How to fill a Muay Thai Heavy Bag

We sell all our Muay Thai Heavy Bags empty to keep the shipping costs as low as possible for our customers. So, if you’ve just received your Fairtex heavy bag and are wondering “How do to fill a Muay Thai Heavy Bag“, check out this straight forward guide below. We’ll break down what material to use to stuff your heavy bag, how full your punching bag should be, and discuss the best technique to fill it.

What material do I use to fill a Muay Thai Heavy Bag?

• Use own old, worn out clothing. Remove zippers, buttons and any other metal or hard plastic features. Their sharp edges can puncture the bag or cause injury while training.

Old sweaters, socks and boxer shorts with holes in them, old pajamas, scarfs, t-shirts, shorts, worn out rags, and anything else you can find will work. Well-worn jeans are OK, just be sure to remove all the hardware (including belt loops).

Another idea, is to find a cheap, used punching bag for sale on a local classified site; open it up and use its contents to fill you new bag.

How much fabric do I need to fill a punching bag?

• A lot! The volume of clothes needed to fill even a small heavy bag will surprise you.

You’ll likely need to find other sources of fabric. Check out local thrift stores and ask your friends for any clothes they’ve grown out of or worn out. A lot of people have clothing laying around that is “not quite good enough for the donation pile”, with holes or stains – this is an excellent way to re-purpose that fabric! If you do need to buy textiles, old towels, curtains, sheets, and blankets are great options.

How do I prepare the fabric to stuff inside my punching bag?

• Shredding the material helps to keep a uniform distribution inside the heavy bag.

Smaller pieces of fabric will settle more evenly inside your bag. Ideally, you want a mixture of different fabric throughout the bag. This will give a more smooth and uniform filling than if you shove a bunched up sweater on one side of the bag and a pair of jeans on the other. Large chunks of fabric can create gaps as the bag settles.

Shredding fabric is easy to do; you can use a strong pair of scissors to cut the fabric into strips. A rotary fabric slicer will be even quicker (and a bit easier on your hands). Don’t cut the fabric too large, you want the pieces to lay relatively flat inside the bag.

How heavy should the punching bag be?

We sell Fairtex punching bags. We’ve put together a comprehensive list of their maximum weight suggestions below.

Keep in mind how important it is not to over fill the bag. Too much weight inside will cause the punching bag to tear with repetitive impact and training.

• Classic Heavy Bag (Fairtex HB2) = 26 kg
• Extra Large Heavy Bag (Fairtex HB3) = 32 kg
• 3-foot Tear Drop Heavy Bag (Fairtex HB4) = 27 kg
• 4-foot Syntek Heavy Bag (Fairtex HB5) = 31 kg
• 6-foot Muay Thai Banana Bag (Fairtex HB6) = 39 kg
• 7-foot Pole Bag (Fairtex HB7) = 140 kg
• Bowling Bag (Fairtex HB10) = 36 kg
• Uppercut Heavy Bag (Fairtex HB11) = 21 kg
• Angle Heavy Bag (Fairtex HB12) = 60 kg
• Super Angle Heavy Bag (Fairtex HB13) = 60 kg
• Super Tear Drop Heavy Bag (Fairtex HB15) = 40kg

What’s the best way to fill a Muay Thai Heavy Bag?

Filling a large heavy bag can be tricky. Here’s a few tips:

• Open the bag at the top and roll the sides down so you can better access the bottom of the bag.
• Fill approximately 1 foot of the bag with fabric then stand on it. This will help compact the fabric. If the opening is too small to allow for this, you can use the end of a broomstick to push the fabric down.
• Continue filling the bag 1 foot at a time, pushing the fabric down as you go.
• Inside the bag will settle with use, you may need to top it up after a few weeks.

How do I increase the weight of my punching bag?

• You can add weight (within your heavy bag’s weight limit), with small sandwich bag filled with sand. You can add these in-between the 1 foot sections of fabric.

If you chose this route, please be sure to completely tape the Ziploc bag shut. This prevents the bag from bursting and the sand sinking down the to bottom of the bag. Small sand bags should be in the middle of the bag so that you’re not striking directly onto them. Alternatively, you can place a few at the top of the bag, to keep the entire mass of clothing from riding up.

Benefits of filling your own heavy bag:

• Save money on shipping.

This is an obvious and immediate benefit of buying an empty Muay Thai punching bag.

• Customize the feel of the bag.

This is the BEST benefit of filling your own heavy bag. The weight of a bag determines how much it swings with training. A light bag will swing a lot with impact, heavier bags will offer more resistance. Filling your own bag allow you to fully customize the swing of your bag and the firmness you’ll feel on impact.

• Add weight as you get stronger.

Being mindful of the weight recommendations above, you can fill the bag more as you get stronger to create more resistance.

Tips to Remember:

1. you’ll need a ton of textiles and a good cutting tool
2. fill it only to the manufacturer’s recommended weight
3. make sure you compact the stuffing as you fill the bag

Purchasing an un-filled heavy bag will save you money on shipping and gives you total flexibility on how it’s filled. If you’re interested in buying a new punching bag, you can fill out the form below to receive $10 OFF your purchase.

Let us know how you make out after filling your own punching bag. Do you have any additional tips to add?