5 Intense Heavy Bag Drills for Your New Year’s Workout

Few pieces of boxing equipment are as iconic or instantly recognizable as the heavy bag. That’s because running heavy bag drills is still one of the very best ways for boxers to improve their skills.

Heavy bags offer certain advantages that shadowboxing or even smaller speed bags lack, such as sturdy construction (which aids with developing strength) and more mobility (which aids with increasing speed and footwork).

And now that Quiet Punch allows you to turn any heavy bag into a smart punching bag, your heavy bag drills can be even better, with high-tech features and a free phone app so you can track your progress every step (or, rather, every punch) of the way!

Are you interested in running heavy bag drills? If so, here are some of the most intense and most useful workout routines you should check out.

Best Drills to Include in Your Heavy Bag Workout Routine

The Repeat Combos Drill

This is a drill specifically geared towards helping you build strength and punching power. Despite that, your emphasis shouldn’t solely be on going as hard and heavy as possible; developing your technique and building up muscle memory is equally important.

As the name implies, during a Repeat Combos drill, you should focus on throwing either one specific combo or a chain of combos over and over and over again. An extremely useful variation if you’re working with a friend or trainer is to ask them to call out different combos at regular intervals. When you’re hitting the bag, switch to these combos immediately when they’re called out, then repeat them again and again until a new combo is called out.

The Small Punches Drill

Just as important to boxing as strength is endurance, which measures the amount of time your body can perform a certain action before getting too tired to continue. During an endurance drill, you should try to avoid throwing punches at full power in order to conserve your energy. 

In a Small Punches Drill, the idea is to attack the bag with a non-stop flurry of punches. Don’t worry about accuracy or power, as the important thing here is the quantity of your strikes, not their quality. Go as fast as you can for as long as you can, always making sure to breathe properly. To add some extra intensity to this heavy bag routine, you may want to lift a leg with each hit, essentially running in place at the same time as you do your drill.

The Tabata Interval Drill

Endurance drills and speed drills have a lot in common, so much so that the Tabata Interval drill is essentially the same as the Small Punches drill, just with a few important tweaks. When engaged in a Tabata Interval Drill, the goal is once again to throw flurries of punches as fast as you possibly can.

Where things diverge is that, during a Tabata Interval drill, each flurry should only last about 15 seconds. This is then followed by a 15-second break, then another 15-second flurry. Repeat this pattern for the length of the drill. This system of short bursts of activity followed by brief periods of rest will allow you to develop speed without exhausting yourself.

The Angled Escape Drill

When you’re in the ring with a real, live opponent, footwork accounts for a major part of your defense. An intense defensive drill designed to help you improve your footwork, the Angled Escape drill challenges you to move in response to the swaying of your heavy bag, rather than remaining in place as you throw punches.

After each combo, you want to step back and to the left or back and to the right, alternating from one direction to the other each time. Make sure you’re not stepping straight back, and avoid jumping; the goal here is mastering a smooth, fluid motion that will help you dodge any counterattacks your opponent might try.

The Duct Tape Drill

The final facet of your boxing technique that you can improve through heavy bag drills is your accuracy. After all, when you’re throwing punches at an opponent, where they land is often just as important as how strongly and quickly you throw them. Sometimes it’s even more important.

A good, simple way of working on your accuracy is with a Duct Tape drill. Here, you, a friend, or a trainer will wrap rings of duct tape around your bag at different height levels in order to represent the different parts of an opponent’s body. During the drill, your attention should be on throwing punches that hit these exact areas each and every time.

Upgrade Your Heavy Bag Routine with the Quiet Punch

The Quiet Punch heavy bag punch tracker is a removable, readjustable sensor that can be used with any heavy bag, enabling you to record the exact quantity, speed, and power of your punches. This will help you know exactly how well you’re doing, as well as identify which areas you need to work on. It will also allow you to see just how far you’ve come from where you started.

Of course, we all know that there are times when you just don’t have access to a full-sized heavy bag. That doesn’t mean you have to stop practicing, though!

Though the Quiet Punch doorway punching bag is more compact and stationary than the average heavy bag, it’s still an excellent option for running speed, strength, and endurance drills. And unlike traditional heavy bags, the Quiet Punch is easy to take with you, allowing you to get an intense boxing workout anytime, anyplace.

Discover the benefits of the Quiet Punch for yourself. Try it today!