duty chains and swivel
- Perfect for boxing workouts, or if you just want to let off steam
It’s extremely to set up. Just order the bag and then fill it up with all the scrap fabrics you can find such as old shirts, jeans, pieces of materials, plastic bags, towels, and other fabrics. Ensure you have removed all the sharp or metallic objects such as zippers. Note that this punch bag doesn’t work with water because it will leak.
Features:
- Non-rip, triple-stitched quality exterior made out of strong and resilient waterproof canvas
- 14” Circumference, 60” height, 100lbs weight (approximate weight when filled)
- Balanced weighting system
- Comes with triple-stitched D-rings tabs that help to reduce excess noise
- Ideal for Kickboxing and Muay Thai workouts
Remember to get the stuffing right if you want a solid, heavy duty punch. Pound down the stuffing with a piece of wood so that it can get properly compressed for great results.
It’s probably worth mentioning early on that the base and the sand bag are shipped separately and may not arrive on the same day as the punch bag. That being said, it’s a fantastic product that can help relieve your stress and at the same time, help you improve your reflexes, sensitivity, and body strength.
Features:
- Stands at 70” tall
- Best for both punches and footwork for all family members
- Multi-layer build, with each layer being carefully selected for optimal results (a stainless steel tube stand, high-density EPE foam, an eco-friendly fabric cover, and premium PU leather).
- Tear-resistant outer material
- Thick, round base to allow for easy relocation
- 12 strong suction cups at the base that will keep the heavy punch bag in place during workouts, even on smooth or even floors
- Comes with a pair of thick foam gloves pre-curved to protect you and provide shock absorption
Note that you will not need to disassemble the entire unit or yank it out of the floor if you want to move it to a different location. Simply slide a thin and hard object like a playing card in between the cups to dissipate any suction and then roll it to your desired location.
Conclusion:
Before you select a punching bag to purchase, always determine where you are going to set it up. If you are going to hang it, confirm the amount of weight your ceiling can hold. If you are considering a freestanding punching bag, then determine where you are going to position it. Usually, you’d need around 3 feet of space around a freestanding punch bag so you don’t end up knocking out everything around you during a workout.
It’s time to get on with it. Go ahead and order one of these punching bags and start working out or releasing that pent up steam without having to knock anyone out!
