A punching bag or punch-bag (UK

British English

British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...

) is a sturdy bag designed to be repeatedly punched. It's used for conditioning, physical exercise

Physical exercise

Physical exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. It is performed for various reasons including strengthening muscles and the cardiovascular system, honing athletic skills, weight loss or maintenance, as well as for the purpose of...

, and stress

Stress (biology)

Stress is a term in psychology and biology, borrowed from physics and engineering and first used in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance...

 relief. Athletically, it's used to improve one of three areas: physical strength

Physical strength

Physical strength is the ability of a person or animal to exert force on physical objects using muscles. Increasing physical strength is the goal of strength training.-Overview:...

, aerobic fitness

Aerobic exercise

Aerobic exercise is physical exercise of relatively low intensity that depends primarily on the aerobic energy-generating process. Aerobic literally means "living in air", and refers to the use of oxygen to adequately meet energy demands during exercise via aerobic metabolism...

, or punching technique.

History

Punching bags have been used in martial arts

Martial arts

Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....

 and swordplay for the entire written history of military training. Similar apparatus in Asian martial arts include the Okinawan makiwara

Makiwara

The makiwara is a padded striking post used as a training tool in various styles of traditional karate. It is thought to be uniquely Okinawan in origin...

 and the Chinese mook jong

Muk Yan Jong

Mu ren zhuang is a wooden dummy used in Chinese martial arts training. It is associated with the martial art of Wing Chun and other kung fu styles of Southern China...

, which may have padded striking surfaces attached to them.

In martial arts and combat sports such as Karate

Karate

is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was developed from indigenous fighting methods called and Chinese kenpō. Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands. Grappling, locks,...

, Taekwondo

Taekwondo

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...

, and Muay Thai

Muay Thai

Muay Thai is a combat sport from Thailand that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. It is similar to other Indochinese kickboxing systems, namely pradal serey from Cambodia, tomoi from Malaysia, lethwei from Myanmar and muay Lao from Laos...

; heavy bags, standing bags, and similar apparatuses have been adapted for practicing kicking and other striking maneuvers in addition to developing punching technique.

Construction

Punching bags are often filled with grains

Cereal

Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...

, sand, rags, or other material and are usually hung from the ceiling or affixed to a stand. Other bags have an internal bladder to allow them to be filled with air or water. The design of a punching bag allows it to take repeated and constant physical abuse without breaking. The bag must also absorb the impact of blows, without causing harm to the user.

Types of bag

There are different types of punching bags, with different names based on their size, use and mounting method. Almost all punching bags are covered with leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

, or synthetic materials such as vinyl

Vinyl

A vinyl compound is any organic compound that contains a vinyl group ,which are derivatives of ethene, CH2=CH2, with one hydrogen atom replaced with some other group...

 that resist abrasion and mildew

Mildew

Mildew refers to certain kinds of molds or fungi.In Old English, it meant honeydew , and later came to mean mildew in the modern sense of mold or fungus....

. Canvas

Canvas

Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...

 is also used as a bag material where there is lower use and humidity

Humidity

Humidity is a term for the amount of water vapor in the air, and can refer to any one of several measurements of humidity. Formally, humid air is not "moist air" but a mixture of water vapor and other constituents of air, and humidity is defined in terms of the water content of this mixture,...

.

Speed bags are small, air-filled bags anchored at the top to a rebound platform parallel to the ground. Speed bags help a fighter learn to keep his hands up, improve hand-eye coordination and learn to shift weight between feet when punching. They are also known as SpeedBalls or Speed Ball Bags. They are generally filled with air (mostly) and fitted around a tight PU based or other leather material.

Swerve balls / floor to ceiling balls are almost the same as Speed balls with the only difference that the bag size shape and material may be different and that the cable system is attached to the ceiling and a clip on the floor - when the boxer places any motion on the ball, it tightly reacts by swinging fast towards them, the object is to swerve, punch, dodge and learn about co-ordination. The harder and faster they are hit - the more they rebound and react in different motions of angles, thus giving greater practice to the fighter.
Double-end bags or Focus bags are light, round bags, often anchored to floor and ceiling with elastic or semi-elastic materials. These types of bags are used to practice mobility and accuracy on a moving target.

Maize bags or Slip bags are not punched with great force but are used in boxing training

Boxing training

Boxing training is the training method that boxers use in order to get more fit for their sport. This training method is often cited by medical doctors, boxing trainers, and writers as one of the most spartan forms of sports training.- Training :...

 to improve the athlete's head motion and ability to evade an opponent's punch, their name deriving from the fact that traditionally they are filled with maize

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

.

A heavy bag is a larger, cylindrical bag, usually suspended by chains or ropes for practicing powerful body punches, and can be used to toughen hands, or any other limb used to hit the bag.

Pedestal bags or tower bags are heavy bags mounted on a weighted pedestal rather than being hung from above. Other variations on the standard heavy bag include horizontal suspension from both ends to practice uppercut punches and non-cylindrical shapes.
Body-shaped training aids such as the modern "body opponent bag" are made primarily of synthetic materials, and punching bags are sometimes mounted on a weighted pedestal rather than hanging from above. These are not punching bags in the strict sense, but modern versions of apparatus such as the wooden man apparatus

Muk Yan Jong

Mu ren zhuang is a wooden dummy used in Chinese martial arts training. It is associated with the martial art of Wing Chun and other kung fu styles of Southern China...

 of Chinese Wing Chun

Wing Chun

Wing Chun , also romanised as Ving Tsun or Wing Tsun, ; ; is a concept-based Chinese martial art and form of self-defense utilizing both striking and grappling while specializing in close-range combat.The alternative characters 永春 "eternal spring" are also...

, the medieval quintain

Quintain

Quintain may refer to:* Quintain , a jousting game* Quintain Estates and Development, a property company* Quintaine Americana, a rock band...

 and target dummies used in modern bayonet

Bayonet

A bayonet is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit in, on, over or underneath the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar weapon, effectively turning the gun into a spear...

 training. Large inflatable balloon

Balloon

A balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders, such as the pig...

s with weighted bases are another kind of punching bag, often painted with a picture and sold as a children's toy.
The uppercut bag began to appear towards the beginning of the century. With so many different variations of bags and training equipment for boxing taking off, the upper cut bag was and is still a common sight in clubs and gyms. Designed for upper cut practice, jabbing, curl punching and low quick burst of high and low punching practice. It allows the fighter to punch at different lengths, different speeds and different forces compared to the standard average 4 ft straight pu (polyurethane) punch bags.

Safety precautions

Most heavy bags are filled with dense materials which have little "give" (ie. packed sand, grains, etc.), for this reason it's highly recommended that shock absorbing "boxing gloves" be worn.

Powerful strikes to the heavy bag aren't recommended for inexperienced, or younger athletes(<18 female, <21 male), at the risk of sprain, or bone plate damage. It is highly recommended to use hand wraps and training gloves, and to carefully focus strikes to reduce chance of injury (such as boxer's fracture

Boxer's fracture

A "Boxer's fracture" is the second and/or third metacarpal transverse neck fracture that is more likely to occur from a straight punch. The "Boxer's" designation is suggestive of the generally well tolerated way of striking a hard object with the closed fist, with the second and third metacarpal...

). When striking the heavy bag, keep joints stacked (ie. using the knuckles of the index and middle fingers).