MMA Gear Review: Everlast Free Standing Heavy Bag
Written by Mike on September 20, 2008 – 12:31 am -All boxing and kickboxing gyms I’ve seen have heavy bags hung from their top. This is an essential gear in mixed martial arts training as well. It greatly improves one’s striking power when used properly. Used improperly (i.e. no hand wraps, full force strikes by children) heavy bag work can cause injuries such as boxer’s fracture, a fracture of one of the hand bones.
As stated some heavy bags are hung from the top. Pedestal-type heavy bags on the other hand, are mounted on a solid base. This has the advantage of not requiring the chains and a stable fixture from which to hang the heavy bag. Because of this, it can be used as training gear at home. Everlast, a world-renowned boxing and mma gear supplier, sells such pedestal heavy bags.
MMA Training Gear: Everlast Free Standing Heavy Bag
Here is the product description from Everlast’s website:
“Ideal for use in home, gym, school, dojo, fitness and cross-training workouts.
The Everlast Freestanding Heavy Bag combines the world-renowned features of the Nevatear™ bags with a precisely engineered, reinforced, high-density LDPE base that provides maximum flexibility with outstanding durability and resilience. Spring action provides awesome workout. Three height adjustments allow bag to stand from 52″ to a full 70″ tall. Base holds up to 24 gallons of water (approx. 200 Lbs.) for extra sturdy use. Comes unfilled. Professional work-out, professional results!
Product features:
- Rounded Design allows easy movemnet around target increasing cardio & leg conditioning & hand-eye coordination.
- Air-Foam Chamber provides lifelike feel.
- High Density Base easily filled with water or sand (approx. 250 lb.). Solid base provides easy-to-hit target maximizing your workout.
- Adjustable Flex Neck provides six height settings for multiple workout options including boxing, kick boxing & mixed martial arts.”
The product being sold in the picture costs US $99.99 plus taxes and shipping. Black and gray versions are also available, strangely enough at US $129.99 plus plus. Their descriptions are the same, so unless the color of the bag is extremely important, I suggest getting the red one pictured above.
I find that the Everlast Free Standing Heavy Bag has a swivelling mechanism that decreases the impact to one’s hand and wrist bones. As stated in the product description, the height is easily adjusted for transitioning from targetting the top of your opponent (head and arms) to body shots to leg kicks. The heavy bag is quite soft so it’s somewhat more comfortable than the usual heavy bag at the gym.
However, if you’re one of those people who hit real hard this gear will move during training. This will happen even with the base filled to the brim with sand. You will then need more support for the bag such as those sandbags at stage plays. This is a disadvantage not present in the hanging-type heavy bags. Perhaps a metal base instead of a plastic stand would have added some more weight. There is some fun in chasing the bag until you wander into the training space of a high-intensity mma fighter and well… try it and see what happens if you get in Mirko Cro Cop or Wanderei Silva’s way. In addition, the base of the bag as mentioned, is plastic and the bag does not appear to be high in quality. It appears that continuous full-force striking of this mma training gear is not recommended. Maybe it’s made more for leg kicks or not too intense training at home. But then, that won’t strengthen your strikes and large muscle groups as much as you may desire.
This Everlast Free Standing Heavy Bag is not bad to have at home for some training there. It looks cool as well as long as not much full force workouts have been done on it. Still, more than US $100 a pop is expensive and it is this author’s recommendation that the product is not a replacement for the heavy bags at the local boxing, kickboxing or mma gym.
Posted in MMA Gear Reviews, MMA Training |
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