The home equipment list continues, slowly but surely, on to one of my personal favorites: the heavy bag. It's sometimes just called a "punching bag" but it's useful for much more than punching (although that's definitely a fun one).
I've only had two or three heavy bags in my life. My first bag, which lasted me about 25 years and may still be at 7 Tigers Martial Arts, was vinyl and weighed 75 pounds. It had excellent consistency for punching but was too light for real kicking once I learned how to kick. (If I find a picture, I'll update this post.)
My current bag (shown above) is canvas, which is more common for heavier bags, and weighs 100 pounds plus it has a tie-down ring that allows you to attach it to the floor or a weight with a bungee cord to keep it from swinging too much. If you go too heavy, you'll hurt yourself. (Punching a bag that you can't move gives you a headache.) If you go too light, it will fly around and give a lousy workout. Also keep in mind that you'll likely develop more hitting power as you go so it's better to get one a bit heavier than you think you might need.
As you get winded hitting the bag, you might think it's just an aerobic workout (Is it “Cardio” or “Aerobics”?) but hitting hard is also resistance training. Check it out:
Of course, good wapping includes more than just punching. Elbows, knees, and kicks are all fun to do and provide extremely effective workouts.
There are other things you can do with a heavy bag. At some StrongFast Fitness group classes, we would sometimes throw bags for distance or have races involving picking a bag up and carrying them. But really, wapping is always the most fun.
One note I've mentioned before: you'll see me hitting the bag without gloves or wraps. I've always trained this way but for most people some kind of hand protection is usually a good thing. If you ever plan on using your wapping skills in a real fight, though, it's a good idea to do at least some of your hitting without hand protection so you learn how to punch without breaking your hand.
For me, a heavy bag should be ranked higher than #16 but for most people this is a reasonable position. Who doesn't enjoy some good wapping?
Be seeing you.
-gary