What muscles are worked hitting the heavy?

[Verstyle]

if you put your body momentum into the punches, why would you need a lot of muscle tensing. it doesn't make sense.


perhaps i misunderstand your post.

I bend my legs alot more then most ppl probably,cause thats my whole form.I turn and torque my hips constantly. when I throw hooks I throw more then 1 with the same hand over and over,therefore using more muscle.

[j]

VERSATILE2K7,

thanks for clarifying a bit. from my experience, over a decade of training in martial arts, i have found that if you overuse muscles, it will impede the power from the ground. it also makes you less fluid.


gotta run, i'll chat more tomarrow.

[Cutthroat]

Holy **** I didn't think I was going to last today, I only did 30 mins non stop but the humidity was horrible! I finished off my 30 mins. at 7:33, and couldn't catch my breath for ****. Felt like I was going to suffocate, I had to take a 1 minute break, and I was soaked with sweat.

(I have my bag outside) it started to drizzle a bit so that saved me.

[phallus]

i go usually 9 rounds on the bag and rest for 30sec between rounds.But the heavybag does get u stronger,I heard thats what tyson also did to get stronger just work the bag.I felt a huge increase in power when using it from 3 years ago when I first started.

marciano used to punch the bag for about an hour, i don't know if he rested in between rounds. i was gonna do that too, if i went pro.

[Hourglass]

Oddly enough, the longer I hit the heavy bag for, the more relaxed my muscles get and the better/harder my punches become. When I first start hitting the bag I feel tense, slow and weak. As I get into it, my punches seem to fly much faster and harder and I feel less pain. What stops me is normally just overall exhuastion rather than individual muscle pain. I normally throw a 3-5 punch combo, back off and then practice footwork/keeping my arms up for a few seconds then go back to punching and do this for about a half hour straight without any real full break. Just as if I was in a fight, punch, move, punch. Sometimes I just work on one or two punches though, just trying to hit harder and harder just to work on power. In that case I just hit the punch maybe 10 times as hard as I can then go to a different punch.

I really have no idea if im right on this, but it seems to me that if your not getting tired out for a long time when on the heavy bag then you aren't putting everything you got into your punches. I was taught that the heavy bag is to build power, personally if I wanted a long endurance workout which was similar to an actual fight i'd hit a lighter bag where I can practice speed and mobility. I mean, in a real fight not all of your punches are going to hit the guy and feel like a heavy bag. you want to work on speed in pulling punches and mobility too and use the heavy bag more for power.

What do you guys think? Im very open to constructive criticism.

edit: when I say heavy bag, im using a 100 pound bag. When I say lighter, i mean like a 70 pound bag or any bag that moves around a lot when you hit it.

[hemichromis]

judging by the aching the day after, the lats are the most used muscle followed by the front deltoid.

[Hourglass]

I also feel biceps (very low biceps, the area you'd only feel when doing an isolated workout like a preacher curl) and sometimes the muscles on the sides of the abs (dont know what they are called, not the very front ab muscles though). The whole front of my shoulder and down the back and sides of my arm are sore too. Its almost as if I put on a football chest protector....that whole area that the chest protector would cover would be what is sore the next day during a hard boxing workout. It dont normally feel the inside of my arm or lthe large part of my biceps/triceps as much but all of the upper and outer muscles on my arm are sore.

[DA1CATAS]

almost all... Back is a main one though... Of course shoulders by pull and impact...biceps...

Every muscle you need to punch correctly.

[Peterp]

If you are going 30 mins straight on the heavybag then you need to INCREASE YOUR INTENSITY

You may thing you are working hard but obviously you aren't working hard enough!

An elite distance runner can obviously run 800m (which takes under 2 mins) much faster than they can run 10K (which takes around 28 mins), so you need to learn how to push yourself to this 800m pace intensity.

NO ONE can keep up their maximum punch output for long periods of time, otherwise it is NOT your maximum punch output!

In reply to the original question, hitting the heavybag and boxing in general works just about every single muscle in your body with a strong emphasis on back, chest, shoulders, biceps and triceps and abs.