New Addition: MMA Punching Bag

Hi guys,

Moving on to the next new addition to our Home Gym, we got a Punching Bag.

There are various sizes of punching bags in the market. From a small 85cm to a long 2m punching bag.

The one that we got for our home gym was the 1.8m MMA Punching Bag.

What we got for our punching workout routine are:
1) A 1.8m MMA Punching Bag
2) A pair of Boxing Gloves
3) A pair of wrist wraps

The supplier included in a big piece of foam to put into the punching bag as the outer layer. This will help to protect the impact on the wrist greatly when landing a punch on the punching bag.

We got the punching Bag unfilled and so here we go with the filling process of the punching bag. 

As you will see in the pictures below, we lay the piece of foam around the inner layer of the punching bag before filling up the punching bag.

There are various materials that you can use to fill up a punching bag. Materials like Old rags, old clothes, saw dust, beans, sand, old rubber pieces etc. However, do take note that materials like sand, beans will make your punching bag really hard and heavy. It will be too hard for punching and kicking. So we actually recommends that you fill the punching bag with old clothes, rags or rubber in order to reduce the impact on your wrist and shins when punching or kicking the bag. Below is a picture of the old clothes that we used. We actually used more than what is shown in the picture below. We used around 30kg of old clothes to fill up the punching bag.

The picture below shows a packet of mothball. We decied to throw in a packet of mothball among the old clothes within the punching bag, hopefully this will prevent any bugs from coming out of the old clothes.

To ensure that the old clothes fill up the punching bag nicely and densely, that is a need to constantly press the old clothes down and to shake and slam the punching bag vertically down. To press the clothes down and as densely as possible, we used a stick to push the old clothes further into the punching bag to make it more packed. 

The top of the punching bag is like a zip pocket. After the punching bag is filled, fold in the foam piece at the top, and zip up the punching bag.

And there you go, a filled punching bag appears! After weighing, the punching bag is around 30kg. If you wan the punching bag to be heavier, you can choose to add in some sand among the old clothes. But do remember the the old clothes should make up at least 80% of the materials used, as mentioned earlier that sand will make the sandbag very hard.

So the next question that will come into your mind is that, "now that i have a filled sandbag, where can i hang it for punching?

There are various options where you can hang your punching bag on, a chin up bar, a Power Cage or a anchor point installed on the ceiling/ wall.

For our case, we hung the punching bag on our Power Cage. With the chain and carabiner that comes with the punching bag, the punching bag can be easily attached to the Power Cage.

 In order to protect the chain from scratching the Power Cage, wrap a piece of clothe or rubber around the spot on the Power Cage where the chain will be wrapping around. Refer to the picture below.

Below are some bonus pictures of the Punching bag and accessories.

Stay tune for the next post on a new addition to our Home Gym.

I am looking to purchase: A Weight Bench with leg curls and extension attachment or Lying Leg Curl machine

Hi guys,

The following is a request from one of our wonderful reader.

Name: Lina
Contact: hazel_lina07@yahoo.com.sg

Want-To-Buy (WTB) Description: I m looking for the work bench like the gym with the pulley and can do leg curls etc...i saw some second hand for a few hundred..just checking if anyone has any ..thanks 

We understand that she maybe be looking for a weight bench with leg curls and extension attachment or a lying leg curl machine.

If you got an equipment that fits the description, please contact her directly.

Buying Supplements from iherb,com

Hi Guys,

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Purchase from www.iherb.com to get your discount now!

New Addition Reviews: The Dip Belt

We bought quite a few new additions to my Home Gym. First up, we got a Harbinger Dip Belt from Amazon. It cost around $75 including shipping.

The Harbinger Dip Belt is of really good quality. Thick and very rough looking. The design allows you to wrap the whole belt around your waist instead of the belt hanging on your waist. Take a look in the below video.

The dip belts allow you to add weight to your bodyweight and perform exercises such as dips, chin-ups. Though you can also do so by putting a dumbell or weight plate between your knees, a dip belt offers a better grip and safer hold.

Singapore Home Gym Ratings: Overall, we find this to be a very good buy. For $75, you get a quality dip belt which fit comfortably around your weight. Comfort is one of the most important factors to look out for when getting a dip belt. A comfortable dip belt will allow you to load heavy weights without feeling too much of discomfort around your waist area. The chain and the material of the belt also looks like you can hang quite a heavy load onto it.

Stay tune, we got reviews of lots of other additions to our home gym.

Singapore Home Gym Undergoes Renovation Part III: Same Colour Same Shade

When there's a gym, there's a mirror. That's the same for a Home Gym too!

A mirror in the gym serve many purposes, from allowing "vain" gym-ers to look into the mirror while flexing their biceps to allowing gym-ers to monitor their form when doing the exercises. 

For our home gym, being on a budget, we got 3x $9.90 half length mirror from Ikea. From the previous posts, you can see that the frame of the mirrors are in brown, that just does'nt match the theme and colour of our home gym equipments. So we decided to give it a little make over to help it blend into the home gym surroundings.

All you need is a tin of black paint, a brush and sand paper.

Remember to sand the surface of the frame before applying the paint onto it.

Tape up sides of the mirror to prevent paint from staining the mirror.

And there you go, all three mirror'frame painted and left to dry.

After the paint has dried, slowly remove the tape from the mirror.

Look how well the black frame mirrors look in our home gym. Black frame mirrors and grey colored Power Cage makes a good combination
!

This is a small little DIY that we did to improve the overall look of our home gym. Too many colours will actually make the home gym look messy. 

Next, we will start introducing the many different small equipments that we have added to our home gym. Want to find out what these equipments are? Stay tune!

Singapore Home Gym Undergoes Renovation Part III: Accessories for the Power Rack....Where to place them?

The Power rack came with two attachment, the lats pulldown bar and the short bar for curls. Singapore Home Gym being Singapore Home Gym, wont find more attachments too much, we purchased three more attachment, the Triangle Pull Bar, the Tricep Rope and the Horseshoe Cable Handle. These three attachments are a great addition to our lats attachment cable system. These were delivered to us in nicely wrapped plastics.

No doubt these are addition addition to the home gym, but they could be a great mess for the home gym too if not placed in the right place when not in use. Most home gym users would leave these attachments lying all around on the floor, with the weight plates or on the Power Rack itself. However, for Singapore Home Gym, we want our home gym to look good and feel professional.

Here's what we did to have these attachments nicely placed.

All you need is wall hooks and a hammer. For these "heavy" attachments, we recommend that you get the wall hooks which allows you to nail it into the wall. A wall hook with double sided tape may not be strong enough to hold them.

Next, find a wall with your home gym where you can hang these attachments without making your home gym looks messy. For this, we have a great idea for you. Hang them behind the curtains!

So when you are not working out in your home gym, just draw the curtains covering up the Power Rack attachments.

In the next post, we will be recommending even more ways to make your home gym look professional and nice.

Singapore Home Gym Undergoes Renovation Part III: All set ready to go...Yes but No.....

Hi guys,

Move in the weight bench and you are all set ready to go.....your workout routine can all be performed with the weight bench, Power rack, barbells and weights....

But having a home gym alone is not enough....you need to have a neat and nice home gym. Nobody wants to workout in a gym where everything is thrown around and untidy.

As mentioned in earlier posts, the weight bench comes with the Preacher curls and Leg extension attachment.  Most of the time you do not need these attachments. So it's important that they are stored at a corner or space within the home gym that does not obstruct or disturb you while trying to move around in your home gym.

We found a really nice space to slot in these two attachment, right in between the wall and the Power Rack. This space does not obstruct the home gym user movement and it's also easy to get the attachments for use.

Next comes the long barbells, 2.2m, 1.8m, 1.5m, how do you store them all?

For us, we prefer to do the "free" way, put them at the corner of the home gym.

The curtains can also help to hide the barbells, simply cover the curtains over the barbells.

The weight plates are neatly placed onto a weight tree and placed at one side of the home gym. The space used for the weight tree is very important, it must be easily accessible as the weight plates are the equipment that you will use in almost all your workout routines.

A little bonus tip that we would like to provide our reader with.....

We all love our Power Rack so much that we want to prevent it from scratches and all. The very one part of the Power Rack that we want to prevent the barbell from scratching is the safety bars. The safety bars comes in very handy as a "spotter", and when the barbell is dropped on them, it can cause lot of scratches to the metal of the safety bars.

So what we did was......
We bought cheap yoga mats, this can be bought from any supermarkets. Each cost only $9.90.

 Cut the yoga mats into long strips, each about 45cm long, about 3cm wide. Use the measuring tape to get the actual length of the safety bar.

After cutting the yoga mat, use double sided tapes to tape the strips onf yoga mat together. Tape around 5 strips together to get sufficient thickness.

 And there you go, place these on your safety bars, these will act as extra cushion when you drop your barbells on the safety bars, and therefore preventing them from getting scratched.

Stay tune for our next post, we have more ways and ideas to make your home gym to an even better one.