What Are The Different Types of Punching Bags?

Hanging bags tend to be the preferred type heavy bag due to the fact that their swing allows for a more authentic training experience. 

These require you to either mount the heavy bag to the ceiling, or hang the bag up using a heavy bag stand. 

Because they swing from side to side much more than free standing bags, they tend to take up far more room, which for a lot of people is a pretty big issue.

Free standing heavy bags require much less effort to set up than their hanging counter parts. Simply fill the base up with either water or sand, attach the bag and you're ready to go. 

One of the main down sides to free standing bags is that they tend to topple over when struck with enough force. If you're looking to work on your explosive power, than they may not be the best option for you. 

That being said, some of the top free standing punching bags feature a spring loaded design that helps to prevent them from toppling over.

This is another extremely popular type of punching bag and is mainly suited towards boxers who are looking to develop their reflexes and timing.

In order to keep the bag swinging back and forth, you must hit the speed bag at the exact right time. This helps you to build up a sense of rhythm as well as develop your ability to time your strikes.

Setting up a speed bag at home requires a few components such as a speed bag swivel and a speed bag platform (such as these). Although this requires a fair amount of effort, the benefits are well worth it. 

Not only do speed bags provide an invaluable training exercise, they're extremely fun and satisfying to use.

The traditional double end bag is a ball attached by two ropes to the ceiling and floor. These are by far the most common type of double end bag and are a frequent site in many gyms across the country. 

There are a tonne of different brands that offer some great quality double end bags for some pretty reasonable prices.

You can often adjust the ropes tension in order to make the bag swing faster, which as you would expect makes things a lot harder, but is a fantastic way to improve reflexes.

The Mexican style double ended bag is far less common than the traditional double end bag, however still offers just as good of a training experience. 

The lower 'ball' of the bag is designed to resemble an oponenets body, and allows you to throw more of a range of strikes than traditional heavy bags. 

On the other hand, these tend to be larger and heavier, which in turn means that they rebound slower and are much easier to strike.

This is nifty little bag that is perfect for fighters looking to work on both their head movement, deffence, reflexes and footwork.

The basic idea is you swing the bag forward, and when it swings back towards you, you slip out of the way.

You continue to slip just as the bag swings back and forth, falling into a rhythm and keeping your hands up.

This will get you used to slipping your opponents strikes and feeling comfortable with an object hurling towards you face.

I'm not going to lie, if it's the first time you're using this bag, there's a good chance that it's going to hit you in the head. Learn from it, practice and you'll be a pro in no time.

This is a pretty uncommon type of punching bag, purely due to the fact that it's so specialised. 

The bag is designed specifically for training uppercuts and allows you to simulate being close up with an opponent, perhaps in the clinch, and throwing an uppercut.

An uppercut is a highly effective strike to throw on the break of a clinch and as such, makes this an incredibly useful bag.

These can come in either wall mounted or hanging variations, with both having their pros and cons.

Mounting an uppercut bag is a fairly difficult task and requires you to manually attach it to your wall, which can often cause a bit of damage to the wall itself.

Unlike the traditional heavy bag we discussed earlier, the design of the mounted uppecut bag is slanted, allowing you to simulate throwing an uppercut from the waste to the chin.

A hanging uppercut bags are much better suited if you've got some form of beam that you can hang them from. These allow you to practice throwing an uppercut from close proximity to your opponent.

Ringside are a well known brand in the boxing world, producing some of the highest quality products on the market. 

Their products tend to be fairly expensive when compared to some other brands out there.

This may be a turn off for beginners looking to shop on a budget, but if you're looking for a long lasting punching bag, you really can't go wrong with Ringside.

Title are another extremely reputable brand, supplying all sorts of of boxing and MMA equipment. 

Similarly to Ringside, their equipment is on the pricer side of things, however the quality of their products far exceeds any expectations and they often last for years on end.

They offer a wide range of punching bags from free standing to speed bags, and everything in between.

The name Evrerlast is synonymous with boxing. They are by far the most well known brand in boxing and for good reason. 

Although their products may not be the best out there, the price that they offer their goods it second to none. 

Recently, they've branched out into the MMA space and have started to release some of the best MMA equipment out there. 

In terms of bags, they offer a whole range, catering for different techniques and style of fighter.