I've heard that using a heavy punching bag is very dangerous if you do not wear bag mits. On the other hand, I want to condition my hands and wrists(But not break them). Should I wear mits?
Dude it is not very dangerous. If your wrist are buckling it is going to do that with or without gloves. This means you have to strengthen your wrists. start punching bag light (great imte to start with no gloves) and do reverse curls, hammer curls and wrist curls.
With punching the bag with no gloves you just start in about 2 min bursts or more importantly until your knuckles are raw. Then when they heal and the scab is gone do it again ( you can wear gloves in the mean time while you are waiting for it to heal. Keep doing that and eventually they will not peal at all. although your knuckles will have gross calesis on them. I wearmy caesis with pride tho because not many people can do it!! when im at the gym treating the heavy bag like my bitch people look at me like a freak for not wearing gloves and they try to tell me i should be wearing gloves or i will hurt myself (they are generally do gooders with not much knowledge that read a magazine about it once) but ive been doing martial arts since i was in grade 5 and with all of my injuries (pulled hammie, broken toe and broken nose) not one has ever had anything even close to do with not wearing gloves.... unless you call grazed knuckles an injury. Although mind you the reason I stumbled across this site is because i am trying to research if I keep going will i eventually get arthritis in my knuckles. I am 32 years old, started martial arts in grade 5, didn't start punching the bag until about grad 9 (well so long ago that i can not really remember). I punch the heavy bag 3 times a week with no probs what so ever.... except for grazed knuckles at the start.
My tips would be start light if your wrist buckle and do additional resistance exercises as described above (google them if you do not know what they are).
if you are seasoned then go hard until your knuckles become raw then wear gloves until the scabs are gone then repeat.
Understand the difference between pushing past basic pain like grazed knuckles but