Everything has an upside and downside: Your water. Your food. Your exercise. Even you. You’re not perfect. There are scales that need to be weighed so you can balance your ledgers that set your performance on a positive trajectory. The world of home gym equipment for the mixed martial arts athlete is no exception.
There’s a lot of stuff out there that you think you might want, but do you really need it? Will it benefit or harm you? That’s why we’ve created the “Fight Pass” of the pros and cons surrounding the typical MMA equipment you can add to your home gym. Of course, we all want an octagon, but who wants to risk losing in their own home? It’s a tradeoff and these are what you should factor in when you’ve a credit card in hand.
The Heavy Bag
Pros
You’ve got to hit something, and a heavy bag offers that opportunity while coupling it with the chance to tear up some new footwork. It can also be used to create fitness and if you want to build technique, then there’s no better way to practice daily on your bag. If you’re struggling with stress, this training tool will relieve that mental angst.
Cons
It can hurt your stand-up striking skills because you can entrench bad habits. Heavy bags often do this by compromising accuracy and distance control, especially if you don’t have anyone to point out your mistakes. Too much bag work can even slow down your strike speed over time because you can start to push punch that creates slower hand movement.
The Grappling Dummy
Pros
Life isn’t an evenly weighted barbell. Neither is the fight game. Training to lift, hoist and throw an awkwardly weighted dummy develops muscles with the real-world power you’ll need during a fight. You can also learn to master new techniques in private before you test them out on a real person.
Cons
There’s no substitute for human movement and resistance. Dummies can create a false sense of skill in a certain move which can make them insanely impractical. The heavier ones may also create a barrier for many people to lift and without doing under the watchful eye of your coach, you may fall foul of repeating bad technique.
Free Standing Strike Bag
Pros
When choosing the ball-on-a-stick variety you’ll get the chance to hit a moving target that will test your hand eye coordination. Try to hit with your legs or fists and you’ll improve your speed and accuracy.
Cons
Some products are slightly adjustable but most offer just one setting that can negatively impact your posture and ability to train effectively. If you mishit, you can connect with the pole, and this can cause serious injury that’ll put a pin in your training session.
Focus Pads
Pros
You can practice punching or kicking different combinations and they’re very engaging mentally to use. These will always improve accuracy and is an absolute essential for anyone who wants to improve their strike game.
Cons
You need a partner to shimmy around with them and they better know what they’re doing, or you’ll be saddled with a dud workout. Or them with a black eye. Worst of all, you need a partner. Without someone to help you, you can never perfect a new combination you want to learn.
The Do It All System
Buy all of the above and you’ll need a spare garage. Fortunately, there is a single piece of equipment embraces all the pros of each system with almost none of the cons.
It’s the Body Action System by MMA legend Bas Rutten. It’s an all-in-one device that’ll teach you how to throw every punch, kick and block you would use in MMA.
It’s fully customizable for a person of any age and height so everyone can use it safely. You can practice power hits like you would on a punch bag. You can grapple with the pads for close contact practice. You can improve hand eye coordination like you would with a strike bag. Finally, you can set the focus mitts to any level and combination to replace a focus pad workout.
It’s incredibly fun to use and can be packed away into a very small space so you don’t even know it’s there. If you want to bring a true MMA experience into your home, this is the only system you need to sharpen up your skills and get fitter with all the pros.