Punching Bag Review

The punching bag has a long history. Now we associate these bags with expensive gym equipment used by well-muscled fighters and boxers, people working to push themselves to the next level aerobically, or perhaps as a source of stress relief and anger management. Modern bags are used by people in all different sports and martial arts, including everything from boxing and kickboxing to karate, MMA, and Muay.

But the origin of the punching bag, as far as we know, outdates the majority of sports that use them now. Ancient martial arts may have used bags for practice, and there is evidence of bag use in many areas of Asia, where martial arts originated.

We also know that in old Europe, bags were used not to be punched, but to be struck with swords. This was in part for military training (for soldiers learning to wield weighty swords for battle) and in part for swordplay (for noblemen training in the fine arts of sword play, in which they competed for honor and bragging rights, and occasionally in a duel to the death).

Despite being able to trace the punching bag back this far, we do not know how far back it goes. This is because these bags go back just as far as does written history; in all likeliness, they were being used well before anything was written down. We just don’t have the documentation to know exactly where and how they were used.

In many ways, the modern bags now used in athletic centers and training facilities do not resemble the bags of the ancient past. For example, many are made of vinyl and other synthetic materials because these are far more resistant to mildew than is cloth. Contemporary practice bags also come in a huge range of shapes and styles, from small speed bags and swerve balls to larger “uppercut” bags.

But one thing that the modern and historic bags have in common is filling. Early bags were filled with grain and sand to give weight to the bag, and these are both used today, along with cloth, water, and air. So while some innovations have been added (like the vinyl), the essential structure and purpose of the punching bag has remained the same for hundreds of years.