Boxers who train properly—will see their hands strengthen over time. These are the folks who understand the dangers of not wearing protective gear. On the other hand, a group of boxers who don’t wear hand wraps and gloves—will watch the health of their hands, wrists, and knuckles—diminish over time.
Boxing provides large amount of stress and impact to your hands. As such, it’s normal to feel some pain or shaking when you’re still in the early phase of your boxing career. And still, you can prevent hand, wrist, and knuckle pain by wearing both hand wraps and boxing gloves, which will decrease the stress and impact.
Some boxers, nonetheless, won’t care as much about their long-term health. Even if they don’t feel any pain right now, they’re ruining their hands by not wearing at least a single layer of protective gear.
Professional boxers, the best of the best, are required to wear both hand wraps and gloves – despite their experience. And yes, they’ve been training for years on-end. So, we can only learn from the pros, who despite their years of experience still wear both protective layers.
Eventually, your health should be your priority. If you train boxing and improve your physical shape but end up hurting yourself in the process, is the hard work you went through worth it?
Before we dive in, if you want to learn whether elbowing in boxing is legal, follow the link to an article where I reveal the answer.
Why is my hand hurting after boxing?
Wearing protective gear should be your priority. You ought to feel bad when you’re punching anything without either hand wraps or gloves. If you do end up training without either protective layers, you can expect to experience both hand or wrist injuries. Usually, however, it’ll be both.
Your hand hurts after boxing because the punching impact will cause a large amount of stress to your knuckles, wrist, and hands. As a result, wearing hand wraps and gloves—is key, as they reduce the impact from the punching motion. That’ll will help you prevent such injuries over the long-term.
Our hand isn’t supposed to punch. Although it’s an instinctive motion, it’s meant to grab or hold objects. If it were designed to constantly punch, it wouldn’t hurt us as much. However, it’s the most common injury in the sport of boxing.
As such, you must work on your technique more often. Stop going all-in with your punches, even if you wear both hand wraps and gloves. First, work on your technique; make sure your fist is closed properly and that you’re hitting with your first set of knuckles.
If you don’t, you’ll find it more difficult to keep your hands healthy in the long-term. Your wrist will start suffering, and you’ll be required to stop entering the ring.
Before we continue, if you want to learn more about how boxing impacts posture, follow the link to read an article of mine on the topic.
Hand pain after boxing – how to fix
The entire point of this article is to help you prevent and fix hand pain from boxing. While you may be more knowledgeable to the importance of wearing protective gear now, you might not have known nearly as much back when you started. As such, you currently may feel the results of not wearing protective gear back then.
First, if you feel hand pain from boxing, stop all training and consult a professional medical source, specifically your doctor. Cease all training and start working on your technique without power; shadowboxing is a fantastic choice in your case. When you’re ready to step back in, always wear both hand wraps and gloves.
Wearing both layers of protective gear—will diminish the stress and impact you’ll experience from boxing training. As a result, you’ll be far less likely to experience any type of hand injuries; while they’re common, you’ll be able to avoid them altogether.
Likewise, you can treat your pain by stretching your hands and wrists. I encourage you to involve these in your weekly routine, as they’ll help relief pain and prevent further injuries.
That makes punching force about 3.5 times body mass.
SOURCE
As much as I love boxing, it can be highly dangerous for anyone who doesn’t have proper technique. In your first couple of sessions, it’ll be best not to go full force on the heavy bag, as you’ll only end up hurting yourself.
Fixing already damaged hands—can be difficult. As such, why reach such a position if you can prevent to by wearing protective gear and working on your technique in the first place?
How to prevent hand/knuckle/wrist pain from boxing
Thus far, we’ve realized how to fix hand pain from boxing. However, we can avoid reaching such a position in the first place by wearing protective equipment, primarily hand wraps and gloves.
To prevent hand, knuckle, and wrist pain from boxing, we must wear hand wraps and boxing gloves while punching. Likewise, we must involve wrist and fingers stretching routines in our weekly schedule. By doing so, we’ll ensure said areas are flexible and ready to take on large amounts of impact.
Traditional training in martial arts on proper technique and target selection in striking sports reduces the risk of hand injury, and is an important component of hand and wrist injury prevention. Source
As you can see, we must also work on our technique before we start blasting the heavy bag with our full force. By not doing so, we’ll become capable of ensuring our technique is on-point before our hands even feel the impact most people do.
I’ve been boxing for several years now. Even now, when my technique is solid, I sometimes throw a punch without a fully closed fist. As you can imagine, if I were to not wear hand wraps and gloves, I would feel an enormous amount of pain, as I punch with full force.
However, I’m capable of preventing it by wearing both layers of hand protective equipment. I highly recommend you do the same.
If you want to read about the best boxing clothing and protective gear you should buy to ensure your long-term health, follow the link to an article of mine on the topic.
Hand injury – the most common injury spot
This section will discuss the importance of injury prevention in boxing; particularly hand and wrist hurt prevention. Before we begin, it’s important we understand that the most common injury in the sport of punching—is to your hands, either your wrist, knuckles, or fingers.
As such, what better place will it be to prioritize protecting if not the one you’re most likely to hurt? We’ve already understood that stretching, wearing hand wraps and gloves, and working on your technique, should be practices you’re not missing.
Now, you must understand the importance of protecting your most precious tool in this sport. According to the study I’ll cite in the next paragraph, out of 1000 hours of boxing, boxers suffered from 347 hand injuries. That’s a 34.7% chance to injure yourself in 1000 hours of boxing. Essentially, 1 out of 3 boxers.
The rate of hand and wrist injuries was higher in competition than in training. Our study highlights the importance of hand and wrist injury prevention in the competition environment. Source
Always wear both hand wraps and gloves, even when you don’t feel like it. Likewise, perfect your technique before moving, going full force on the heavy bag. And lastly, be sure to stretch your wrist and fingers, so you’ll become more flexible in these areas.
Stretching may be important for injury prevention.
SOURCE
Does boxing toughen my hands?
The last part of this article will discuss the opposite effect of what we’ve discussed thus far, which is strengthening your hands. While injuring your wrist, fingers, or knuckles is plausible, you can also end toughening up these areas. Essentially, having the opposite effect.
Boxing will toughen your hands, including your wrist, knuckles, and fingers. That will only happen, however, if you use perfect technique on the heavy bag, while sparring, and doing pad work. Of course, you must ensure to always wear protective gear, specifically hand wraps and boxing gloves.
You’ll manage to toughen your hands only by completing these stages before you actually move on. If you don’t, you might end up weakening your hands in the long-term, rather than having the opposite effect.
Also, be sure to stretch these areas; the study I cited previously found that if an area in your body is more flexible, it can prevent further injuries in the same area. As such, add at least a single stretching routine to your weekly training schedule.
Final words
Hand injuries are extremely common in boxing. This is the part you’re most likely to damage in your training because you’re using it the most. That can be why you’re experiencing pain in these areas immediately after finishing your training routine.
If you do, you can prevent further damage by always wearing protective gear, including hand wraps and boxing gloves, by stretching these areas to ensure they’re more flexible, and lastly, by working on your technique before going full force on the heavy bag.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you’ll also enjoy reading about whether you can jump in boxing; if you’re not sure if jumping is legal, follow the link to learn about the complete answer.