I’ve certainly never professed to being my own version of Mike Tyson, but decades of knuckle push-ups, striking exercises and frequent use of a makiwara have made it so I can pack a pretty decent punch. Not “break through concrete” kind of punch, but definitely a “fracture your bones or knock your shit out” kind of punch. Your body strength with strikes has always been a bit more of a forte for me than kicking. While I enjoy, employ and appreciate a good kick, I usually prefer punching. This fits well into my style’s generalized philosophy that if the opponent is outside arm’s reach, why would you strike? But that’s a whole different concept for another day. Today, we’re talking about my punches and the subsequent issue it caused me a little over a month ago. Quite a few years ago now, I invested in a standalone steel-framed stand and an 80-pound punching bag. I set all of it up on my garage, since our archaic garage isn’t big enough to house a modern vehicle and we mostly use it for storage. The garage has quickly become my refuge, allowing me space to enjoy the nice weather without being exposed to summer heat, puff on a nice cigar without disturbing my family and gives me an environment to burn through my inner rage on the bag without shaking the house’s foundations.
A little over a month ago, the weather started moving to a nicer temperature, which allowed me to move on a few different fitness steps. I cleaned up my bicycle, greased the chain and prepped my carry bag for what will hopefully be some reasonable mileage throughout the summer. But I also took the time to tidy the garage floor, clear away all the winter storage and clean the dust off of the punching bag. I started having my usual bag workouts out there a couple of times a week, which usually involves 30 minutes of 1-minute-punching-30-seconds-rest, followed by another 30 minutes but on the bike. It makes for a solid sweat, exhausts me nicely and allows me to burn off a lot of stress and pent up anger from the world outside. However, recently while working out on the bag, I may have allowed my zeal to take control and after a few focused strikes that really struck home (pun FULLY intended), the chain links holding the bag up onto the steel frame snapped, sending the bag tumbling to the floor.
Ignoring for a moment the fact that I don’t secure my frame to the ground, which would likely be helpful as it would keep it from sliding along the floor as you see in the photo, I was reasonably lucky that the bag simply fell straight down from the frame, the frame didn’t tip over or knock anything over and most importantly, nothing fell on me or injured me. As a side note, the bike got put back into place where you see it AFTER I stopped the workout because the bag fell. Now, I faced an interesting conundrum. Where to find a replacement for a double looped swivel link to replace the one that broke. Unfortunately, as I would come to learn, such a singular, specialized piece wasn’t so easy to find. I started with some local sporting goods stores where punching bags are sold. I don’t like leaving myself open to comments being interpreted as litigious, so I won’t name the stores, but I was somewhat surprised that none of these retail locations, which sell punching bags and related equipment, sold any replacement or spare parts of any of the hardware. Alright. Fair enough.
I had the option, of course, of purchasing an entirely new punching bag, which would include the swivel link I needed. But my current bag is still in good condition and will likely last another few years. My next step was to hit up some hardware stores. After all, what could be more basic than getting chain hardware from a hardware store, right? I stopped at two locations, one of which is a large, national chain that has orange as its primary color (wink, wink). I found similar chain links, but they had significantly low weight tolerance. We’re talking less than what the bag itself weighed. Factor in striking the bag repeatedly and sometimes having it swing in every which direction would mean this thing would barely last one workout. IF I was lucky… I don’t live in a MAJOR metropolitan center, but we are in a city of about 270,000 people. So, one would be inclined to think that there should be SOME availability of hardware like this. But nope, nope, triple nope… Couldn’t find it anywhere.
Finally, I resorted to my least favorite means of retail shopping: online. I’m not trying hard to age myself here, but I always prefer to do my shopping at an actual retail location. That way, I can see, touch and check exactly what I intend to purchase and I know exactly where to go if something needs to be returned, replaced or repaired. This is not always the case when one purchases online. But, it is 2026 and sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right? I found a swivel link on Amazon for $20. This thing is twice as thick as the previous one that came with the bag and has a weight capacity of (allegedly) 1,200 pounds. Perfect. Good price, good specs. That’ll do in a pinch. Add to cart and a week later, I got it in. I even had the foresight to order an extra one on the unlikely chance I managed to pop this one. With a little help, I managed to get the bag set back up and even followed it up with a family workout, using the bag, punch pad and makiwara as stations.
A punching bag is not only a good way to get some passive cardio in and burn off stress and frustration. I’ve long believed it’s a necessary training step for any martial artist who trains extensively alone. After all, you can only swing the brush through empty air for so long before you need to start touching paint to canvass. In the same vein, you can only do form and shadow boxing for so long before you need to strike an actual surface to start developing. And since I don’t currently train in any dojo, my sparring partners are few and far between. This makes the punching bag and striking pad all the more important. Plus, nothing makes you feel quite better than burning off steam on a bag after a long, hard day’s work. Totally meditative. I’m glad I got the bag repaired and cancel in action. It does humble one when considering the fact that given enough time and enough strikes, even steel gives way to flesh. Food for thought… ☯️
The Blogging Buddhist 