I've learnt the hard way that marketing is a powerful tool, and that if someone wants to sell you something then the truth can be bent quite a lot. Everlast a generally a reputable manufacturing company who have a good range of exercise equipment, and so when I saw this punch bag for under £20 on amazon and read the product description, I thought it looked a bargain.

What you get is a punchbag a little over 5 foot tall that has to be blow up with a foot pump. This in itself gives you a little warmup for your legs and gets your heart pumping, but it doesn't take too long. Just make sure you pump it up quite well. Because it's full of air it then needs some sort of ballast, and this comes with the base, which you need to fill up with water. This does go some way to keeping it steady and it means that the whole thing doesn't go flying across the room every time you punch it, but it only controls the base being firmly rooted to the spot, and doesn't do anything to the actual bag.

The bag itself is now full of air, and the way that it and the base are connected means that there's a lot of give and this is where I have issues with using it. For a start, I stand a bit taller than it, so when I'm punching I have to make a conscious effort to not miss the top of it depending on where I want to aim. When I do connect well, and this isn't every time, I then have to wait while the bag realigns itself and becomes upright again. This is because it's full of air and acts almost like one of those blow up toys that kids have that you knock down gently and they come back up again. It's a bit sturdier than that, but the impatience with not being able to string a bunch of punches together very well is rather frustrating.

If I were smaller and this had a bit less give in it, I'd probably rate it a lot higher than I do. The build and generally quality of the material is actually very good, so I'm not criticising that, it's just that this product is suitable more for someone shorter and with less of a powerful punch. If you wanted to use this for aiming purposes, or if I was crouching and punching, then this may prove more useful, but as it is I find myself getting frustrated with it.

Other small niggles include the fact that it can take up a bit of room, so you have to watch where you inflate it. I'd recommend actually inflating it in the room you want to use it in order to make it easier moving it around; and also bear in mind that it rocks all the way back so you'll need a good circumference of room around it. You may need to top up the air in it every couple of days as well - it seems to deflate very slowly so as you barely notice until after a couple of days.

So, this is clearly not one for me - it did cost less than £20 so I'm not surprised that there are limitations to it, but I guess it would pay to read more consumer reviews about a product before buying it and not relying solely on the manufacturer who is naturally only going to focus on the positives and not mention any drawbacks or limitations it may have. Ultimately, this would be a decent product for someone wanting a gentle workout who isn't too tall, but for my purposes it just didn't work.