Having your own heavy bag in your home can be a great investment: it’s a superb workout tool that not only works almost every muscle in the body, stripping fat and building muscle, but it also enhances hand/eye coordination.
It’s also a great stress reliever enabling you to pound out your frustrations and any pent-up aggression you may have.
Putting up a heavy bag needn’t be a stressful or time-consuming process. All you have to do is follow the steps outlined below and you should have one up in no time.
Decide where to hang your bag
You need to bear in mind a number of factors when hanging your bag.
Have plenty of space surrounding the bag
Make sure you have space to install a bag. Have some measuring tape handy to know exactly the dimension you have available. The space you have will determine the type of bag you can put there.
Where to hang the bag
A garage or basement would be the ideal place for the bag. You can work out to your hearts content without making noise inside the house and not disturbing others.
Check Wall and Ceiling Material Strength
Be sure to check the material of the support beams, walls, and ceilings. The amount of weight they can support will determine the size of bag you can hang from them.
The supporting beams in your ceiling, assuming you have them, may not be strong enough to hold a bag. If they’re not, it’s still possible to hang a bag but it may be off a bracket from your wall. More on this later. Supporting beams are a series of long, narrow, wooden joists that run parallel across the ceiling. They are usually about 16 inches apart and form part of the structure of the building.
Different Bag Hanging Methods
There are a few different methods you can use to hang a punching bag. The one you choose depends on your space and area available.
Method #1 Eye Bolt onto A Support Beam
This is the way I’ve hung most heavy bags. Hanging your bag from the ceiling in this way allows the bag to swing in all directions and will give you 360 degrees of room to work your combinations.
Tools: Drill, eyebolt, combination wrench, hooks, and chains. (Generally, hooks and chains come with the bag, so you may not need to buy any extra.)
Step 1: First, you have to find the strongest beam in the room and see that you have ample space. Then take the drill and made a hole in the support beam.
Step 2: The next step is to place the eyebolt in the hole and begin tightening it with a wrench. (Ensure you use an eyebolt and not a hook: the bag will slip out.)
Step 3: Then connected the chains to the bag and hook the S chain to the middle. This connects all the chains to a single point.
Step 4: Last step is taking your bag(with help!), hook it to the eyebolt and you’re all set.
Method #2 Eye Bolt onto An Additional Beam
If the individual beams aren’t able to support the weight of a heavy bag, then you may want to consider this method.
It involves attaching a separate beam perpendicular to the existing ceiling beams. This helps spread the weight across a number of joists rather than just one.
Tools: A wooden beam (approximately 2 inches thick and long enough to span 5 ceiling beams), drill, wood screws, eyebolt, combination wrench, hooks, and chains. (Generally, hooks and chains come with the bag).
Step 1: First, measure the total distance between five beams and cut your separate wooden beam accordingly.
Step 2: Using long wood screws, attach the beam so that it runs at right angles to the ceiling joists. Use two wood screws for each ceiling beam and pre-drill the screw holes using the drill
Step 3: Use the drill to bore a hole in the middle of this wooden beam so that it goes through the centre of the middle beam (the third one along). This is for the eye bolt which should be screwed both into the additional beam you’ve added plus the ceiling beam.
Step 4: Continue as per Method #1.
Method #3 Ceiling/Joist Mount
There are specific bits of hardware that have been purpose made to support heavy bags.
These are brackets that are designed not only to securely attach the heavy bag to the beam but also rotate freely allowing the bag to swing freely when struck.
Tools: Drill, joist mount, nuts, bolts, marker, and combination wrench
Step 1: With a pencil, mark the spots for drilling on the ceiling along the centre of the beam that you want to mount the heavy bag to. Use the screw holes on the joist mount itself to ensure you get the spacing right.
Step 2: Drill the holes on the marked areas on the beam.
Step 3: Put up the mount and tighten in the bolts into the pre-drilled holes.
Step 4: Finally, just connect the chains to the S mount and hook it into the joist mount
If you’re worried about hanging your heavy bag from the ceiling, then one alternative is to hang it from a wall.
FAQs:
Can my ceiling support a heavy bag?
Hanging the heavy bag on the rafters or ceiling joints can destroy the drywall, so, it’s not too safe to hang a punching bag from the ceiling, unless needed caution is taken.
Can a heavy bag damage the ceiling?
Installing a heavy bag on the ceiling can cause serious damage to your house if done incorrectly.
How much weight can a drywall ceiling hold?
Ceilings are another matter, though, thanks to the direct downward pull of gravity. The average 2×4 ceiling joists can’t safely hold more than around 15 to 20 pounds regardless of the hanging hardware you use.