I use my bare hands when punching the heavy bag is that a problem? |
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chrismithers
MMA Regular
Career record: 166-102
Season: 39-24 (#2432)
Location: Illinois
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I have just been wondering cause for the first time ever my two middle knuckels skin ripped open is that bad at all or she i keep doing what im doing?
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Post #1 7/23/08 11:30:42PM
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HMA123
MMA Regular
Career record: 30-20
Season: 24-17 (#4688)
Location: Trenton,New Jersey
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Cut and Paste...
I going to guess that you have access to a punching bag and youre goofing around. Judging by the nature of your question. It is important to wrap your hands. The best way to answer your own question is to take a look at those who earn a living at fighting. I mean if you want to build a house would you use a rock to hammer nails. Probably not, Your smart enough to know that guys doing construction use a hammer.
Here is the problem with not wrapping up. First of all you aren’t hitting a stable object and it is not a flat surface. And when punching your wrist is in a locked position so the energy is transferred to your opponent or bag etc. After a while you will start throwing a bit harder and increase the likelihood of your wrist giving way. (Trust me i've seen it happen)
Second, each time you hit the bag your hand will conform to the bag and spread out. Slowly deforming your hand. And the what’s going on is that your stretching and tweaking all the muscles, tendons and ligaments that give your hand/fist its rigidity. Over time your hand will be more likely to be injury prone and brittle. And last but not least well on you way to arthritis. And if your hands hurt after a session of hitting the bag. That is a sign of your hands deteriorating. To put it simply, the hand is not designed to punch, its designed to grasp.
Lastly, I recommend gloves. Wraps are imperative but as I mentioned your hands conform to the shape of the bag with each punch. Gloves will absorb some of the force and do the conforming instead of your hands. Some on here implied it toughens up your knuckles. That’s all well and fine but unless you plan on breaking boards there realyl isn’t any reason to worry about that. And if that is what you want to accompolish there are plenty of techniques you can implement to achieve that. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I recommend you spend a few bucks now on wraps and or gloves now than spend a small fortune on medication and doctors bills when you get older and have limited use of your hands later in life.
Last edited 7/24/08 12:23PM by hma123
Edit note/reason: n/a
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Post #2 7/23/08 11:38:21PM
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The People's Mod
Career record: 152-91
Season: 47-23 (#137)
Location: Getting choked out or arm barred
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Posted by HMA123
I going to guess that you have access to a punching bag and youre goofing around. Judging by the nature of your question. It is important to wrap your hands. The best way to answer your own question is to take a look at those who earn a living at fighting. I mean if you want to build a house would you use a rock to hammer nails. Probably not, Your smart enough to know that guys doing construction use a hammer.
Here is the problem with not wrapping up. First of all you aren’t hitting a stable object and it is not a flat surface. And when punching your wrist is in a locked position so the energy is transferred to your opponent or bag etc. After a while you will start throwing a bit harder and increase the likelihood of your wrist giving way. (Trust me i've seen it happen)
Second, each time you hit the bag your hand will conform to the bag and spread out. Slowly deforming your hand. And the what’s going on is that your stretching and tweaking all the muscles, tendons and ligaments that give your hand/fist its rigidity. Over time your hand will be more likely to be injury prone and brittle. And last but not least well on you way to arthritis. And if your hands hurt after a session of hitting the bag. That is a sign of your hands deteriorating. To put it simply, the hand is not designed to punch, its designed to grasp.
Lastly, I recommend gloves. Wraps are imperative but as I mentioned your hands conform to the shape of the bag with each punch. Gloves will absorb some of the force and do the conforming instead of your hands. Some on here implied it toughens up your knuckles. That’s all well and fine but unless you plan on breaking boards there realyl isn’t any reason to worry about that. And if that is what you want to accompolish there are plenty of techniques you can implement to achieve that. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I recommend you spend a few bucks now on wraps and or gloves now than spend a small fortune on medication and doctors bills when you get older and have limited use of your hands later in life.
Dude I used to have respect for you, but as you keep copy-pasting stuff from Yahoo! Answers and other websites then claiming them as your own my respect for you continues to dwindle.
To the TS- The advice written above isn't bad (even though it was written by someone other than the one who would claim to have written it) Get some hand wraps and boxing gloves. You don't want to F up your wrists and hands.
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"It is a shame that in this society we've been taught to judge a man's worth by what he owns instead of who he is." - Evan Tanner
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Post #3 7/24/08 1:09:51AM
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LETS GO G-MEN!
Career record: 66-45
Season: 41-29 (#1865)
Location: Selden, Long Island
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you can hurt your hand by doing that
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11-0 UFC 84 Picks.
Tuf 7 Finale ranked # 25 (8-2 77 points)
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Post #4 7/24/08 1:21:14AM
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GSP BABY, GSP
Career record: 156-97
Season: 44-26 (#868)
Location: South Australia
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Dude, This is a MMA website, Who cares (But you) If he cuts and pastes, He answer the question, So why complain??? Picky people on here!
Heres someting I wrote for you,
The jackalope — also called an antelabbit, aunt benny, Wyoming thistled hare or stagbunny — in folklore is said to be a cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope (hence the name), goat, or deer, and is usually portrayed as a rabbit with antlers. Some believe that the tales of jackalopes were inspired by sightings of rabbits infected with the Shope papillomavirus, which causes the growth of horn- and antler-like tumors in various places on the rabbit's head and body.[1] However, creatures such as the griffin and the chimera perhaps suggest that the concept of an animal hybrid occurs in many cultures. One common southwestern species of jackrabbit is called the antelope jackrabbit, because of its ability to run quickly like an antelope; it would have been easy enough to imagine instead (for comic effect) that this jackrabbit had the horns of an antelope.
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I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.
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Post #5 7/24/08 4:08:06AM
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Hammer of the Gods
Career record: 218-128
Season: 50-20 (#185)
Location: Hudson, NH
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I'm from a different background than most folks, coming from TMA, so I have a different outlook on this. For one thing, rolling your wrist hurts, but if you START working a bag with gloves and wraps, it doesn't help condition the wrist. That means you'll be prone to rolling it if you ever hit someone without wraps on. I'm not sure if you're just goofing around, want to train MMA, or are doing this for self-defense training, but you want you wrist to be able to withstand rolling without the aid of supports. There are three good ways to do this:
1. Doing knucke push-ups, where you do pushups on your fists instead of the flat of your hand will build wrist strength over time.
2. Buy a kettlebell and a book on how to use it. Kettlebells are one of the best functional strength tools ever and build wrist and grip strength like crazy.
3. SLOWLY work your heavy bag without gloves or wraps. By slowly, I don't mean throw combos and dance around it like you would while going all out, but take up a solid stance and try to throw perfect form punches. If you're doing it right, your wrist wont roll. Obviously you need to know how to throw a punch correctly to do this, so if you don't, lessons of some sort are definitely in order.
What wraps are really for is to keep you from breaking your hand, as when you learn to punch hard, the bones in your hand can't withstand the impact and will want to splay out, and the wraps prevent this to a degree. Gloves are good for wrist support and suppliment your work out, i.e Your arms get tired faster with heavier gloves.
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All brave men with hearts of war, ride the path of mighty Thor.
MMAplaygrounds resident gun nut.
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Post #6 7/24/08 4:22:01AM
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Laying down the beats
Career record: 192-150
Season: 37-33 (#1810)
Location: Canada
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Posted by ufcboss
Dude, This is a MMA website, Who cares (But you) If he cuts and pastes, He answer the question, So why complain??? Picky people on here!
Because.... click me
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MMA Playground Ninja Moderator - Be cool and follow forum conduct or you'll be banned and all you will see is a puff of smoke. Members banned - 31, IPs banned - 19
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Post #7 7/24/08 9:25:58AM
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The People's Mod
Career record: 152-91
Season: 47-23 (#137)
Location: Getting choked out or arm barred
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Posted by Svartorm
I'm from a different background than most folks, coming from TMA, so I have a different outlook on this. For one thing, rolling your wrist hurts, but if you START working a bag with gloves and wraps, it doesn't help condition the wrist. That means you'll be prone to rolling it if you ever hit someone without wraps on. I'm not sure if you're just goofing around, want to train MMA, or are doing this for self-defense training, but you want you wrist to be able to withstand rolling without the aid of supports. There are three good ways to do this:
1. Doing knucke push-ups, where you do pushups on your fists instead of the flat of your hand will build wrist strength over time.
2. Buy a kettlebell and a book on how to use it. Kettlebells are one of the best functional strength tools ever and build wrist and grip strength like crazy.
3. SLOWLY work your heavy bag without gloves or wraps. By slowly, I don't mean throw combos and dance around it like you would while going all out, but take up a solid stance and try to throw perfect form punches. If you're doing it right, your wrist wont roll. Obviously you need to know how to throw a punch correctly to do this, so if you don't, lessons of some sort are definitely in order.
What wraps are really for is to keep you from breaking your hand, as when you learn to punch hard, the bones in your hand can't withstand the impact and will want to splay out, and the wraps prevent this to a degree. Gloves are good for wrist support and suppliment your work out, i.e Your arms get tired faster with heavier gloves.
The toughening of the knuckles and hands are important, IMO. So there are some good points in here. My only concern if this advice is to be followed is whether or not he has a good teacher who's shown him how to properly throw a punch? If he's turning his fist at the end of his punches and bringing them out in a truly linear fashion his wrist should be in line, but if he's just throwing on a bag at home he's likely to be taking himself down a road he doesn't want to see what's at the end of. For safety's sake and based on the format of the original question I would assume he doesn't have a formal trainer to ask this question of.
Back in the day I used to throw bare knuckle all day long. Around the house I had set up kung fu style punching pads filled with rice, beans and sand up against studs in the walls or on the concrete wall outside. My knuckles got hard as hell doing so, and it really helped my punching power. Problem was that I got to a point where I was over training them. I never had a doctor check it out, but something started happening to my middle knuckle on my right hand (power hand) It swelled up ridiculous and it made it hurt to close my fist. To this day my right middle knuckle is about 1 1/2 times the size of my left middle knuckle and my right pinky doesn't stay in line when I close my fist. I don't know if I broke my hand or what (It didn't hurt that bad) but I definitely screwed something up. Thank God I never hurt my wrist, but at the time I was undertrained (6 months of Wing Chun and about a year and a half of Kenpo Karate at the time- I was 19)
So that's why I speak a cautionary tale in regards to this issue. Like I said, though... toughening the hands and knuckles is important for self defense. You just gotta be careful
Last edited 7/24/08 9:48AM by Jackelope
Edit note/reason: n/a
_______________________________________
"It is a shame that in this society we've been taught to judge a man's worth by what he owns instead of who he is." - Evan Tanner
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Post #8 7/24/08 9:47:58AM
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Mastodon2
MMA Sensei
Career record: 183-108
Season: 32-23 (#4471)
Location: Newcastle England
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Traditional Karate practicioners punch with bare knuckles against tensioned wooden posts (called a "Makiwara"), but they start with weakly tensioned ones and work up to really tight ones as their knuckles harden and their wrists become stronger. However, as after training in Muay Thai, I've never had to use a Makiwara, my wrists are pretty strong from heavy bagging with gloves and wraps. Perhaps not as strong as say Svartorm's, but then I stay out of situations where I'd have to hit someone without gloves anyway. The only time I never need to hit someone, I've already got gloves on. If you don't have proper supervision (and I'm guessing you don't, as noone at your gym has yet tried to stop you from punching bare hand) then don't punch without gloves and wraps. And it goes without saying, learn to tie your wraps on properly.
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Post #9 7/24/08 2:10:08PM
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Hammer of the Gods
Career record: 218-128
Season: 50-20 (#185)
Location: Hudson, NH
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Posted by ufcboss
Dude, This is a MMA website, Who cares (But you) If he cuts and pastes, He answer the question, So why complain??? Picky people on here!
Because if he doesn't know enough about combatives to write something himself, he doesn't know if the info hes giving out is even accurate or useful. We want this to be a useful resource for people training, and posting potentially poor advice doesn't help us towards that end.
_______________________________________
All brave men with hearts of war, ride the path of mighty Thor.
MMAplaygrounds resident gun nut.
DREAM 1 - 2nd in Points
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Post #10 7/24/08 9:27:44PM
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Hammer of the Gods
Career record: 218-128
Season: 50-20 (#185)
Location: Hudson, NH
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Posted by Jackelope
Back in the day I used to throw bare knuckle all day long. Around the house I had set up kung fu style punching pads filled with rice, beans and sand up against studs in the walls or on the concrete wall outside. My knuckles got hard as hell doing so, and it really helped my punching power. Problem was that I got to a point where I was over training them. I never had a doctor check it out, but something started happening to my middle knuckle on my right hand (power hand) It swelled up ridiculous and it made it hurt to close my fist. To this day my right middle knuckle is about 1 1/2 times the size of my left middle knuckle and my right pinky doesn't stay in line when I close my fist. I don't know if I broke my hand or what (It didn't hurt that bad) but I definitely screwed something up. Thank God I never hurt my wrist, but at the time I was undertrained (6 months of Wing Chun and about a year and a half of Kenpo Karate at the time- I was 19)
I've never been a fan of striking super hard objects with the fists either. Granted, a heavy bag is fairly hard, which is why I said to make sure your form is perfect and to slowly punch the bag to develop the hand strength.
On a side note, if you're doing this and the bag is hurting your hand, you can take out some of the filling in your bag. Just put it in a trashbag and take out enough so the bag has a bit more give to it. Over time, you can just add the stuffing back in.
_______________________________________
All brave men with hearts of war, ride the path of mighty Thor.
MMAplaygrounds resident gun nut.
DREAM 1 - 2nd in Points
Cage Rage 23 - 6th in Points
DREAM 2 -6th in Points
Secondary League Season 3 - 12th in Points
UFC 89 - 15th in Points
IFL - New Jersey - 18th in Points
Affliction: Banned - 18th in Wagers
Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale - 20th in Wagers
EXC: Kimbo vs. Tank - 26th in Wagers
Secondary League Season 1 - 31st in Points
Secondary League Season 4 - 50th in Points
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Post #11 7/24/08 9:34:34PM
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chris91301
MMA Regular
Career record: 15-5
Season: 2-0 (#8870)
Location:
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dont do barehand on heavy bags, you do run a risk of hurting your wrist and you will end up damaging your hands long term, at older age can cause incredibly major pain. (this is what I was told by several trainers when I was younger and tried punching a bag without gloves).
gentlemen whats with the arguing? the man posted a valid point regarding bag punching. doesnt matter if its from yahoo. thats very childish to argue about that on an mma forum.
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Post #12 7/25/08 1:22:06PM
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The-Don
In Full Mount
Career record: 107-88
Season: 40-30 (#1957)
Location: TN
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i agree wrapping is very important... espically on heavy bags and the like.. the makiwaras (sp?) board mentioned above does have some give if it is made right and your are not doing hooking shots and everything with it as it is not designed for that.. you could get away using bare knuckle with out as much damage to the wrists...
as for the cut and paste.. both sides have valid points... Does a person who promarally cuts and pastes actually have the knowledge and are just lazy.. or are they just searching for an answer then putting it up... granted in this case the info is coming for a smoewhat reliable source that some blog or something somewhere but that may not always be the case.. this section of the forum is set up in a way were you are able to engage the "experts" not just read someone someone copied elsewhere.... there are several of us on here who mave many years of martial arts training and combat sports partici9pation experience... tthere are some threads pinned at the top where you can broswe through and see what some of the people have claimed... granted it is hard for anyone on here to verify who has actually done what... but take myself for instance... I have pretty good knowledge on physical training and grappling... so your rarely going to see me give out advice on striking unless it is in general like the benifits of wrapping hands and such granted I have been training in martial arts now for 20+ years in various styles... I probably know more then I do about stand up but am just not overly comfortable with it.. so I have a tendency to not gi ve out much advice in the stand up... but thats just me...
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Post #13 7/25/08 5:00:16PM
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AO
Learning to Sprawl
Career record: 220-122
Season: 48-21 (#484)
Location:
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Posted by Svartorm
I'm from a different background than most folks, coming from TMA, so I have a different outlook on this. For one thing, rolling your wrist hurts, but if you START working a bag with gloves and wraps, it doesn't help condition the wrist. That means you'll be prone to rolling it if you ever hit someone without wraps on. I'm not sure if you're just goofing around, want to train MMA, or are doing this for self-defense training, but you want you wrist to be able to withstand rolling without the aid of supports. There are three good ways to do this:
1. Doing knucke push-ups, where you do pushups on your fists instead of the flat of your hand will build wrist strength over time.
2. Buy a kettlebell and a book on how to use it. Kettlebells are one of the best functional strength tools ever and build wrist and grip strength like crazy.
3. SLOWLY work your heavy bag without gloves or wraps. By slowly, I don't mean throw combos and dance around it like you would while going all out, but take up a solid stance and try to throw perfect form punches. If you're doing it right, your wrist wont roll. Obviously you need to know how to throw a punch correctly to do this, so if you don't, lessons of some sort are definitely in order.
What wraps are really for is to keep you from breaking your hand, as when you learn to punch hard, the bones in your hand can't withstand the impact and will want to splay out, and the wraps prevent this to a degree. Gloves are good for wrist support and suppliment your work out, i.e Your arms get tired faster with heavier gloves.
you are far more likely to get reoccurring stress injuries than you are to toughen your hands or wrists. all these people and there's not one kinesiologist on this board?
if you were training for mma the hand speed gained from bag work with wrapped hands and 16oz (or heavier) gloves would be a greater advantage than "toughened" wrists or hands. the only reason I would even consider not using them would be if I was training for a bareknuckle/ vale tudo contest of some sort.
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Post #14 7/29/08 1:24:51PM
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AO
Learning to Sprawl
Career record: 220-122
Season: 48-21 (#484)
Location:
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Posted by chris91301
dont do barehand on heavy bags, you do run a risk of hurting your wrist and you will end up damaging your hands long term, at older age can cause incredibly major pain. (this is what I was told by several trainers when I was younger and tried punching a bag without gloves).
gentlemen whats with the arguing? the man posted a valid point regarding bag punching. doesnt matter if its from yahoo. thats very childish to argue about that on an mma forum.
i dont think its childish at all. it goes to show the validity of the advise being posted.
at the very least he should have posted the exact link with the information. someone might take that information as gospel and end up getting hurt.
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Post #15 7/29/08 1:26:37PM
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