Century Tidal Wave Hydra Core Heavy Bag | Honest Review


You know heavy bags are a staple in the training sessions of Boxing and Martial Arts enthusiasts. But if you’re tired of spaces in traditional sandbags clogging up, then Century Tidal Wave Hydra Core heavy bag might just be what you’re looking for.

Century-punching-bag-review

This century heavy bag is specialized by its water and foam core, hitting it with the best boxing gloves gives you the sensation of hitting a real opponent.

Prominent Features

Designed for absorbing heavy blows, it’s made with a durable vinyl exterior covering a foam layer with a water core. The foam and water combination gives your jabs and punches the feel of hitting a real-life opponent. Yeah, we know that Century bob dummy provides much realistic experience, but here you get to hang this Century punching bag!! There are more facilities like you can simply fill it with water, it’s relatively easy to store and transport. This also gives it a variable weight system by just adding or subtracting water.

Setting up Your Century Heavy Bag

The X-LARGE bag is just over 52″ tall and has a hanging height of approx. 64″ and a diameter of 14″ when filled. The weight is about 90 lbs when fully filled. It also comes with a chain.

The top has a zipper along the circumference. Inside the vinyl top, there is a free-floating, hard plastic lid. Under that lid are the thick foam and the center plastic water bottle and a black cap. It hangs from reinforced web straps, sturdy steel hanging chains and an included D-ring.

Without water, it is relatively light as it is just plastic, vinyl, and foam. However, placement is trickery due to nonadjustable chains.

Filling System Of the Century Tidal Wave Hydra Core Heavy Bag

The essence of the Hydra Core system is it’s water core and foam combination. This Century Water Punching Bag has a sturdy water bladder at the center which is to be filled with water.

A layer of foam covers the hard plastic bladder and on the outside is a tough vinyl exterior. This creates the effect of hitting a real opponent with just enough feedback and flex.

As it’s water-filled, it is variable in weight so you can adjust it according to your size and skill level.

The exterior vinyl and foam shell provides a suitable punching surface and protects the bladder. The use of vinyl covers by Century is the result of extensive research. The toughness of the exterior is designed to withstand repeated heavy hits.

Why Should You Choose This Century Heavy Bag!!

The use of a water heavy bag over the more traditional sand filling is to create a realistic feel as well as providing an adjustable weight system. Due to the added benefits, it’s more beloved than the traditional options. Don’t just believe us, explore the features and usage of this bag by yourself to make sure your money is justified.

Now, size is an important factor to consider. Your size, skill level and style of training (Boxing, MMA, Muay Thai, etc) will determine which heavy bag suits you the best.

A generalized method of finding out the ideal weight is to take your own weight and divide it by 2. Of course, stronger more experienced athletes will more likely favor a heavier bag. Aside from weight and experience, the place where the bag will be set up and your specific training style play a role here as well.

You also need to take the outer layer into account. Along with hanging chains, the outer layer undoes the most amount of stress due to the repeated direct hits. It needs to durable and tough as the last thing you need is the bag bursting open in the middle of the training sessions and flooding your gym. The durability of the outer layer is not only limited to the toughness of the exterior material but also how well the material is sewn.

The Century Hydra Core Tidal Wave heavy bag has got you covered in this area as the extensive research done behind the vinyl exterior is a testament of its durability. The water-bladder is also covered by padding preventing injury.

More About This Century Heavy Bag

The Hydra Core heavy bag started the use of water-filled heavy bags. The Tidal Wave line has undergone many design changes and upgrades and continues to hold up as one the best in its category.

As promised, training the Hydra Core Tidal Wave heavy bag provides a realistic feel and doesn’t have the risk of pain or injury. The compression strain that you can sometimes get with traditional heavy bags filled with sand or rock is no longer an issue. This allows users to have a good cardio session and can be used for long training periods. Tip for novices–don’t stand too close and hit too hard because it is not hard to sprain your wrist

Filling the bag is relatively easy. You open the padded top flap so you can gain access to the bladder. Turn the lid and you can fill the bag with water using a hose and monitor the water level by standing up on a chair or ladder.

Make sure when you’re filling the bag, the water doesn’t spillover. It is advised to hang the bag before you start filling it with water. This way it’s already where it needs to be and you don’t have to worry about lifting it up the heavy bag and tipping over the water.

The foam shell that surrounds the bladder helps give the bag a very consistent rebound. Due to the nature of water, the experience of punching the bag is the same in all areas. The vinyl cover proved to be indeed very tough as continuous abuse didn’t cause any sort of stretch of being disfigured.

One thing that really stood out with this bag was the fact that it comes with a D-ring attached at the bottom. so you can use an anchor to restrict its movement, which gives you more control when delivering combos and kicks. It does spin when hitting it sometimes though, however, if you hit it perfectly straight it won’t spin.

Pros:

  • Water core provides a realistic feel
  • Doesn’t clog up in certain areas like Sandbags
  • Variable weight
  • Extremely durable
  • Easy to transport
  • Can be used outside
  • Doesn’t disfigure over time

Cons:

  • No way of knowing whether it’s filled or not till the overflow
  • All the weight is in the center core, so it spins pretty much

 Get Rid Of Those Cons

Overfilling and soaking the surrounding fill is definitely a problem that may arise. This can be solved by standing on a ladder to fill it with a hose so you can visually monitor the progress.

If you put this outside, you may want to consider putting something like wide Gorilla tape over the zipper to prevent water from seeping in through the zipper. But of course, the vinyl will eventually succumb to UV damage if exposed to direct sun for any long period.

And for the spinning part, well it’s not something to enjoy really much. But hey, there’s good news. There’s a D-ring attached at the beneath of this bag. So you can add an anchor to restricts it’s unwanted movements.

Final Words

The Century HydraCore Tidal Wave heavy bag definitely is worth its price. The water core is perfect for new and advanced fighters alike. This century heavy bag doesn’t have the problems a traditional sand-filled bag might have. Although, very experienced fighters might want to try a heavier option provided by Century, which has been satisfying people for a really long time.

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