If I work the heavy bag in just handwraps am I getting stronger hands?

[Discipulus]

Hand injuries are super common in MMA. One frequent victim is Daniel Cormier. Guess why he breaks his hands? Watch this super slo-mo highlight.

 

[a guy]

Saying you don't need to be taught how to make a fist is really weird to me. That's like not teaching someone how to position their foot when kicking to avoid breaking toes, or not teaching what parts of the knees and elbows to strike with.

Lots of people don't make good fists. Hand and wrist injuries absolutely are common in mma, and a lot of it could be fixed by better positioning of the fists. I was never actually formally taught how to hold one and neither were most of the people I've trained with, even though that's probably the first thing everyone should be taught about punching. Whether or not you need to train bare knuckle to make a good fist is up for debate, but you absolutely do need to be taught how to make a fist unless you're lucky enough to guess a good formation.

 

[apizur**]

I see what you're saying about Cormier.

 

[Discipulus]

I see what you're saying about Cormier.

He punches like he's wearing 16 oz gloves, and often without closing his fist.

 

[Babba]

If you honestly believe there aren't really good and bad ways to form a fist, that says enough. I'm actually quite surprised at you taking this position because it seems to me like you're taking it just to be argumentative. I considered you a better poster than this. I don't care if you prefer my way of forming a fist or not, but insinuating that all one needs to do is roll their fingers inward and swing is not only false, it's absurd and irresponsible.

For the record, Floyd Jr. doesn't have genetically brittle hands. His Father and Uncle didn't suffer near the same amount of hand problems he's had. One would think if it were genetic you'd see it elsewhere. He had a bad habit in his Amateur career of landing punches without his fist clenched. Paul Malignaggi (whose right hand has been broken half a dozen times) does the same thing. Uriah Faber, who injured both hands against Mike Brown in the WEC bout of theirs, also has a habit of keeping his hands slightly open.

i never take position to be argumentative, and ive looked at your fist formation video and tried forming my fist with the knuckle out, pointing the wrist specifically.

But in the end i just came back to the way i always put my hand into the glove to punch, maybe its natural to me since ive been doing it so long, but really it seems quite simple to me to form the fist.

i never count of the fact that i am mistaken in something, im not arrogant. its just my honest assesement of this - it just seems like common sense to me. for the record i somtimes hold my hand halfway open, because i am southpaw and feel at his front hand.

 

[apizur**]

Aye, when I jab I hardly tense my hand... I just grip my fingers around the bar a bit. Draws too much energy for a punch in which the glove is doing most of the work.

 

[Steveston]

Yes you will create micro fracture's in your hands thus causing them to to heal and become stronger, Muay Thai fighters in Thailand strengthen there hands and shins from such a young age by the time they compete in the ring there bones are practically like cement! but remember try to be safe and don't injury your hands.

 

[KennisTheMenace**]

I don't know if "advantage" is the right word. But benefit? Sure. For one thing it can callous your knuckles quicker. And clenching your hand with less shit on it is very different than clenching your hand with a 16oz glove on. You fought Amateur, didn't you wear 12's for that? I know when my guys wear 10's they exclaim how small the glove feels compared to their sparring gloves.

Yep, they were 12oz gloves and they felt smaller. So would it follow that a boxer should go through his entire bag workout just in hand wraps because you want your knuckles to be calloused? More callousness on your knuckles will mean a more painful punch won't it? I had heard before to stop using lotion on my hands so that the knuckles become more calloused. I remember when you showed me your hand and how much bigger the first two knuckles are....I'd imagine when your hand forms like that over the years it has to add extra damage to punches.

 

[SAAMAG]

...Or just risking a hand injury? I moved away from my fight gym and am just hitting the heavy bag at a non-fight gym, trying to keep my technique. Just started putting on the handwraps and hitting the bag and wondering if there is any benefit to not using 16 oz gloves.

I punch the bag sometimes for 10-12 rounds...granted it's mixed with all my other tools and it's done with the same variances of intent as I do when I fight. Some light, some sharp and quick, and some as hard as I can. I do that with gloves on no exception.

There are occasions that I will hit the bag without gloves on...and that's typically around 5-6 rounds with mixed tools, and when I punch I only penetrate the bag about 1 inch or so, just enough feedback to know I'm punching correctly and with good form. Helps to keep the skin tough too.


Some Karate guys do this consistently, and each person is different. Some can go for a long period of time without any evidence on their skin. Others not so much. In general, too much pounding on a bag, gloves or not can cause bruises on your knuckles, soreness in your wrists, stress fractures in your metacarpals and peripheral support bones of a fist formation.

The gloves do exist however to protect your hands in a fight when you're hitting other bones and hard objects (like facial bones and elbows). They weren't originally designed with the intent to protect your hands against punching other soft objects. That's why bag gloves (as Luis as already told you guys) weren't all puffy. They were thing pieces of leather simply to protect your skin from abrasion.

Bone injuries come from improper form, over exertion, and hitting harder things too hard. Cuts come from lacerating the skin due to abrasions and pulling...dryness, etc.

 

[Discipulus]

For the record, I just ordered these:

Which are basically an updated version of the bag gloves used by boxers in the 60s and before. I'll do a review to let you know how they work out.

 

[SAAMAG]

^^nice choice

 

[Charlitos1988]

Okay, that's all fine and great. But if you had taken 5 minutes to read my written nonsense in context, you would probably have caught my point, and that is that there is no point in "training to do so on a regular basis". For what? You guys never state this. It's just "Oh, you train to punch bareknuckle correctly to be able to punch bareknuckle good." So that's it? You're training to punch bareknuckle to be able to punch bareknuckle?? TS is not training for bareknuckle competition. He's hitting the bag to stay in shape and keep his technique, why would anyone advise him to hit things without gloves?

Explain to me exactly why you would possibly want to hit things with your bare fist in the first place. So you have correct bare fist formation. What does this achieve?? Is it making you millions of dollars? Or does it just make you feel better that oh wow i can hit things without gloves. If it the latter reason, i can see the appeal. What red blooded male doesn't want tougher hands. It's cool. But is it practical? No. Are you a kyokushin fighter? Then it makes sense. The only thing i can even remotely think of is MMA, and even then a UFC event wouldn't be able to get off the ground if their fighters trained boxing bareknuckled, because all those dopes would have broken hands.

So if you, StopDucking, can give me a good practical reason for training bareknuckle besides "Oh, you won't break your hand in a fist fight." or "Your hands will be tougher" then you sir, will have shut me up. Don't name boxing as a reason either, because like you said, boxing gloves apparently make it impossible to use correct fist formation, and therefore is not an applicable reason. Until then, to me, it is akin to breaking boards and bricks. It's like hey thats cool, but who gives a shit.

ok a good answer to why training bare knuckle punches?

SELF DEFENSE

what if some punk attacks you on bar, alley or anywhere, you punch and break your pussy hands.

 

[zapataxiv]

ok a good answer to why training bare knuckle punches?

SELF DEFENSE

what if some punk attacks you on bar, alley or anywhere, you punch and break your pussy hands.

i see you still havent learned how to read it clearly states at the end of his post that da streetz is not a legitimate excuse for poor training habits

 

[Charlitos1988]

i see you still havent learned how to read it clearly states at the end of his post that da streetz is not a legitimate excuse for poor training habits

why poor habits? you can punch the bag with control and do knuckle push ups like most kyokushin guys and they dont have "poor" technique. Im just replaying the other dude that doesnt find a reason for training the knuckles.

 

[zapataxiv]

why poor habits? you can punch the bag with control and do knuckle push ups like most kyokushin guys and they dont have "poor" technique. Im just replaying the other dude that doesnt find a reason for training the knuckles.

most of them dont have great punching technique either. dont get me wrong they are much better than most other martial arts but there is a reason most of the kyokushin based kickboxers have crossed trained in boxing ,muay thai etc when they decided to compete in other rule sets.
also most kyokushin guys dont do a boxing centered workout, if your a boxer and you tear your knuckles up or hurt your hand you lose the ability to do some of the funner parts of your training until your hands are better.

 

[Gavster]

Grip balls and wrist curls will probably do more for you.

 

[barnowl]

So if you, StopDucking, can give me a good practical reason for training bareknuckle besides "Oh, you won't break your hand in a fist fight." or "Your hands will be tougher" then you sir, will have shut me up. Don't name boxing as a reason either, because like you said, boxing gloves apparently make it impossible to use correct fist formation, and therefore is not an applicable reason. Until then, to me, it is akin to breaking boards and bricks. It's like hey thats cool, but who gives a shit.

I find bareknuckle work keeps my hands in better shape for hitting things with out gloves. I still liked doing breaking demos and breaking events, so keeping my hands conditioned for bare skin impact is useful and keeps me from getting lazy on striking form. Gloves let me get lazy.

 

[KennisTheMenace**]

Going through a workout bare knuckled doesn't sound appealing at all....I need hand wraps at least...

 

[LEGS MAHONEY]

most of them dont have great punching technique either. .

Uh what the fuck? You gotta have great punching technique to be able to fight/spar/train bare knuckle and not routinely fuck up your hands

On top of that the way ive seen sinister show to make a fist isnt widely different than the fist methods ive seen and been taught in karate sooo yeah no

 

[Azam]

most of them dont have great punching technique either. dont get me wrong they are much better than most other martial arts but there is a reason most of the kyokushin based kickboxers have crossed trained in boxing ,muay thai etc when they decided to compete in other rule sets.
also most kyokushin guys dont do a boxing centered workout, if your a boxer and you tear your knuckles up or hurt your hand you lose the ability to do some of the funner parts of your training until your hands are better.

Just picked up on this but Legs beat me to it.


You have to have good/great punching technique in Kyokushin otherwise your hands won't last & more importantly your wrists won't either.

As for KK guys taking boxing - well yes that's obvious, if your under a competitive rule set where face punches are not allowed it makes sense to pick up boxing when you fight in a rule set where it is allowed - it makes more sense to cross-train boxing rather than kickboxing since many of these KK stylists already have kicking technique & combos down to a tee.

Very few KK kickboxers cross-train in Muay Thai - most don't really need to as the clinch is a no-no in kickboxing & KK already covers knees/elbows.