Did you know a speed bag workout requires complete body involvement? Striking a speed bag is an impressive shoulder and cardiovascular conditioning that involves focus, speed, and coordination. This article will scrutinize what muscles a speed bag works in detail.
Speed bag improves overall boxing skills and fitness levels. It is used in training to enhance individual hands’ speed, hand-eye coordination, timing, rhythm, physique and builds great endurance while breaking a killer sweat. Speed bag workout directly targets body muscles such as triceps, shoulders, and lats. Speed bag practices also improve cardiovascular health.
As much as speed bag users work on agility and speed, the boxing gear is more than just a toy to play with. It is not limited to martial arts but also suitable for other sports practices like tennis, baseball, volleyball, and table tennis.
Speed bag punches are a great full-body workout but don’t achieve one singular goal; hence, read below and get to know the unlimited benefits of this simple yet efficient gear!
What Muscles Does a Speed Bag Work?
A speed bag is a small, air-filled bag anchored to hang from the ceiling on a short cord or chain to provide a minimal range of motion.
Hitting the bag generates short-range motion, which rebounds quickly. Speed bags are known to be perfect in improving striking techniques and fighting skills. The short-range motion generally triggers numeral muscles within the body, including;
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1. Shoulder Muscles
You can opt to hit the speed bag using one hand or both. Shoulder muscles are the most apparent muscles that you work on during speed bag training.
Crosses and jabs are practical workout sessions for shoulder muscles. Straight punches trigger subscapularis, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, and teres minor muscles of the punching shoulder.
You will feel the burn in your shoulder during speed bag boxing. Shoulder muscles are vital in developing endurance skills. Shoulder muscles carry through the power that comes from the legs, hips, and core.
Constant motion tones all parts of the shoulder; thus, speed bag training drills are perfect for individuals who want to improve upper body strength.
2. Arm Muscles; Triceps and Biceps
A constant stream of arm punches thrown to hit the speed bag leads to toning the triceps and biceps. Hooks and uppercut broader forces are effectuated by rotational momentum from the triceps and biceps.
In addition, if you want to get rid of arm fat, a speed bag workout improves arm strength.
Arm muscles deliver powerful punches derived from the lower body. Speed bags work on the speed of the arm muscles because it is imperative to have a faster arm than a mighty arm.
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3. Vertical Body Core; Neck, Chest, and Abs Muscles
Speed bags build strength throughout the neck, abs, and chest core. Punching speed bag constantly generates force with the pectoralis major and minor chest muscles and upper and lower abdominal muscles.
Positioning your arm to a ready position requires effort from lats, traps, and deltoid muscles.
Hooks and body-level punches from different angles impact your vertical core as you flex and extend your abs. Abs and pecs muscles are continuously engaged when hitting the speed bag to keep up with the pace and rhythm.
Constantly flexing, extending, and engaging the muscles at a constant rate and rhythm result in isometric or symmetrical muscle.
Oblique ab muscles carry the energy that comes from the lower body. Lower back muscles are crucial in punch recovery.
Neck muscles are directly triggered by a steady workout as the punching motion constantly flexes and extends sternohyoid and omohyoid muscles. Strengthened neck muscles are great for punch resistance.
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4. Cardiovascular muscles; Heart and Lungs
A strenuous speed bag is crucial in adding a substantial aerobic workout. Punching the speed bag, whereas increasing movement rate, adds a greater cardio dimension to the session. Thus, enhancing the capacity and strength of the lungs and the heart.
Prolonged, intensive yet fast speed bag punching moves necessitates more excellent cardiovascular training. A session encompassing 2 to five minutes is ideal for maximizing aerobic needs.
Cardio conditioning promotes endurance and burns calories. As the speed bag enhances cardiovascular health, the upper body muscles’ agility is enhanced due to the circular motions.
5. Leg Muscles
The perfect and powerful speed bag punching technique involves a substantial contribution from the leg muscles. The leg muscles generate the most power.
Body movement, rotation, and power generation involve hamstrings, calves, and quadriceps lower leg muscles. The muscles are instrumental in force generation as you transfer the force through your core.
Movements while punching the bag trigger proper footwork exercise. Coordination is crucial in enhancing lower aerobic, strength workout, and defensive moves like crouching and ducking.
In addition, perpetual motion during speed bag punching sessions builds stamina and tones your hamstrings, quads, and calves.
Legs connected to the ground are responsible for pushing it off to generate power throughout your entire body. Quadriceps and hamstrings work together to move the body in the direction of a punch.
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6. Calf Muscles
The calves are located from the back of the ankles to the back of the knees. These muscles aid in pressing your toes into the ground and lifting your heels. Calf muscles play a significant role when you step your feet forward to throw a punch.
7. Hip Muscles
They are responsible for holding the lower body and legs together. Hip muscles are close to your body’s center of gravity. Strong hip muscles are crucial in ensuring better control of your balance. On the other hand, balance ensures the effectiveness of movement, defense, and offense.
8. Fists Muscles
Tighter fists lead to punching more solid hits. More so, tightened fists deter the likelihood of attaining injuries because bones lack room to move around.
Benefits of a Speed Bag Workout
Working out with a speed bag isn’t child’s play as it involves the whole body which comes with various advantages:
a) Improved cardiovascular health
Haste and continuous speed bag punches lead to increased heart rate. More so, the workout burns calories hence strengthening your heart and lungs and minimizing the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
b) Improved coordination and accuracy
Speed Bag integrates a small hitting surface and quick rebounds; thus, you will have to intensify hand-eye coordination. Continuous exercises make coordination less cumbersome. Hand-eye coordination correlates to improving accuracy as you spar or throw punches.
c) Improves speed and endurance
Generally, as the name suggests, the boxing gear is meant for punching speed. Speed bag helps you become faster in outdoor engagements. A quicker hand with an equal weight punch carries more impact than a slow one. Once you start hitting the bag, it won’t stop until you do.
Speed bag lets you compete with yourself regarding how long your elbows, shoulders, and back can last. The bag builds your upper body and mind endurance.
d) Better punching power
Speed Bag workout enhances the impact of a punch. The workout sessions necessitate you to throw stronger punches faster. You can quickly develop an unstoppable and constant force from the fast forth and back punches.
e) Better pacing techniques
Speed Bag improves muscle power and endurance skills. With powerful and fast punches, you can know when to hold back and when to explode.
How to Use a Speed Bag Correctly
The speed bag is usually anchored to a low ceiling or a bracket using a reinforced board. It integrates a soft rubber bladder tough exterior that is inflated during set-up.
Initially, as a beginner, don’t make a strong fist; instead, open your palms a bit and hit the bag with your fingers. Keep your hands close to the bag for a minimal range of rebound motion. Strike the bag using tight fists in conjunction with constant speed.
Hit the bag downward with the first side to make a circular motion. Find a suitable rhythm, such as the right-right-left-left rhythm, to punch the bag using both hands. Pick up speed as you exhaust both arms. Also, you may hit the speed bag from the front with the fists.
Hit the bag from different angles to improve the speed bag technique. Do shadow boxing to practice hitting at a steady pace. A big-sized speed bag is ideal for beginners because small-sized bags are hard to hit. Simple steps to follow are as follows:
- Engage your shoulders, keep elbows up, and maintain the hand-eye level the entire time – Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, raise elbows to shoulder level, and keep hands at eye level.
- Bounce your weight from leg to leg smoothly and continuously – Shift your weight to the right leg and rotate the right forearm twice. Shift your weight to the left leg and turn the left forearm twice. Keep interchanging sides until the set is done.
Larger speed bags are suited for building strength and endurance. The larger the speed bag, the slower it is. Smaller speed bags allow focus on faster hand speed and timing.
Can a Speed Bag Build Muscle?
Working out using the speed bag directly triggers upper body muscles. Upper and lower body muscles coordinate punching power for agility and balance.
Working the bag for straight 3 minute sets makes a huge difference in building and toning shoulders, triceps, and lats. The more speed bag workouts you engage in, the higher the muscle stability and coordination.
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