Boxing Injury Prevention - Hands and Wrists

Regardless of whether you're a professional fighter or boxing hobbyist, hurting your hands during training can be a huge blow to your training schedule and life outside the ring.
Hand injuries can range from acute to severe and on rare occasions, reoccur or even last a lifetime.
If you want to minimize the risk of injury to your investments (hands), injury prevention is key.
The team at Punch will give you 5 essential tips to effectively, lower the risk of injury to your hands and wrists.

1. Stretch Wraps and Wrapping Skills

Before wrapping your hands, it's important to check their condition.
If your hand wraps are rigid, stiff, and lacking the stretch they used to have, it's time to get a new pair.
Wraps without elasticity mean they won't provide as much support after application.
You may also be lacking the right length.
As an adult, ensure to utilize 4-meter wraps or longer so you can cover the areas requiring stability and support.
Lastly, review your completed hand wrap with a coach or experienced teammate to see if you're missing any important areas, eg. wrist support, knuckle padding, or thumb protection.
Check out our video above to review some vital hand wrapping tips and click here to see Punch®'s full range of hand wraps!

2. Choose the Right Boxing Gloves

Firstly, if you can feel your knuckles through your gloves padding, it may time for an upgrade or switch on style.
Some boxing gloves intentionally have minimal knuckle padding, to ensure the user feels the shock and understands whether they hit the punch correctly.
While the above style of glove is loved by many boxers, this style can also be a cause of injury.
Shock absorption over the knuckles is vital and choosing the right thickness and padding materials in your next pair of bocing gloves will be a sure way to keep your hands stable and injury-free.
Take a look at our full range of boxing gloves here to find the right style for you!

3. Knuckle Accessories

With wraps and gloves taken care of, another great piece of equipment is knuckle inserts.
These little tools can help fill out an old pair of boxing gloves and add additional bulk to your wrap, providing further shock absorption for your hand.
If your knuckles or wrists are still taking a beating, adding these fantastic accessories to your arsenal could be the solution you've been looking for.
They can also be a fantastic alternative to a new pair of gloves due to their cost.
Take a look at our range of knuckle protectors here!

4. Focus Pads

With steps, 1-3 covered, the boxer and their equipment are ready to go!
However, what about when you're holding pads?!?
Catching can be just as applicable to hand injuries, it's important to use the right form and use the best tools for the job.
Ensure to find a pair of focus pads that suit your hand size, provide quality protection, shock absorption, and wrist support.
Not all focus pads are built the same so check out the full range here from Punch Equipment®.

5. Warm Up and Conditioning

Lastly, once all equipment is covered, a basic warm-up for your hands is highly recommended.
Warming up your hands before wrapping is a great way to heat the muscles and increase the elasticity of tendons in the hands and wrists.
These exercises may include dynamic stretching or exercises that utilize hand and wrist movement, like skipping.

We hope the above tips have helped you think about taking the necessary steps to prevent injuries to your hands and wrists!
If you have any questions, send us a message via our chat!