Heavy Bag on a Light Wallet

You can take the classes, you can shadow box and work form in front of a mirror, but if you really want to be confident in your boxing and martial arts skills, you need something to hit; that's where the heavy bag comes in. In a sports equipment store, a decent bag can run upwards of $80 plus a swivel and hanging equipment. I made a bag that serves my training needs well from things I had in the garage. I use it for boxing, leg kicks, and Rince an Bhata Uisce Bheatha (Irish Stick Fighting. Yes, it's a real martial art.) and this bag has proved incredibly durable over four years.

The bag itself is a standard issue Army nylon duffle bag. The older canvas one will work, but they're much smaller and I doubt the material would hold up as well. If you don't have one from prior service, you can get them pretty cheap in a surplus store. The guts of the bag are simply old pillows and bedding, newspaper, two jugs of water (I find windshield washer jugs are the most durable) and a cardboard box about the size of a U-Haul "small" box.

To start, slit the box at one corner to make it flat. Roll it into a tube, put the tube inside the bag and expand it so that the bag will stand by itself. Veterans will remember doing this with their issue sleeping mat. It is important that you expand the tube as far as possible to keep the bag tight. The cardboard tube offers a certain rigidity to the bag without harming your hands. Next, stuff an old pillow into the bottom of the tube. This is the padding between the bottom of the bag and your first weight. Place one of the jugs of water in the middle of the bottom pad. Stuff newspaper or whatever your stuffing material is evenly and tightly all the way around the jug to keep it centered.

Once the jug is covered, fill some space with a piece of old bedding, in this case a full-size comforter. Push it down tight and place the next jug in the middle. Push the jug down a little into the filler. Like the first jug, pack more material evenly and tightly around the second jug to keep it centered.

Next you will need whatever device you are going to use to hang the bag. I made my hanger out of a 10# weight plate, an old padlock, and broken piece of dog chain. There are hundreds of designs one could make out of junk around the garage to hang the bag. I will post reader-submitted photos of creative hangers. I recommend using a short hanger even for a ceiling-hung bag. It is easier to mount a drop hook from the ceiling and hang the bag on the hook and it is easier to remove the bag when you don't want it in the way.

The next step involves putting the right amount of material in the bag so that you can fold the box over the guts, place your hanger on top, and tightly close the bag so your hanger is enclosed except for the rope or chain you will use to hang the bag. Due to the design of the Army duffle, you can never get the chain to center on top, but this turns out to be insignificant after a little use.

After hanging the bag or while it's on the ground, use a stick, bat, or shin kicks to work out the corners that remain in your cardboard tube. Just soften them up a bit with something other than your hands.

There you have it: your light wallet heavy bag. Because of the rough material, I recommend wearing gloves with this bag, but they don't have to be fancy. If you want wrist support, cheap weight training gloves are fine and if you don't want wrist support, any old glove will do.  Also, you can "dress" the bag with an old gi top and belt to protect your hands.  Admittedly, the finished product isn't pretty, but I love training with this bag! The straps allow training variations for grasping lapels or training chokes, and can even hold a staff or stick for another dimension of training.

Thanks for reading. I wish you the best in your martial arts training. I would be happy to publish here reader-submitted photos of home made bags!