Muay Thai Heavy Bag Workouts & Training Tips

THE BEST MUAY THAI WORKOUTS, COMBOS & DRILLS FOR THE HEAVY BAG

By Sean Fagan

Doing intense, focused heavy bag workouts for Muay Thai is easily one of the most overlooked and under utilized aspects of training.

If used properly, the heavy bag is a super effective piece of training equipment for improving your cardio, power, speed, technique, focus, and movement.

All Muay Thai fighters should incorporate heavy bag training into their overall strength and conditioning workouts on a regular basis in order to improve overall fitness as well as striking skills.

Routinely using the heavy bag is something that I find most fighters don’t do enough of. And for the fighters that do use the heavy bag, they are usually making these common mistakes and end up not using it to it’s fullest potential and getting maximum results.

These are 5 of the most common mistakes that most Muay Thai fighters make while hitting the heavy bag. Fortunately there are ways to fix and avoid these bad habits so you can improve all aspects of your fight game!

5 Common Heavy Bag Mistakes & How To Fix Them

#1. Doing the Same Heavy Bag Workout Over and Over Again

I’m not gonna lie, I fall into this trap more often than I’d like to admit. It can happen to the best of us!

We get to the heavy bag ready rip it up, only to use the exact same combos that we have been doing over the past year…the ole Jab-Cross-Hook-Cross over and over again. Often times the reason behind this is because you don’t have enough combos in your toolbox.

You need to add variety of punches, kicks, knees, elbows to your combos in order to improve your overall striking. Actually taking the time to think about different angles and combos while you’re hitting the heavy bag is a good way to diversify your strikes and add more to your arsenal of attacks.

10-Minute Heavy Bag Workout For Muay Thai 

#2. Not Using the Bag To Improve Striking

The heavy bag is one of the most essential pieces of Muay Thai equipment to use for improving your striking. Incorporating different type of combos and strikes to master all your striking weapons will allow you to improve your speed, power, balance, footwork and muscular endurance.

You will become comfortable throwing different combinations, which will help diversify your arsenal and feel more comfortable next sparring session.

Hitting the bag hundreds of times with proper technique will train your muscle memory to strike properly without even thinking about it. It will become second nature. Make sure to train with proper technique and not just go through the motions!

#3. No Intensity

I don’t know how many times I see fighters start off on the bag hard, but taper off very quickly and end off with patty cake punches, kicks and zero intensity. The heavy bag is great to improving your technique, but you can also dramatically increase punching power and conditioning by doing some high intensity training.

Training on the heavy bag can help develop your cardiovascular system, both aerobic and anaerobic. Many fighters interchange conditioning with cardio (cardiovascular conditioning) but actually, cardio is a component within.

Performing circuits on the heavy bag using interval training is a great way to improve your cardio. (See workout videos below)

Try Adding These 7 Heavy Bag Drills For Muay Thai

#4. Not Working on Your Weakness

This is closely tied to number one, but often times you see fighters hitting the bag using their strong punches and kicks and not working enough on the their weaker punches or kicks

In our heavy bag training workouts we incorporate different type of combos to master all of your Muay Thai striking weapons. The combos are mixture of speed, power, balance, footwork and muscular endurance. You will become comfortable throwing different combinations, which will help diversify your attacks and feel more at ease when you spar.

#5. Avoiding the Bag

The heavy bag is often overlooked and sometimes completely ignored by some Muay Thai fighters. It’s key to understand that the bag can be your biggest ally to help you improve your power, movement, speed and conditioning, while making you an all-around better fighter… which sounds pretty awesome right?

So, start using the heavy bag the next time you hit the Muay Thai gym and stay away from these common mistakes a high percentage of fighters are caught making.

Heavy Bag Workout Program for Muay Thai Fighters

Here is a Heavy Bag conditioning circuits that you try today.

20-Minute Muay Thai Heavy Bag Workout

Round 1:
- Jabs and Teeps
- Jab, Roundhouse
- Cross, Switch Kick

Round 2:
- Left Side Strikes
- Right Side Strikes
- Boxing Only

Round 3:
- Alternating Teeps
- Jab, Roundhouse, Cross, Switch Kick
- Combo Finish W/Check and Kick

Round 4:
- Jab, Lead Elbow / Jab, Rear Elbow
- Balancing Left Teep Drill
- Balancing Right Teep Drill

Round 5:
- Power Right Roundhouse
- Power Left Roundhouse
- Repeat