Being able to cram in those early morning work outs, without having to leave the house is one of the best feelings in the world. Home gyms allow you to exercise from the comfort of your own home, saving both time travelling to and from the gym, and money on a membership.
Having said that, deciding what equipment to fill your home gym with can often be a tricky situation. Today, we’re going to be taking a slightly less traditional approach by looking at some of the best boxing equipment for home gyms.
Let’s get to it.
Hanging Heavy Bag
First up and probably the most commonly found item on our list, is the heavy bag. They’re designed to develop both your cardiovascular and muscular endurance, as well as allow you to work on your explosive power.
There are two different types of heavy bag, both of which we’re going to discuss in this article. Firstly, we’ve got the traditional hanging heavy bag, which as the name suggests, hangs down from the ceiling, a beam or a specialised heavy bag stand.
This is often the preferred type of heavy bag, as the bags’ swinging motion most accurately mimics the movement of a real fighting situation. This in turn allows you to work on your timing and get a feel for striking a moving target.
The downside to a hanging heavy bag is that it can be a bit tricky to set up. If you’ve not got anywhere suitable to hang your heavy bag, buying a stand can add more to the cost of your home gym.
So, what are some of the main benefits of working out on a heavy bag?
Firstly, heavy bag work outs are a sure-fire way to get your heart racing, blood pumping and develop your cardiovascular endurance. Typically, work outs consist of 1-2 minute rounds, usually for 4-5 rounds.
During these rounds, you’re throwing a barrage of different strikes whilst keeping your hands raised at all times, which as you can guess, can get tiresome extremely quickly.
Secondly, working out on a heavy bag involves using a number of different muscle groups. Your arms, shoulders and core all work simultaneously when throwing a punch and after a few minutes of working the bag, you’ll definitely start feeling the burn.
Implementing a heavy bag into your work out is a fantastic way to change up your cardio routine and keep things interesting.
Free Standing Heavy Bag
This is the second type of heavy bag that you’ll come across and is the most commonly used in home gyms. This is because there is very little set up required and you don’t need to hang the bag anywhere.
Instead, the bag stands upright from the ground, with a large base at the bottom that can be filled with either sand or water. I would recommend using water, as it’s easier to fill, makes less mess and can be removed a lot easier.
The weighted base helps to keep the bag standing upright when it’s struck. Some of the best free standing punching bags will feature a spring loaded design that allows the bag to swing back and forth when struck and less likely to fall over.
Having said that, the main problem with free standing punching bags is their instability. Despite having a weighted base, they can often fall over when struck with enough force.
With this in mind, free standing heavy bags are designed more for working on muscular endurance and cardio, as opposed to developing explosive power.
Speed Bag
Next up we’ve got the speed bag, a topic hotly debated in the boxing community. Some see the speed bag as an outdated boxing ritual, whilst others see it as a vital piece of equipment in their arsenal.
Speed bags are one of the smaller punching bags and hang down from a platform above the user. As you punch the speed bag, it will rebound back and forth. The aim is to maintain this movement by striking the bag every 4th rebound. Typically, you strike the bag twice with your right hand and, then twice with your left.
This is another fantastic piece of boxing equipment to get your heart racing, as well as work on your arm and shoulder endurance. In order to strike the speed bag at the right time, both hands need to be raised at all times whilst throwing a strike with alternating hands.
Doing this repeatedly for 1-2 minute rounds provides a brilliant way to tone up your arms and shoulders, whilst at the same time acquiring a new skill.
Unfortunately, setting up a speed bag isn’t the easiest. Firstly, you’ll need a wall suitable to attach a speed bag platform (like these ones). Once you’ve attached the platform to a wall, you then attach the speed bag to the platform using a specialised swivel.
This may sound tricky, but there’s a plethora of tutorials online on sites such as YouTube and specialised forums that will walk you through the entire process.
Battle Rope
A bottle rope is a long, heavy rope that that has its’ mid point weighted to the floor. You can attach the middle point of the rope to kettle bells or even a bench to keep it secured.
You then hold either end of the rope in each hand and using your arms, swing them in certain a direction.
There’s a number of different exercises you can do, such as the double rope slam. This is where you hold both ends of the rope, raise your hands above your head, then bring your hands down and up in a fast and quick motion. You then do this 20-times for 3-4 sets.
If you’re looking for a less explosive work out, hold the rope in each hand and swing your arms up and down, alternating between each hand. Again, do this 20 times on each hand for 3-4 rounds.
Battle ropes are both extremely effective and cheap, making them a perfect option for home gyms.
Skipping Ropes
Last up on our list is a skipping rope, another brilliant piece of equipment that definitely won’t break the bank.
Most peoples preferred choice of cardio is running, however this is unfortunately very weather dependent. If you’re wanting your daily dose of cardio, but don’t want to splash out on a treadmill, then buying a skipping rope is a fantastic choice.
You can skip for as long as you like, use it as a warm up, cool down or even for the bulk of your cardio routine.
Believe it or not, there’s actually a few different types of skipping ropes. For example, speed ropes are often very thin and made using plastic and as the name suggests, are designed for skipping at speed.
Alternatively, if you want to work on your forearms in the process, you can opt for a thicker rope, however make sure that you’re wearing shoe as it can hurt your feet… a lot!
Final Thoughts
When looking to build your home gym, it’s can a good idea to think a bit outside of the box. At the end of the day, you’ll be using the gym on a regular basis, therefore you want keep it as interesting and engaging as possible as to avoid getting boredThanks for taking the time to read our article, feel free to ask any questions below.