It's pretty heavy, it's been soaking in the rain. There's nothing on the bottom that I could attach anything to, no.
Would you say itās in the neighborhood of 40kg or so?
I think that your overall goals in your training will affect what makes sense for you to work on. If you want to compete, that usually includes the protection of wraps and gloves of some kind, so it makes sense to use those while working on the bag. I donāt compete and donāt have much advice on this approach.
If your interest does not include competition, then you want to work the bag in a way that you develop the ability to safely hit with power, without the protection of wraps and gloves, and without injuring yourself. This requires a slower approach, methodically working up the power over time and being careful that your wrist and arm alignment are correct so you donāt injure yourself. It also means your sessions will be shorter than they would be if you were using wraps and gloves, because your hands will feel it more. Personally, I donāt like to spar the bag. Instead, I systematically go through all of my different punches and work them individually, with repetition, to develop the delivery and power. When the bag gets to swinging, slow it down and go back to the basics. Focus on one technique at a time.
@Kung Fu Wang made some comments about getting power from the stance, rather than muscling it from the arms/shoulders and such. Itās good advice as a better approach in developing power, but there are specifics and details and methodical approaches to that kind of thing that i doubt you can figure out without some direct guidance. Maybe on a rudimentary level, and itās worth exploring, but there is likely a lot that you will miss. Do the best you can and be careful to avoid injury. You can break a wrist or a hand on a heavy bag, especially if the bag has been sitting out in the weather and is developing compact, hard areas. Depending on what it is stuffed with, that can be like hitting concrete. I would suggest replacing it if it has become like that.
After a bare-hand session like that, there is often a small amount of swelling in the back of the knuckles. It typically goes away within a day or so, but give time between sessions to make sure you are healing. Iām in my mid-50s and donāt recover as quickly as I did 20 years ago. I find that one session a week is plenty to maintain good power and delivery, but a younger person might benefit from 2-3 times a week as long as they are healing and recovering well between sessions.
I donāt know how many different punches and hand-strikes you are working on. In my kung fu method, we have a bunch that come from different angles and strike with different parts of the fist, not just the front of the knuckles like a typical straight punch . So it can take some time to work through them all.
