Looking for an MMA heavy bag workout to do solo at home or just outside of the gym?
Then you will definitely find the MMA heavy bag workout detailed below useful to plug into your martial arts training.
Or you can use this workout to get ideas for building your own MMA heavy bag workout.
Why Use only the Heavy Bag for MMA training?
For a lot of people, getting to the gym often or even at all is not possible or quite costly.
Having an MMA heavy bag workout you can do solo can benefit your gym training as you can put in extra work outside the gym to improve on your own. This solo training will show when you get back in the gym and you training partners will notice.
So using the heavy bag to get in a challenging MMA workout that will also build skill and technique is a preferred option for many.
If you get to a gym regularly and have no need for solo training outside the gym then this is the ideal situation.
I would still add in an MMA heavy bag workout like the one below every once in a while to challenge yourself or when you just cant get to the gym for some reason.
Recommended Heavy Bag
For this workout and similar MMA style workouts that incroporate standup and ground, the type of bag you use is important.
I would recommend the 6ft Thai bag aka Banana bag. The main reason being the ability to train low kicks in a solo setting effectively.
I also like the height of the 6ft bag to able to train and chain together strikes up high with a low takedown.
But even a traditional 4ft punching bag of about 100 pounds can be just as effective for all the aspects of the training described below.
Where to focus on in an MMA heavy bag workout?
MMA is a ihghly skill based fighting style that requires proficiency in different styles of fighting.
So your MMA heavy bag workout should include the following aspects:
- Striking
- Takedowns
- Ground technique
So lets get into the actual training.
Dynamic Warmup/Mobility
Before you start in the workout proper its important to get in an effective warm up.
This will lubricate your joints, warm up the muscles and done correctly will increase your range of motion, power and flexibility.
Most MMA sessions begin with light jogging, skipping rope and shadow boxing. These are great ways to get the body warm for training.
You can also incorporate drilling as part of your warm up and technical practice as well.
Add in some specific mobility and dynamic warmup moves to get an even more effective warmup.
Striking
3 Rounds total the first two being technical and the final round power.
A good general philosophy to follow for bag work to train high percentage combinations.
Look to get repeated reps of good technical strikes and factoring your entry and exit with good protection and defense.
If you are covering the basic striking and high percentage combinations below you lay a great foundation for even more technical and advanced techniques and combinations.
High Percentage Punch Combos:
- Jab, Cross
- Jab, Jab, Cross
- Hook, Cross
- Jab, Cross, Hook
Punch-Kick and Kick Punch Combos:
High percentage combos:
- Lead Hook/Jab, Rear Low Kick
- Jab, Cross, Hook, Rear Body Kick
- Lead Hook, Cross, Lead Body Kick
- Jab, Rear Uppercut, Lead Hook, Rear Head Kick
Be sure to also include Elbow and Knee combinations which can work well in MMA with clinch and stand up grappling that you can also train on the heavy bag.
There are many kickboxing/muay thai style bag drills that are very effective for MMA that you can check out and use:
Dutch drills for the heavy bag
Takedowns
2 Rounds of take downs and striking to takedowns
According to the website MMA Fight DB which looked at looked at over 2,072 trips and throws in 799 MMA fights, the top takedowns were as follows:
- Double leg
- Single leg
- Outside trip
- Bodylock
- Suplex
- Duckunder
- Hip throw
- Inside trip
It would be wise to focus your training on these high percentage takedowns.
There are many different ways to train the high percentage takedowns above with just a heavy bag. The video above shows a creative way to train the double leg.
Ground techniques
For these rounds you will need a heavy bag that you can detach and lay flat on the ground.
With just a heavy bag you can train a lot of fundamental solo BJJ and ground techniques and get an excellent workout at the same time.
With your ground control you can also chain in your striking to takedowns and then to top position and maintaining top position.
Or simulate passing the guard and maintaing top poisition and prevent guard retention.
- Heavy bag throw to guard passes 1 5 minute round (stand back up after passing guard)
- Heavy bag throw to guard pass to top position control (top position control for 30 secs then stand up and throw again) 2 5 minute rounds
Cool Down after your MMA Heavy Bag Workout
Equally as important as your warm is taking in the time to perform an adequate cool down after hard training.
Bring your heart rate back to normal and stretching to release built up tension and stress from repetition is important to be able to be healthy for your next training session so you keep improving consistently.
Missing training due to injuries and strains can be prevented through effective cool down after training.
10-15 mins of light shadowboxing followed by deep long stretches.
MMA Heavy Bag Workout – Wrap Up
So there you have it, both an MMA heavy bag workout you can follow directly as well as ideas for your own MMA heavy bag workout and solo training.
These types of workouts are useful for those who train mostly solo at home or who train at a gym but want to put in extra work outside the gym to progress faster.
It was my intention to show that a simple heavy bag can provide the means for an effective MMA workout and incorporate striking, takedowns and ground with one piece of equipment.
