Don’t let your heavybag shake your house apart

It’s a bad idea to mount a heavy bag from the structural elements in your house. I understand that it’s tempting to hang it from the rafters in your basement, or from the ceiling joints in your workout room, but this is a recipe for trouble.

Unless you only use your punching bag once in a blue moon, you can literally shake your house apart during your punching workouts. The noise, jarring, and vibration not only destroys your drywall, it also drives your family and neighbors crazy.

But fret not, there are some options for you to try.

Modern construction is all about efficiency

In the old days, houses were built from timber frames. The timbers were braced with diagonal supporting elements, and the entire structure held together on its own regardless of whether it was covered with sheathing. These structures were overbuilt — that is, they were built so strongly that they could withstand just about anything. Wood was plentiful, labor was cheap, and engineering was in its infancy; houses were built strong and no thought was given to using the least amount of building material possible.

These days, it’s a different story. Modern frame construction relies on plywood to tie all the parts of the framing together. There are no oversized timbers or diagonal bracing; the plywood keeps it from all falling apart. Two-by-fours — which, in the past, would have been far too flimsy to use as structural elements in house construction — are braced and held in place with sheets of plywood or oriented strand board. Modern construction methods save labor, they require no real skill to implement, and they are efficient.

But modern construction methods are vulnerable to the stress of heavybag training.

How to hang your heavybag in a modern house

It’s not a good idea. Really.

But if you must, here are are a few things you can try.

Heavybag spring on top, bungee cord on the bottom

Stick a heavy-duty spring between the heavybag mount and the chains. This is a good way to reduce the pounding vibration that might otherwise destroy your drywall.

The only problem is, the spring will cause your bag to jump up and down a bit more than normal. The way around this is to hook up a bungee cord to the bag’s bottom D-ring attachment point. It will keep the bag from hopping up and down on the chains, and it will keep it from swinging as much (which is especially useful if your bag is not heavy enough). A strong bungee cord is sturdy enough to stop the bag from jumping when you hit it with a good, snapping punch.

Everlast makes a heavybag anchor that you can fill with water to a weight of 45 pounds or so. Check it out the user reviews and specs at Amazon

Rubber bushing between the mount and the attachment point

You want to reduce vibration and transfer of kinetic energy through the heavybag mounting hardware to the ceiling joist or rafter to which you’ve attached it.

One way to do this is to make a rubber bushing and put it between the hardware and the rafter. Try using an old piece of auto tire tread or some other long-lasting, wear-resistant rubber. Cut it to shape with some heavy shears.

Too much vibration? Change your heavybag mount

If you currently use a mount that attaches to a single rafter, you should consider changing to one that is screwed into two rafters.

Supporting the heavybag from two structural elements instead of one helps share the load and reduce the vibration in vulnerable areas.

This sort of mount gives you the added benefit of raising the bag up higher between the beams, so if your heavybag is mounted too low, this is a way to fix the problem.

Reduce heavybag vibration by changing from ceiling-mounted to wall-mounted

If you have masonry walls (like in most modern basements), you can use a wall mount. If your walls are made of framing, forget it.

Punching bag wall mounts range from the el cheapo $30 dollar models all the way up to super-strong $500 designs that do everything except give you workout advice.

Make sure to get a wall-mount that lets you swing the bag out of the way when you’re done working out. A little touch like that will gain your appreciation over time. If the heavybag takes up too much room, you’ll be tempted to get rid of it. Switching to a wall mount just might save your workouts.

Free-standing heavybag stands

If you just can’t make the ceiling or wall mounts work, take down your punching bag and hang it from a heavybag stand. There are models ranging in price from less than $150 all the way up to more than a thousand dollars.

You can check out lots of stands at Amazon, click here: Free-standing heavybag stands.

While heavybag stands are not as nice as a ceiling-mount, lots of times they’re the only viable option for using a traditional heavybag.

Free-standing heavybags

When all else fails, you might have to bite the bullet and get rid of your ceiling-mounted heavybag.

Free-standing punching bags are not my favorite, but they’re great for people who need to work out indoors.

Check out the selection at Amazon: Free standing heavy bag.

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