This article is from Fight Geek‘s free ebook Putting Together a Muay Thai Home Gym. The Heavy Bag (Gimp).

This is the most important purchase for your home gym. You will spend countless hours with your gimp – kicking, punching, grappling . . . nuzzling. So, in my opinion, it’s worthwhile buying the best quality bag you can afford.

So what sort of bag should you get?

1. Buy Long
   It needs to be long enough so you can jab high and kick low from your
   normal fighting stance.
2. Buy Heavy
   It must be heavy enough to develop powerful kicks and keep the
   swinging to a minimum.
3. Buy Tough
   You’re going to absolutely spank the be-jesus out of this thing with your shins, elbows, knees, fists and face (What? You don’t do face conditioning? You sissy!) Make sure it’s made from durable material, has quality stitching and sturdy D-rings.

Owning a heavy bag will enable you to practice all of your strikes. And unlike a training partner it won’t get tired or sook during a particularly hard spanking session. You will learn to love your gimp–though don’t get carried away.

Getting ‘aroused‘ when you spank you gimp is normal (well, that’s what I tell myself)–just don’t ever let things go past the arousal stage. Sweat, blood and tears should be the only bodily fluids that stain your bag.

What do I use? A 6 foot, Jumbo Jim Bradley bag.

Want some gimp-kicking inspiration?

Here’s Peter Aerts (‘The Dutch Lumberjack‘) in action :