What size should a punching bag be? [Decision Tips]

If you think that you only stand in the ring and fight during boxing training, you are very wrong. The punching bag will become your best friend. When training on the punching bag, you will learn different punching techniques, improve your punching power and train endurance and speed. The punching bag is your most important basic equipment in boxing - next to the boxing gloves . He is your constant training partner, for whom you never have to wait and who always has time. In addition, you can not only train on the punching bag in the gym, but also at home in the local boxing booth.

Regardless of whether you do punching bag training as a fitness workout or have greater ambitions in the direction of sparring and competition: boxing is really good for your body. A workout on the punching bag shapes your whole body. You train your muscle strength and mobility. After 30 minutes you have already burned between 300 and 400 calories . Boxing also relieves a lot of stress and tension. You will learn discipline and concentration, determination and precision. Last but not least, boxing is an extreme boost to your confidence.

• Boxing is a versatile, effective full-body workout
• Boxing shapes and defines the body
• Boxing helps relieve stress and tension
• Boxing requires a lot of discipline and attention
• Boxing increases your self-confidence

The size of the punching bag depends primarily on the type of martial arts. In classic boxing, the focus is on punches above the waistline. Everything else is absolutely taboo. For this reason, you need a relatively short punching bag in classic boxing - unlike, for example, in Thai boxing or kickboxing, where knees and kicks are also trained. Here you need a very large punching bag to practice the punches in the upper area as well as the kicks in the lower area.

• Classic boxing = punching bag with 80 to 120 cm
• Kickboxing etc. = punching bag from 150 cm

But that alone does not answer the question "How big does a punching bag have to be?". The size of the punching bag is also made dependent on your height - and not least determined by the shape of the punching bag you choose. Different punching bag variants are also different sizes.

The Heavy Bag - the classic punching bag - has the greatest variation in length. Here you will find standard sizes around 120 cm. But also very long punching bags with 150 cm are available. With classic punching bags you can be much more flexible if you not only want to practice straight punch combinations, but also knee and kick techniques.

The so-called angle bag - also known as an angle punching bag - is primarily used for training upper body punches, especially uppercuts. For this reason, it not only tends to be shorter, between 100 and 120 cm, but also shaped. The human upper body is indicated so that you can train particularly realistically on an angle bag . But you can also get angle bags with a length of 150 cm if you want to train more flexibly on them.

With the Wrecking Ball you can train straight jabs, headbutts and uppercuts. For wrecking balls , the size is usually given as a diameter. Here the sizes vary between approx. 25 to 60 cm, sometimes even more.

Punching bags such as the speed ball or double-ended ball are small models on which you can train specific techniques. As a rule, it is less about individual shot combinations and more about improving your shot speed and accuracy. On the Speed ​​Ball your hand-eye coordination will be strengthened as well as your concentration. The speed ball is often used in the warm-up phase.

You think: why not buy a shorter punching bag and just hang it lower? It's not that easy, because depending on where you hit the punching bag, its pendulum behavior changes. Ideally, you hit the punching bag in the middle or just below the middle. Your punching bag should therefore be long enough so that you can hang it up in this position.

Beginners in particular have a hard time with the question of what size the punching bag should be. We would therefore like to give you a few points of orientation here:

• For a simple fitness training with straight jabs and head punches, a short punching bag that is about 80-100 cm long is sufficient. If you hit it in the middle, the pendulum behavior is ideal and you can train effortlessly.
• If you are pursuing ambitious training on the punching bag, it should be at least 120 cm long. For example, you can also train uppercuts and other body punches.
• If you are a very tall boxer or if you would like to try kicking techniques from time to time during training, we recommend a punching bag from 150 cm and longer.

A good question that is not easy to answer. As a rule, the weight and length of a punching bag are closely related. Of course you can also get 120 cm punching bags, which are very heavy, or 150 cm punching bags, which are very light. In the end, however, you should make sure that both the weight and the size of the punching bag match your training goal.