Boxing is a contact sport that will provide you with numerous mental and physical benefits, such as living a healthier lifestyle and having higher self-esteem. However, its rate of injury is amongst the highest ones in the entire world. Some will claim that it hurts your joints; let’s see if that’s the case.
Boxing can be bad for your joints, as it’ll put high levels of stress primarily on your hands, including the wrist and fingers. That will be the case, especially for those not wearing any hand protection gear during their boxing training. To prevent that, you must wear both hand wraps and gloves whenever punching.
Carpometacarpal instability and boxer’s knuckle were more common than any other kind of hand and wrist injury in this cohort of elite amateur 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
From this study, the rate of injury is higher in competitions than in training. That’s the case, as you can imagine, because you go all-out whenever competing. As a result, it’s key that you wear protective gear, even whilst training; that’ll ensure you avoid unnecessary joint injuries.
Joint damage can be permanent. It might also prevent you from stepping foot inside the ring in the near future. As a result, it’ll be best if you ensure to watch yourself whenever training. This includes implementing all the 5 ways we’ll examine in this article.
Before we dive in, if you’re interested in this topic, you’ll also be eager to learn more about boxing and its impact on posture. Follow the link to learn more.
Ways to prevent joint pain from boxing
Now that we understand that boxing can be dangerous for your joints, let’s discuss the five ways you can implement right now to ensure you prevent future joint injuries. While they apply for all your body, they’ll primarily help you prevent hand injuries, the most common type in the sport of punching.
#1 – Do a proper warm-up
The first way to prevent joint injuries in boxing is having a warm-up routine. Most boxing gyms will have one they ensure the trainees go through just before the session itself. However, it can be easy to skip when training by yourself.
The best way you can use to ensure you never skip another warm-up again, is to create a fixed routine. It must include stretching together with dynamic joint moving. I’ll include a video in this section to ensure you understand what I mean by dynamic joint moving.
Following this routine—will ensure you lower your chances of injuring yourself mid-workout. Without further ado, let’s dive into the next one.
#2 – Stretch your joints regularly
Now that you understand that going through a warm-up routine before your workout—is critical for preventing joint injuries, let’s discuss the topic of stretching.
Numerous studies found a correlation between stretching before regularly, and before you begin your workout to a lower injury rate amongst athletes. Here’s one example of research that proved just that:
Abstract. It is generally accepted that increasing the flexibility of a muscle-tendon unit promotes better performances and decreases the number of injuries. SOURCE
The primary area you should focus on is the hands, as they’re the most common area boxers tend to damage. If you’re not careful, you might cause permanent damage to your wrist, hand, or fingers. This will ensure you don’t step foot in the ring in the near future.
#3 – If you feel pain, stop training
This section should be obvious. However, I’ll still go over it to ensure you understand what it means. Sometimes, you’re so into the workout that you forget to feel. What do I mean by that? You’re in the zone, which is a good thing, but you don’t really feel pain, as you’re 100% focused on your mission, to knock the opponent.
Once you stop, however, you might feel large amounts of pain. This mostly happens with the hands, as you use the most. As such, you can forget to check up on them mid-fight, as you’re focused on landing your next hit while avoiding your opponent’s strike.
Nevertheless, it’s critical that you stop training if you feel any pain in your joints, either in your wrist, fingers, or hand. It can be detrimental to identify the injury right away and take care of it.
After all, proper identification of the injury will also lead to properly treating it medically. As a result, you’ll be less likely to experience any type of permanent damage or injury.
#4 – Seek medical help when in concern
If you do happen to feel pain, especially if it’s not just physical pain as a result of the many punches being thrown at you, it’s critical you get that medically reviewed and treated. You have nothing to lose by going out to the doctor’s office and getting your injury identified.
However, you might regret it forever if you decide to punch through the pain, literally. If you have any joint injuries, and you keep training, you’ll be causing more and more damage, which might become permanent.
But, if you cease all training and get yourself medically reviewed, you will prevent further damage.
#5 – Always wear hand protective gear
The last way to prevent joint pain will be to always wear protective gear. This includes hand wraps and boxing gloves. Really, all the time. Never punch bare-handed, especially if you’re an inexperienced boxer.
Even the pros punch with hand wraps and gloves at all times. So, do you really think you can skip that and not have any injury? You’re much more likely to injure your hand joints, primarily your wrist and fingers, if you don’t wear hand protection gear. Do your future self a favor and don’t forget to wear them.
I highly recommend buying these boxing gloves and these hand wraps. Both will help you ensure your short and long-term hand joints’ health.
I used to punch bare-handed; it was when I was doing Muay-Thai more often. Frankly, I still feel some of the stress I got my body through. I now don’t appreciate what my past-self did to our body. So yes, although it sounds funny, do your future self a favor and wear boxing protective gear.
Final words
To end this article, I want to emphasize the importance of prioritizing your health above all else. You’ll be extremely grateful for your past self for keeping your body as healthy as it got it.
On the other hand, if you’ll throw on your health and not really wear protective gear all the time, you might end up badly injuring yourself. That can cause permanent damage, including in your joints and even in your head.
If you want to learn more about the potential hazards boxing will have on your head, follow the link to an article of mine on the topic.