This isn't my area of expertise but I thought it was the first two knuckles, since that is suppose to be the largest and strongest structural part of the fist that you make. First three knuckles does make more sense though for a flush shot instead of grazing with the two. In line with that, I would say that landing on the last three knuckles would mess with the wrist but I'm not sure of the correct physiology of that part of the body. Bottom line, like others have said here, take some time to rest and see if it goes away. Take that time to do your own research and figure out what is causing the pain, whether it's technique or wear and tear.
You are a piece of work. Who said that the muscle was located in the index finger? Who is this guy you are talking to? :huh Look man, the pain that comes from hitting a bag isn't much about strength anyway. It is about applying tension to the wrist (forearm) AND being able to impact the bag at an optimal angle while applying that tension. For a beginner, the best method to do this is to go slowly and focus on keeping the hand ALWAYS clenched hitting the bag at the best angles. Wrapping your hands in a cast doesn't help. It does however give you a false sense of support and make you punch far harder than your skill/conditioning level allow you to. Again, who said that? It is about the mind body connection with the muscle and its recruitment in an activity. Your body uses the muscles more often so is able to fire them off far more efficiently. Oh buy a piece of fancy equipment right? Let me guess, you sell them? Boxers had no problem before doing it and men have been bashing each other with fists since the dawn of time. It isn't that complicated. Ball your fist up and squeeze the hell out of it and learn how to land flush. Period. Oh no it fits perfectly. Wrapping your hands up like a cast is just like putting your feet in thick soled non flexible shoes. It weakens the muscles that control the digits. When you put on a pair of thin soled shoes and move on a soft canvas you know immediately by PAIN. Yes and I SPECIFICALLY ruled out force, but that wouldn't support your arguments now would it? The point of the drill is to improve the mind body connection of punching with a properly tensioned fist, on the right part of the fist, improving the strength in the process. Training grip alone is a waste of precious time that he isn't training in his primary discipline... Boxing. Why? Because grip strength means NOTHING if you don't have the presence of mind to close the fist and tension the wrist and land the punch on the right plane. Wow man. I don't mind the jabs, but talk about what I actually said OK?:deal
You talk about tension as yet discount the benefits of strength? How do you explain that? Greater grip strength allows greater tension. Strength is and requires tension. Logically therefore, training to increase your grip strength will increase the tension you are capable of creating. What I said was: I did not suggest it as long-term advantage. If you think reducing the support on your hands and hitting things while injured is the way forward, I'm pretty sure you'll do more damage than good. You used the term 'kinesthetic intelligence' to sound clever, which just like the term 'muscle-memory' is a misnomer. Nope, but the reason grip training is more difficult than normal weight training is likely due to the non-quantifiable methods used, causing progress to be difficult to track and/or increase the resistance. With a set of grippers increasing in resistance, you have a more quantifiable method of training your grip. So you're actually saying there is a link between wrapping your hands and muscular atrophy of the forearm? Really? And the shoes thing is a bad analogy. The muscles in your feet are far more active in boxing than the muscles of your hand. Ridiculously so. Your feet are constantly being stabilised against forces varying in direction. This is completely different from the mechanical structure of your hand, which self-stabilises against impact and requires muscular force in ONE direction in order to maintain structural integrity. I don't disagree that being strong in any area means little if you can't actually box. What I'm saying is that the mothod you described, despite being bad for someone who is currently suffering from an injury, claims to strengthen the grip without actually working the forearm muscles beyond maintaining minimal tension. The reason I mentioned conditioning through force again is because that is one of the two options likely to result from hitting a bag without wraps. The other is an absolutely minimal possible increase in grip strength. Possible, but unquantifiable. As for grip strengthening being a waste of time, Ross Enamait disagrees with you.. http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/trainingthehands.html Something tells me he's more established than you are.
I have big wrists that can take a lot of shock but I still get pain. I don't wrap my hands but I'm thinking of starting. Problem is, it's hard to go from mits to gloves quickly with the wraps on, especially when you are tired as hell.
Clenching a fist is an endurance based activity not strength. Anyone who Boxes will tell you so. Are you this dense? If the activity is squeezing your fist in a death clench for 2-3 minutes at a time while contacting the bag on an "ideal" plane of the fist you get better at it by... DOING IT. Having a strong grip is USELESS if you can't clench the fist and impact the bag properly. Having half the strength (or less) and perfect technique would be far more beneficial. Here you go again with the guy in your head. Who in the hell recommended training hurt? Any advice given to a person who is hurt on how to heal the damaged area is assumed to start, "When you get better..." Only in your imaginary land does it start differently. Not to be intelligent, but to get my point across. In your ignorant world of self validation where you must be dealing with people even more ignorant than yourself, some people actually think muscles have brains. Yeah that is exactly what I thought. :roll: Again, you miss the point. His grip is irrelevant. He can have an iron grip and if he hits that bag with a limp wrist? His wrists will be sore. If he tries to hold a death grip for full rounds at a time starting out? His skill training might suffer. Period. Grippers do not improve your grip along the plane that holding a fist is on so playing with gadgets, though something fun to do, is only advisable if you have extra time to burn beyond Boxing training. I have grippers. They didn't help. In this case? No, it does slows down muscular and skill development. Especially for people who get into boxing later in age. It isn't about STRENGTH! Oh it is a perfect analogy of a piece of equipment meant to help by encasing the small digits in a binding actually harming. Less is more. That last part doesn't even make sense. In case you didn't know, the force of a punch can pull the wrist in varying directions depending on the punch and the surface it contacts. The point is to focus on making, squeezing, and maintaining the fist. That doesn't work the muscles? Right. Grip strength is not his goal. His goal is to Box. Boxing requires you to be able to maintain a fist and wrist tension at precise moments. No you mentioned it because your imaginary friend said so. Even after I specifically stated that it was about TECHNIQUE not power. Again, who cares how much you can squeeze on some BS machine? If your brain cannot leave your hand open for parries/blocks, then seamlessly throw a punch closing the fist tightly, connect, and release? You will end up with damaged wrists. Who cares? Ross spends his time selling books, networking, and creating inventive "methods" on training. He has 24/7 to do so and that is his life focus. Good for him and I respect him. Probably a lot like you. A charlatan with a bunch of machines and gadgets with a guy doing everything BUT his chosen activity. If you are like most 20-30 year old men beginning Boxing with a "normal" life? You have up to about 2 hours per day, 3-6 times per week, and you need all the skill training you can get so overlap of skill/conditioning work is key to progress. Working slowly on the bag, wrap free, clenching the fist, slowly building up power as your strength and technique improves allows a guy to do that.
Increased strength results in increased endurance at less riesistance. You create a false dichotomy where its either grip strength OR being able to hit a bag properly. Everyone has already pointed out that he needs to check the form of his punches. Hitting a bag in a light way (which doesn't even put sufficient stres on the hand for feedback is uneccessary. You criticised my advice of double-wrapping while injured. So it appears that either your reading comprehension failed to the point you considered it a long-term solution, or you were also offering advice for immediate effect. Using misnomers is a bad way to get a point across, the clue is in the term 'misnomer'. Perform a 'death clench' and then try and flex your wrist. It's pretty difficult no? By strengthening the tendons in your hand/wrist and the forearm muscles through grip training you DO increase wrist stability which, so long as skill training is not suffering, will solve the problem. Oh nd saying 'I have grippers. They didn't help', isn't rele useful beyond misleading someone. There are many types of grippers that are ALOT more useful than the typical cheapo shitty types. There are also many other methods of grip training. For example, tools like the 'Power ball' seriously encourage grip endurance and wrist stability, but of course you wouldn't realise this because you're too busy throwing the word 'ignorant' around to consider the irony. Explain to me how double wrapping slows down skill development. Again, you say harming, but have yet to present a satisfactory argument for how it actually harms. Which can be improved through being stronger. I'm not arguing that everyone should be doing strength training (although I am a believer in it), I'm arguing that the method you propose is ineffective. There's actually a few things wrong with this statement. Firstly, using open-hand parries and blocks is specific to some styles of boxing, in the amatuers alot of guys simply cover up. Also, you have switched betwen saying that the exercise is about technique and about building grip strength. Inconsistency. once again, I never suggested that grip training should replace skill training, I simply stated that it can help more than what you proposed. In fact, hitting a bag with no power while focusing on hand placement has little relevance in boxing when the aim is simply to put glove on target. Skill training, including heavybag time, should be building your skills whereas hitting a bag with no wraps etc is not only discouraged in most gyms, but results in you either not using the techniques properly to avoid power generation, or form ******ation. The best answer would probably be to ask your coach what you're doing wrong BTW OP, it might be something as stupid as keeping your elbow too tight resulting in you hitting with the last 3 knuckles.
sounds like the ligaments, i done the same thing on a heavy bag i didnt connect properly and it ****ed my wrist up, get it sorted i left mine and 2 years later i still get slight pain