Here are 6 essential muay thai heavy bag training tips that will be sure to take your heavy bag training to the next level.
1. Warm Up Thoroughly
A proper warm up will boost your strength, focus, and flexibility before you start working the heavy bag.
On my YouTube channel I put up a video on the typical warm up I use for martial arts training and resistance training.
I tweak the warmup depending on what I will be working in my main workout.
For example if doing a muay thai training session (as in the video above) I focus more on the hips and utilize banded hip stretches and other exercises to get primed for throwing kicks and knees.
Check out my post on ‘Hip Mobility for Martial Arts’.
2. Choose the Right Type of Bag
There are at least 5 types of muay thai heavy bags you can use in your training.
If you have access to a gym then you could probably make use of each.
If you train mostly at home and can afford to get one muay thai heavy bag then I would recommend the Thai Bag aka banana bag which is 6ft.
Check out my home muay thai workout with the 6ft Thai Bag in the video below.
The Thai bag is the only bag that you can work leg kicks on. And leg kicks are important in muay thai.
Training solo using the 6ft Thai bag is probably the only time you can work leg kicks with full speed and power.
2. Use the Timer on Your Mobile
It’s important you track your rounds of work as well as your rest.
This way you can improve your conditionig through decreasing rest or increasing round length.
I typically stick to 3 mins work and 1 min rest.
But if you are starting out you could do 2mins work 1.5 min rest depending on your level.
But it is important you track your rounds and your mobile is one of the easiset ways to do this.
You could use certain apps to set up your entire workout without having to take off your gloves and setting and resetting your timer on your phone.
4. Track Your Progress
Decreasing your rest time is one way of improving your conditioning over time but you also want to have some specific numbers and targets in order to track your progress.
You could also track the following and set targets:
i) Resting Heart Rate
Look to improve this over the weeks of training.
The following standards are taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics. You can use them to track your progress.
Men
- Age 18-25: Athlete 49-55 | Excellent 56-61 | Good 61-65 | Average 70-73 | Poor Over 82
- Age 26-35: Athlete 49-54 | Excellent 55-61 | Good 62-65 | Average 71-74 | Poor Over 82
- Age 36-45: Athlete 50-56 | Excellent 57-62 | Good 63-66 | Average 71-75 | Poor Over 83
- Age 46-55: Athlete 50-57 | Excellent 58-63 | Good 64-67 | Average 72-76 | Poor Over 84
- Age 56-65: Athlete 51-56 | Excellent 57-61 | Good 62-67 | Average 72-75 | Poor Over 82
- Over Age 65: Athlete 50-55 | Excellent 56-61 | Good 62-65 | Average 70-73 | Poor Over 80
Women
- Age 18-25: Athlete 54-60 | Excellent 61-65 | Good 66-69 | Average 74-78 | Poor Over 85
- Age 26-35: Athlete 54-59 | Excellent 60-64 | Good 65-68 | Average 73-76 | Poor Over 83
- Age 36-45: Athlete 54-59 | Excellent 60-64 | Good 65-69 | Average 74-78 | Poor Over 85
- Age 46-55: Athlete 54-60 | Excellent 61-65 | Good 66-69 | Average 74-77 | Poor Over 84
- Age 56-65: Athlete 54-59 | Excellent 60-64 | Good 65-68 | Average 74-77 | Poor Over 84
- Over Age 65: Athlete 54-59 | Excellent 60-64 | Good 65-68 | Average 73-76 | Poor Over 84
ii) Body measurements
Tracking your body weight over the course of training is a good way to see if your muay thai heavy bag training is working for you.
If you have some weight to drop then measuring your waist and other areas where the body stores fat is good to set your targets.
iii) Technique
Video yourself and send in to muay thai forums or your online coach for critique.
Also review and compare certain techniques and combos over time to see if you have improved.
You can use your mobile to video yourself at the beginning and every week or so to see your improvement.
5. Vary Your Workouts
Especially when training mostly solo at home, its important to vary your workouts.
If the heavy bag is your main method of training muay thai (i.e those training solo at home) then you will be using the bag 3-6 times a week.
In order to keep your motivation high and your workouts fresh, you need to vary your heavy bag workouts.
This will also allow you to work on different aspects of your muay thai with specific focus.
For example when doing more conditioning focus training you could do this type of workout 2 times a week.
Then the other 1-3 days a week you could focus more on technique.
Check out my post, ‘Technical Heavy Bag Workout’ to improve your technique.
Varying your muay thai heavy bag training leads directly onto the final tip below.
6. Follow a structured heavy bag training program
One of the easier ways to ensure you are getting good variety in your heavy bag training is to follow a done for you program.
This will save the time and research in developing your own program with good variations in your heavy bag workouts.
Also following a structured program will give you a lot of ideas for developing your own workouts in the future.
They also force you to work on techniques that you are weak on. As when designing our own programs will mostly include stuff we are already good at.
A program designed by another fighter or pro trainer can give us a fresh perspective on your heavy bag training to help you keep improving.
One excellent resources I use is the Heavy Bag Blueprint by pro muay thai fighter Sean Fagan.
Check out my review of the Heavy Bag Blueprint HERE.
I hope you enjoyed reading the 6 Muay Thai HEavy Bag Training Tips.
If you have any tips you use for heavy bag training let me know in the comments below.
