Hey guys Just got myself a heavy bag (one of those ones you dangle of stuff) and am looking at taking up kickboxing to supplement my training (and for competition). Does anyone have a good guide for a general 30 minute workout with the heavy bag, preferences for training, etc? Toodles
You could download the Iain Abernethy bagwork podcast from his website, that's a good 20 minute or session. Mitch
A good beginner routine could be a few minutes of shadowboxing followed by a few 2-3 minute rounds on the heavy bag, some repetition kicking at the end, and finish with some rope skipping and more shadowboxing. Something like say: Shadowboxing - 3-5 minutes Heavy bag - 3-5 rounds of 2-3 minutes (rest 60 sec in between). Kicks - 50 roundhouse kicks per leg on the heavy bag (switch side every 5 reps) Rope skipping - 3-5 minutes Shadowboxing - 3-5 minutes Once that starts becoming manageable, you can look into more intermediate routines rather than just the standard 3-5 rounds. Ross Enamait has a good one to give you some ideas. 3 rounds of 3 minutes - skill emphasis, work on moving around the bag, throwing combinations, incorporating defense and feints. 4 rounds of 1 minute - power boxing, focus is on hitting as hard as you can with everything you throw and as fast as you can. 5 rounds of 30 seconds - "punch out" drills, hit the bag with everything you got and don't stop no matter what. With 60 seconds of rest in between each round, this easily comes under 30 minutes.
Tsk! There, consider yourself tsked! Bagwork Podcast Iain's audios (6 pages of podcasts on assorted topics) Iain Abernethy is a noted authority on kata bunkai and associated topics. If you've not read any of his stuff or looked at his DVDs you should go check some out Mitch
I'd mix combos with calisthentics (sp?) like this: 5x 10 x jab-cross 10 x push-ups 5x 10 x roundhouse kicks (alternate each leg) 10 x squats etc You can also use a tabata timer and go all in on the bag
It depends on the purpose of your bagwork of course. Are you practising a particular combination, set up, footwork, whatever, or are you looking for a tough conditioning session? If the latter it's pretty easy to come up with ideas. Any kick, drop to the floor, get up, 2 of kick, drop to the floor, get up, 3 of kick etc etc until you've had enough. Keep yourself honest and land heavy kicks. One punch, then two, then three, then four up to ten then down again. Again, land heavy shots. Mitch
When you say 10 x roundhouse kicks, do you mean 10 per leg, or 10 in total? This looks like a fun one though, I'll give it a try when it stops raining and the ground dries up a bit. Lol, cheers Mitch Had a listen to some of his podcasts last night, he seems pretty good actually. I shall have to listen to a few more, then get an MP3 player and download them Seems like another good place to start, cheers Kuma To be honest I'm not 100% sure, so probably all of them at different times. Finally managed to get a heavy bag two days ago for home and haven't got a lot of idea what the best way for me to use it is yet, so I'm probably going to look at experimenting with different types of bag training, see if I can get a feel for it, what works for me needs, etc. Hoping to start going to a local kickboxing class within the next few weeks, so fingers crossed I'll get a few pointers then, but that's still a while away.
If you look on Iain's website there are clips from his Power and Impact DVD series. I'm a fan of Iain's work but from the clips I've seen I don't think they do or say much a good instructor wouldn't teach you. They are a good place to start from or pick up ideas from though and you can find plenty of clips on YouTube. If you like his Facebook page you'll get regular video snippets of drills and links to podcasts. Main thing with heavy bag work is to hit hard, keep moving and use the movement of the bag to work on distance and timing. Back kicks on a moving bag is always fun Mitch
I swear by this Workout Karatesloth, and try to complete it at least 2/3 per week - It will really push you, providing you are willing to push yourself. (and for the record, I second El Mitcho's tsk, so consider yourself double TSK'ed...!) regards, Travess
+1 for Iain Abernethy from me too. I use his bagwork podcast regularly. Although I often mix things up and sometimes just use it for timings so I don't have to clock watch. For example the section where you do "close range strikes" I sometimes do on a bag on the floor as ground and pound. The bits where it's "anything you like" I'll sometimes just do jump spin back kicks or whatever I fancy. My favourite bit is where he says "Last sen tecon...ten seconds!".
I didn't think to check on Facebook, I'll have a nosey. I don't use it too much, but it might give me reason to. Wow, that's some serious TSK'ing, well I certainly learned my lesson I'll defo look at doing it multiple times a week. It is slightly weather dependent because I have to do it down at my local park which about half a mile away (it's an interesting exercise just carrying my heavy bag that far ) in the mud/grass, so if it's too boggy it does make it difficult to do anything other than stand in one spot. Looks pretty good though. Only used it once so far but I was surprised how tiring it can be actually.
GAH! DAMN MUVVA-HUBBARDS! Now I have that out of my system... That Iain Abernethy workout it awesome. From what little I got to do. Unfortunately mid training session the obi I had used to hold the bag up into the tree I was using snapped in half. It was really quite spectacular. So to my next question. I can't install a hook on the side of my house like a normal person until I've been living here at least a year (tenancy agreement clause). Any suggestions as to good materials I could use that would support the weight of a heavy bag?
I deserve a tsk-ing too, as I've never heard of Iain. :/ ~hangs head in shame~ Thanks for sharing, and I will do a lot of listening.
Mine is hung using rope. It's in a garage that's next to my son's bedroom and I didn't want to risk waking him with the noise chains might make. Plus I had some rope lying around. I use a loop on every strap of the bag, so that's 2 thicknesses per strap, and each one goes over a big hook screwed into a roof beam. Mitch
Hmm, shouldn't be too hard to replicate something like that actually. Any particular kind of rope or as long as it's chunky and strong?
Mine is just some waxed rope about 5mm-1cm thick I think. I can't remember where I got it or why, it was just lying around the garage. You can get hooks from B&Q, I think mine was designed for hanging a child's swing. Mitch