Reddit mentions of Bas Rutten MMA System Workout

Boxing exercises off the top of my head for working avoidance:

• Stand with your back foot to the wall in stance, with your hands behind your back. Partner throws light contact at your head, work your head movement, bob/weave and slipping - NO FOOT MOVEMENT. If you're flinching/closing your eyes, this is a good exercise to work on that.
  
• Counter drills. Like sparring, but A can only throw one punch (typically his jab) and B can only throw three punch counter combos (A and B can both block and avoid strikes). If you're not responding to the initial strike well enough to immediately counter, you're doing it wrong.
  
• Padwork with counters - the pad partner can return one strike after a combo, usually his straight or a hook. Not every time, but often enough for the striker to be more careful inside.
  
  For power, squats and cleans on the legs, bench and military press on the arms, plus heavy bag work using something like Bas' system. There's no shortcut to strength.

Going HAM on a heavy bag, especially for a beginner, is a very bad idea. YOU WILL FUCK UP YOUR SHOULDERS. With poor technique, you will also break your wrists / hands.

There's zero benefit, motivation or otherwise, to tracking punching force. If anything, it's a vanity stat.

/end rant

But to try and be helpful, here are some really good boxing / martial arts resources for someone trying to do it solo:

• Rosstraining
  
  
• Bas Rutten Workouts
  
  
• JT Van V
  
  All this said, beating on a heavy bag IS a good cardio exercise (if done correctly).
  
  Can I ask why you think punching force would be a good motivator?
  
  

If you have access to a punching bag, this is my go-to. Some friends who do kickboxing got me turned on to them a few years ago. Bas Rutten just calls out punch combos for 2/3 minute rounds with 1 minute rests. Not exactly HIIT, obviously those intervals are longer, but it's an awesome cardio workout and feels great after arm day.

If you want to learn how to properly strike so you can fight then your best bet is to find a boxing or Thai boxing coach at a boxing gym or mma school to teach you the basics.

Most MMA schools let people pay a "mat fee" [a cash payment at the door] instead of buying a membership. This is much cheaper if you just want to work on one aspect [striking for instance], or won't be able to come to the gym that often. Talk with the owners of local boxing/mma gyms around your area. In my experience they're always willing to work something out with you.

If you only want to hit the bag for fitness, and don't care as much about fighting or proper technique then you should download the Bas Rutten MMA Workout. Bas is a famous mma fighter, who crossed over from kickboxing to MMA. He goes over how to properly punch and kick; then he has 4 different workouts that you can use on the heavy bag [Boxing, Thai Boxing, All-Round Fighting, and the All-Round Workout].

Here's some reviews for it: http://www.amazon.com/BAS-RUTTEN-MMA-Workout-CD-DVD/dp/B00CXS6T02

Here's a torrent where he explains how to properly strike. If you're only interested in the striking part you can just download those video files and skip the others to make the download go faster: http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/4087165/Bass_Rutten_Big_dvdA_s_of_Combat

Here's a torrent his workout routines: http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/3438981/Bas_Rutten_MMA_Workout

Remember to seed the torrents!

As another poster said you're going to want to get some non-elastic hand wraps and some bag gloves. If you repeatedly hit the heavy bag with any kind of force without these items you're eventually going to injure your hands.

If you want to mix it up you can practice striking on the ground. I've been doing this drill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyLOxIJqi0o

After 4 rounds at 5 minutes each you'll be pretty tired.

The Bas Rutten MMA workout. You have 2 and 3 minute rounds of boxing, 2 and 3 minute rounds of thai boxing, 2 and 3 minute rounds of all around fighting and 2 all around workouts. In particular the "all around fighting" CD's are good for cardio, he'll have you do a lot of sprawls in between the combinations.

MMA

https://www.amazon.com/BAS-RUTTEN-MMA-Workout-CD-DVD/dp/B00CXS6T02

Highly recommended

Bas rutten also has some excellent workout CDs: http://www.amazon.com/BAS-RUTTEN-MMA-Workout-CD-DVD/dp/B00CXS6T02
Good cardio, and general mobility stuff.

I went from SL to Krav, and got my arse kicked.

You want to do something that mimics the activity you want to get better at. I love Bas Rutten's training CDs, they will get you conditioned very quickly. They are essentially a heavy bag workout, do either the boxing or all-around fighting workout 3x a week and within a month or two you'll have no problems keeping up (and going way past) everyone else.

If you're interested in a fun, exhausting workout that can help you with punching a bit I'd suggest Bas Rutten's MMA Workout. He was the UFC heavyweight champ so he knows a thing or two about punching stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/BAS-RUTTEN-MMA-Workout-CD-DVD/dp/B00CXS6T02

I really enjoy it. You can probably find it...elsewhere if you look around but Bas is good people so I'd buy it if you like it.

Jump rope, run, do body weight exercises (push-ups, pull-up, air squats, crunches, burpees, etc), stretch out, buy a set of rings and do pull ups and ring exercises.


I have the Bas Rutten workout, and you can do them with air punches/kicks if you don't have a bag. The kickboxing CD has 10 2-minute rounds with 1 minute rest in between or 10 3-minute rounds with 1-minute rest in between. If you can do the 2-minute round set with good technique, you have pretty decent cardio. IF you can do the 3-minute round set, you're bangkok ready.

​

There's also the Precision Strike app that you can get for your phone, where it calls out combinations and does round timers. I used to use it more, but I find I like the pacing of Bas's workouts better.


Finally, you can always just pull up a workout video on youtube. Some might require you to work a heavy bag. Some won't.

Here is a link to the box set

This is a must have. Bas breaks down the techniques really well. Also the CD workouts are intense and will definitely have you ready to start working out in a gym. We used to start our workouts with the all-around fighting track back when I was training seriously.

Edit: I'll add one thing that I think is important. Training too much on a heavy bag can lead to pushing your punches. It's good to alternate between shadow boxing and bag training.