If you want to know how to pick the best heavy bags for Muay Thai training at home, then look no further. This guide will help you understand the benefits of having a Muay Thai heavy bag at home, the different types of heavy bags available, as well as the factors you need to consider, such as weight, filler, and mounting, to get the best results. Read on to find out everything you need to know when bringing a Muay Thai heavy bag home.
Benefits Of Heavy Bag Training
There’s a reason why every Muay Thai gym needs a heavy bag. It is an essential part of the training experience in Muay Thai. Bag work is most likely the first thing you’ll be doing at a training session after you complete your warm-up exercises. Many fighters repeatedly strike the heavy bag a set number of times to practice their technique. Poor use of the Muay Thai technique means you cannot deliver strikes with the necessary power or accuracy and may even cause injuries. Heavy bag training is a core part of perfecting those techniques.
Working with heavy bags will help develop your muscles, enabling you to strike harder and faster. You’ll also condition your body to withstand the impact of those strikes. Furthermore, practicing with the swing of a heavy punching bag will help improve your coordination, stance, and balance. Finally, a heavy bag will allow you to practice combinations of strikes that work well in a sequence. These combo strikes, when executed well, are what will help you surprise your opponent in a fight to get the upper hand.
Why You Need A Training Bag At Home
There’s a reason why everyone wanted a heavy bag when the COVID-19 pandemic started. Whether it’s social distancing or simply bad weather, sometimes you’ll find yourself stuck at home. This is where a good heavy bag can be helpful to let you practice Muay Thai from the safety and comfort of your own home.
While it’s recommended to learn new techniques under the supervision of an experienced instructor, you can practice them endlessly at home to improve your power and speed. Once the heavy bag is set up, you can train at any time, day or night, whenever you need your Muay Thai fix. A heavy free-standing bag offers this convenience without requiring the assistance of another person, like an instructor or training partner. Finally, you can come up with your own signature combos in complete secrecy and impress your classmates at the next training session.
The Types Of Heavy Bags For Muay Thai Training
There are many different types of Muay Thai heavy bags to choose from, and it is perfectly understandable if you’re unsure of what to go with. There are standard Muay Thai heavy bags like the free-standing punching bag, hanging bag, banana bag, and more. Each type of heavy boxing bag is meant for different purposes, and each will focus on some of the limbs in the Art of Eight Limbs. Let’s find out which Muay Thai heavy bags are best for your chosen style.
Traditional Muay Thai Heavy Bag (The All-rounder)
The standard Muay Thai heavy bag is perfect for beginners training Muay Thai since it allows you to practice everything from punches to kicks on the entire length of the bag, which is around five to six feet. When you’re starting out, you can opt for a bag that is lighter that swings more. This would help you improve your movement and stance.
Experienced fighters will prefer heavier bags that allow them to strengthen their muscles to deliver more powerful strikes. The only downside with these bags is that they’re not great if you want to practice uppercuts. However, the traditional Muay Thai heavy bags work for both beginners and professional fighters and are great all-rounder heavy bags to train with.
Banana Heavy Bag (For Kicking)
It’s very easy to mistake a banana bag for a traditional Muay Thai bag. It looks similar and is about 6 feet long, but weighs more. Banana heavy bags also hang lower to the ground because they are made to practice low kicks and teep kicks, also known as push kicks. Furthermore, banana bags will help condition your shins to deliver more powerful kicks.
A banana bag swings less and is not good for practicing punches. However, it is good to practice other Muay Thai techniques, such as clinching. Banana bags are not for everyone, and will not give you an all-round Muay Thai workout, but you can be sure they’re great for kicking.
Teardrop Training Bag (For Punches And Elbows)
Teardrop bags are designed to fulfill what the standard Muay Thai heavy bag couldn’t. It specializes in uppercuts and hooks. If you’re planning to head into the Muay Khao style of fighting with your knees, then the teardrop bag is a great way to practice those techniques as well.
This bag is obviously not meant for low kicks, but you can practice jumping kicks and high kicks. The teardrop bags are also relatively inexpensive compared to traditional Muay Thai heavy bags and are easily portable if you need to hang them somewhere else.
Wrecking Ball Training Bag (For Maximum Punching Power)
Wrecking ball bags are not made for Muay Thai but for regular boxing. However, they are useful to Muay Thai fighters that wish to work on their punching power. It is ideal for practicing uppercuts as well as combinations of punches. You can also work on your elbow techniques. Just like the teardrop bags, the wrecking ball bags are relatively cheaper and easy to move.
Free Standing Heavy Bag
All of the heavy bags we have mentioned thus far need to be set up, most commonly via a ceiling mount. You have to take into consideration how heavy the bag is, how much it will swing, and whether your ceiling is capable of taking the weight. If this is not possible at your home, then a free-standing heavy bag is the best option for you.
These aren’t the best heavy bags for Muay Thai training, but free-standing bags do get the job done. They are portable and some are even shaped like an opposing fighter, making it easy to target specific parts of the heavy bag as you would strike during a real fight.
Things To Consider When Choosing Your Heavy Bag
You know what style or type of move you want to practice the most. Choosing the heavy bag that will be best suited for that purpose is only half the work. There are still a few more things you need to know to customize your bag even further. The material that makes up the bag, the filler, and the mounting type of your heavy bag will make a difference during your home Muay Thai training. Let’s find out more about that.
Heavy Bag Material
If you have already picked out your Muay Thai gloves and shin guards, then what we’re about to say here won’t come as a surprise. Heavy bags made from leather are the most durable option you can find. They also have a great response to getting hit, absorbing impacts wonderfully. Leather heavy bags feel softer on impact, making them easier on the hands.
Of course, these highly desirable qualities make leather heavy bags expensive. Synthetic leather is a cost-effective alternative that provides a decent response but is not as durable as real leather.
Filler
The filler material will determine how the heavy bag will respond to getting hit and how stiff or soft it feels on your hands. The filler will naturally affect how much your bag weighs. The more weighty bags are better for strengthening, while lighter bags that easily move will be better suited for beginners to improve coordination and balance. The ideal heavy bag weight for a beginner is about 100 pounds, to get adequate resistance without sacrificing too much swing.
For these reasons, it is very important to get the filler right since it will completely change your training experience. Corn cob, gel, foam, sand, sawdust, rice husks, old clothes, and rags are commonly used for filler. You can purchase a pre-filled heavy bag or fill it yourself for a more customized heavy bag.
Mounting Type
For the best stability, ceiling mounting is the recommended method for Muay Thai heavy bags, although wall mounting works as well. However, you will need to install a special mount on your ceiling or wall for this purpose. When selecting a mount, it is important to know how heavy you’re planning to fill your bag and whether it can support that weight.
It is also a good idea to assess how much space you will need wherever you choose to mount it. There are many high-quality mounts available that allow you to hang heavy bags up to 200 pounds and are designed to dampen noise during swings. For more information on heavy bag mounting, check out the best heavy bag mounts.
Bring Muay Thai Home
Before you buy, think about what techniques you wish to get better at, and test out the heavy bags in your gym to see which ones you’re most comfortable with. Pay close attention to what the filler is, and experiment with different fillers to check the response. Having a Muay Thai heavy bag at home is a convenient way to get a daily workout without having to visit your training gym all the time. You can practice whenever you feel like it and hone your techniques to perfection without ever leaving the comfort of your home.
Before you head over to your local Muay Thai gear shop to buy yourself a banana bag, check out our list of Top 10 Heavy Bags for Muay Thai Training at Home based on the recommendations of the fighting community. You might find the right heavy bag for your home.
FAQs
A standard heavy bag for Muay Thai made by one of the established brands in Muay Thai training gear like Fairtex, Yokkao, Sandee, or Raja will work best.
Ideally, a Muay Thai heavy bag should weigh around 100 lbs for a beginner, although this will change depending on the filler material and training application.
A heavy bag used in Muay Thai is longer in shape and meant to practice kicks in addition to punches, whereas a standard punching bag used in boxing is meant to practice punches.
