Does Punching Bag Burn Fat?

Punching bags are a mainstay of most gyms and you’ve probably been curious to try them in the past. But does punching a punch bag burn calories? How should you design a workout using a punch bag? Fortunately, punch bags can be an excellent way of losing weight when done properly.

Do Punching Bags Burn Fat?

Punching a punch bag is a great way to burn fat as it’s an intense workout that exercises all the main muscle groups across the whole body. However, in order to lose weight with a punch bag, you need to be in calorie deficit. That means, you should be consuming fewer calories in food than you’re expending through exercise; if you can burn 500 calories more than you eat in a day, you’re on your way to losing weight healthily.

There are several different workouts you can do with a punch bag, and while they’re great for practising the right technique and gradually increasing power, you need to be using the punch bag intensely for approximately 20 minutes in total per session to burn the necessary calories.

In many ways, if you’re looking to burn fat, boxing or punching a punch bag can be better cardio than running as your legs, core and upper body are all engaged in an intense activity, rather than focusing predominantly on your legs, as with running or cycling. What’s more, since many muscles are involved in the exercise, as you burn fat, you’ll tone up your muscles, and get that sought-after six-pack.

Do Punch Bags Build Muscle?

Many people wonder whether punch bags build muscle because they’re one of the most iconic boxing exercises, especially to those with a new-found interest in the sport. But since punch bags are great cardio, they don’t build muscle because there isn’t a sufficient range of motion in conjunction with force used that’s necessary to rebuild muscle fibres stronger or increase muscle mass.

If you want to build muscle while still using a punch bag, you should incorporate your punch bag routine into a longer workout with callisthenic exercises, such as:

• Squats
• Push-ups
• Pull-ups
• Crunches

These exercises focus on specific muscles and use body weight to add force to the movements which strengthens and builds muscles.

How Do You Lose Weight Using a Punch Bag?

In order to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume, so to lose weight using a punching bag, you should concentrate on raising your heart rate for 10 to 30 minutes as consistently as possible. The more intense your workout, the more calories you’ll burn.

The exact number of calories you can burn using a punch bag is impossible to say as age, weight and intensity of the workout are all significant factors. However, generally, a person weighing 60 kg can burn around 450 calories, and a person weighing 90 kg can burn around 680 calories when hitting a punch bag for an hour.

Many people look to lose belly fat when they start using a punch bag, and while a punching bag is a great workout for your core, unfortunately, we can’t tell our bodies where to lose fat from. After consistently working out with a punch bag, you’ll notice your body shape change and get fitter in general as your muscles tone and fat disappears across your whole body.

Men tend to have more visceral and abdominal fat than women, who have more gluteal and femoral fat, so the act of losing weight and burning fat will differ between the sexes. Fortunately, with a combination of healthy eating, cardiovascular exercise such as using a punch bag, and bodyweight exercises, you can burn fat, get toned and build abs.

A Great Boxing Workout for Beginners

Whether you’re new to the world of boxing or just starting to get fit and are looking for a fun way to lose weight there are a number of ways you can introduce a punch bag routine into a workout so you can burn fat and tone up. The best advice for beginners in any sport is to take your time and move at your own pace. There’s no point starting out at a high intensity and waking up the next day without being able to move as this could put you off ever exercising again.

To get a good technique and work out your whole body, you should start slowly, practising different shots until you get the movement right and then you can start to increase your power. Create combinations of jabs, hooks, uppercuts, and kicks if you want, to learn boxing skills and improve your coordination and balance. Use a good pair of boxing gloves to protect your hands and increase the power of your punch – believe it or not, boxing gloves help you hit harder.

Generally, a good tip would be to mirror a real boxing match in your routine: hit the punch bag for 3 minutes, take a 1-minute break and repeat for 12 rounds. Depending on your intensity, this is like a HIIT workout.

If you want to build muscle as well, you can also try a training circuit, with 30-45 seconds on the punch bag, doing push-ups or crunches, among other exercises, and 15-30 seconds resting, for a total of around 20 minutes. This will provide the right force to build muscle as well as incorporate some cardio exercises for an intense, full-body workout that will strengthen and tone your muscles and get you in great shape.

How Often Should You Box?

The time you spend on your workout depends on your ability and goals. Health advice advises we spend 150 minutes exercising every week, with around 20 minutes every day, or 30 minutes, 5 days a week with two rest days. Since boxing can be a very intense exercise, 10 minutes is excellent for beginners, and 20-30 minutes is great for more advanced boxers.

Ultimately, as long as you’re raising your heart rate or getting out of breath for 20 minutes a day, as well as eating well, you’ll be in great shape.

Benefits of a Punching Bag

There are many different physical and mental benefits of using a punch bag, which you can read about in detail in our other blog. Here are the main benefits:

• Great cardiovascular exercise
• Increases endurance
• Improves core stability and coordination
• Increases knockout power
• Improves boxing technique
• Improves mental health and body image

With the right technique and gradually increasing the intensity of your workout according to your ability, you’ll be able to see all of these benefits.

What Punching Bags are Best to Lose Weight?

While eating is one of the most important factors when trying to lose weight, having the right equipment is crucial too. In order to increase the intensity of your workout, you should have a heavy punch bag. Most punch bags weigh between 20 and 70 kg and vary in size between 1 and 7 feet, so you should choose a heavier bag for your workout to have a lot of resistance to your strikes. This does depend on the size and weight of the person using the punch bag though, and children should never use adult equipment.

Punch bags over 4 ft generally weigh more than 25 kg so can be great for losing weight as they make you work hard by providing more resistance than smaller or lighter punch bags. But there are also great benefits of smaller, 3 ft punch bags.

Shop for the Best Boxing Equipment

Having the right equipment can help you get fitter as you’ll be exercising safely and consistently as you’ll have access to everything you need. Shop for the best boxing gloves here, or the best punching bags here.