So you’ve damaged your Muay Thai bag and you’re looking to set up another one or you’re just trying to make one yourself. Whichever reason it is, you’re in the right place. As we’ve provided ample information for you.
To fill your Muay Thai bag you need to choose the right material and follow our instructions.
In this article, we will tell you what is the best material to fill a Muay Thai bag, how to fill it, what to expect from a poorly filled bag, and how to hang your Muay Thai bag.
What Is The Best Material To Fill a Muay Thai Bag
There are various filling Materials but not all of them are suitable for punching bags (muay Thai bags). The wrong one could reward you with poor training experience.
The appropriate filling materials to choose from include:
- Sand fill
- Sawdust
- Pieces of cloth
Sand Filling
The best feature about sand fill is its sturdiness which is great for harder and tighter punches.
But it’s best used with other filling types to ensure a much enjoyable and safe training experience. Why? Sand fill tends to sink all the way to the bottom. This leaves the top softer and the bottom concrete thick. Providing imbalanced Resistance. The wrong punch or kick could cause damage to your wrist, shins, and knuckles.
Also, due to it’s sinking nature, it’ll be hard to get the preferred shape without it getting extra heavy. So heavy it could break its support during a training session.
Sawdust
If you want a Muay Thai bag that isn’t so hard but it’s also not too soft, then you should consider sawdust to be included in the filling. Also, sawdust filling provides a lot more consistency than sand with less weight.
Cloth
This is the easiest and safest filling to use. It doesn’t sink down, so resistance is balanced although. Soft or medium punches are great for it. And the bag is less likely going to tear compared to bags with sand filling.
How Do You Fill a Muay Thai Bag?
There are various ways in which you can fill a muay bag. And the methods used can involve the combination of all or some of the three major types of fillings listed earlier on in this article.
Choosing the best filling for you
Before filling your Muay Thai bag, you have to decide which material is best to fill it with. You can make your choice based on certain factors such as:
Consistency – the material is less likely to get a lot thicker in a section than another. (E.g. sand filling gives a soft top and hard bottom).
Feel – feel for punching you’d get from the filling material. For instance, sand can take hard and tighter punches, clothes filling is great for softer punches and sawdust filling is best for medium-level punches.
Weight – If you’re looking for a heavier Muay Thai bag then it should have sand or a closer material such as rice. Cloth filling is a lot lighter whilst one with sawdust filling is neither too heavy or too light.
Tips and Tricks on How To Fill Muay Thai Bags
How do you fill it with sand
The reason why sand is used as filling material is to increase the overall weight of the bag. Thus, the resistance it should offer.
Given sand is well-known for sinking and inconsistency (soft top hard bottom). It’s best to add some other filling materials to improve the bag’s quality.
Here’s are the steps to effectively fill a Muay Thai bag with sand:
What you need:
- Sand (packs)
- Pieces of cloth
Process:
- First, fill the base of the empty bag with pieces of cloth
- Then put in packs of sand
- Make sure to tape all packs of sand together, so they can remain immobile and keep a neutral pace. To ensure the bag swings perfectly
- With the space left, add more pieces of cloth.
What to expect:
- heavy feel
- Heavyweight
- Consistent build
How Do You Fill It With Sawdust
What you need:
- sawdust
- Rubble sack
- Clothes
Steps:
- Place pieces of clothes into the bag, until it can fit a third of the Muay Thai bag.
- Pour your preferred quality of sawdust into the rubble sack and the fit it into the bag as well
- Fit the stuffed rubble sack into the bag.
- Then fill the whole bag with sawdust, until the sides of the bag get bit sturdy
- Ensure the rubble sack is closed, to prevent sawdust from pouring out
What to expect:
- Medium feel
- Medium weight
- Consistency
How Do You Fill It With Clothes
What you need:
- Clothes
- No sand
- No sawdust
Process:
- Fill the bag in such a way there isn’t space between clothes
- Do this until the bag is sturdy enough
What to expect:
- Consistency
- Lightweight
What To Expect From a Poorly Filled Muay Thai Bag
Filling an empty Muay Thai bag is a very important process as the wrong filling material can lead to several unwanted features such as:
- Improper swinging: which hinders rhythmic training
- Concrete bottom and soft top: the sinking of filling material (e.g sand)
- Poor resistance
- Extremely harmful to knuckles, shins, and wrists.
What To Consider Before Hanging A Muay Thai Bag
So now you’ve made your Muay Thai bag. The next step is to hang it. This is quite as important as the stuffing because a lot of things could go wrong if you don’t take some factors into consideration:
- Where to support the bag
- Indoors or outdoors
- Enough training room
- Weight of the bag
How Do You Hang a Muay Thai Bag?
There are many ways in which you can suspend your Muay Thai bag:
- From a support beam
- Ceiling mount
- Wall mount
How to hang your Muay Thai Bag from a Support Beam
This is the most common choice for a punching bag support and for good reasons. It offers great mobility and there’s usually lots of space below it. All you need to do is find the strongest beam.
Tools you need:
- Wrench
- S-hook
- Drill
- Eye Bolt
- Heavy chains (to handle heavy bags)
Process:
- Find a safe spot on the beam and then drill a hole through the support beam
- Fix an eye Bolt into the drilled hole by twisting with help of a wrench to tighten it
- Connect the chain with bag and then with the S-hook
- After that try to connect S-hook which is attached to bag onto the eye bolt
- Give the bag a test run. (Throw in some kicks and punches)
How To Hang Your Muay Thai Bag From A Ceiling Mount
Ceiling mounts are also great for supporting punching bags. They can offer strong support as a beam would. As long as it’s fixed between the beam and joists. Also, It’s the best option if you’re not looking to drill a hole in your beam.
What you need:
- Drill
- Mount
- Wrench
- Screwdriver
- Marker
- Nuts and bolts
- Bag and chains
- S-hook
Process:
- Get the ceiling mount and place it against the ceiling so you can mark the points that are touched by the ceiling bolts
- After marking, get the drill and make holes through the marked points
- Get a wrench or a screwdriver to fix the ceiling mount through the already made holes
- Fix the chains to the bag and the S-hook in such a way you can lift the bag from the S-shock
- Lift the bag and then attach it to the ceiling mount via the S-hook
- Give the bag a test run
How To Hang Your Muay Thai Bag From A Wall Mount
If it’s not feasible for you to use beam support and a ceiling mount, you can always go for the wall mount.
Prevent fixing it onto drywall. A masonry wall is a safer choice.
What you need:
- Marker
- Screwdriver
- Nuts and bolts
- S-hook
- Wall mount
- Drill
- Wrench
- Heavy chains
- Muay Thai Bag
Process:
- Place the wall mount onto the wall at a significant height. Then use the market to strike out the points touched by the wall mount
- Drill holes into the marked points, then fix the mount onto the wall with the aid of bolts
- Hook the bag with the chain and then attach the chain to the S-hook
- Then lift attach the bag onto the wall mount
- Give the bag a test run
How Heavy Should It Be?
The least weight a punching bag can have is between 70 – 100lbs. It can be much more than that, considering Muay Thai bags are longer.
Be careful not to go overboard with the weight as it could cause unnecessary accidents.
Conclusion
So there you have, all you need to know about filling a Muay Thai bag and any other punching bag. Now you know it isn’t just about stuffing the bag. There’s actually a lot of details to filling and it should be done cautiously. So as to prevent unnecessary accidents and injuries.
