30, 30, 30 in 30 Heavy Bag Bulgarian Bag Workout

Published by Jason Narog on August 2, 2020August 2, 2020

My friend Michael – The Iron Therapist put the concept into my head. His spin is heavy KB swings and shadow boxing. Years ago, when I was learning the Pavel SFG way of swinging bells my instructor had mentioned to me “no twisting” during kettlebell sets. I’ve since inquired about what I turned into a “rule” when seeing StrongOn programs incorporate in kickboxing with swings and it’s less of a rule and more of a suggestion for people who may not be 100% on swinging form. Being that that’s probably 99% of the population and I don’t want any injuries I’ve modified the concept to bag work.

If you don’t have a heavy bag you can shadow box. I honestly got tired at about the 20 minute mark and switched from the heavy bag to the spar bar.

Timer set up

The first 0:30 is for punching, kicking, kneeing, and elbowing. Do whatever you know, whatever combos you know, defense, feints, heavy, speed. The martial art discipline doesn’t actually matter here, do your martial art for 30 seconds.

When the timer goes off grab your Bulgarian bag. I have 12 grinds I really like and 4 ballistics I really like (then 1 I’m not a huge fan of.) The good thing about the ballistics is you can go 1 direction for 30 seconds then on the next round go the other 30 seconds.

If I were to make any modifications to this workout it would be to include some sort of switch timer between the first and second 30 seconds. In reality you’re going to get maybe 25 seconds of work on the bag (if you’re fast at setup.)

The last 0:30 is for rest. Timer wise if you followed exactly you’d set up an interval timer [that’s the name of the Android App] of 0:30 low intensity, 0:30 high intensity, 0:30 rest repeated 20x.

Bulgarian bag routine

1) Suples Spin Right
2) Suples Spin Left
3) Bent over main handle rows
4) Strap handle behind the head shoulder press
5) Side Handle Strict Press
6) Side Handle Squat to Front Raise
7) Swing Squat
8) Snatch
9) Bag on shoulders calf raises
10) Bag on shoulders right lunge [you can go back or forward]
11) Bag on shoulders left lunge
12) Bag on shoulders squat
13) Lamb swing right
14) Lamb swing left
15) Right Arm throw to top position spin (do the arm throw, then swing the bag up onto your back with elbows open, then back to the arm throw)
16) Left arm throw to top position spin
17) Main handle bicep curls
18) Strap handle bicep curls
19) Strap handle tricep extensions
20) Side handle tricep extensions

I personally run through this list for reps (12 reps for muscle endurance) regularly so trying to remember these 20 exercises is easy for me. If you wanted to leave out the ballistics (or you haven’t learned the ballistics yet) and just do muscular endurance training I’d make the above list 3-6, 10, 11, 17-20 giving you 10 exercises to do through 2 cycles.

Give it a try, if you need a bag holler back, I know some people who may be able to get you a deal or I can toss you an affiliate link to make the whopping $3 commission. If you go the shadow boxing / Bulgarian bag route you can honestly do this routine anywhere – parking lot, your backyard, city park, the beach, etc, etc. That’s why I love the bag.