Q&A: knuckle protection from punching bags

Q: Knuckle protection for a punching bag?
what is a good type of protection for hitting a punching bag other than bag gloves?

A: Whenever you practice on a punching bag, it's best to use both a hand wrap and gloves (16 ounces preferably). Hand wraps (eg. brand: Everlast) can be found in most sport stores, but the longer wraps can give more support. There are many different ways to wrap your hands but you must remember that the purpose of doing this is to prevent any immediate (acute) or long-term (chronic) injuries to your wrist and hands.

For prevention of more acute injuries, you must wrap on and behind the wrist. You won't always make a perfect connection and eventually you'll make a connection that will push your wrist back. Also, as make a pass around the pinky, you need to make sure to that pull your hand wrap towards the side of your thumb. This will decrease the risk of breaking the bone behind the pinky (aka: Boxer's Fracture). That bone usually breaks when it is pushed away from the rest of the hand when a weak connection to a heavy object occurs. Although the Boxer's fracture is the most common in this type of sport, another fracture that is not uncommon is of the bone behind the thumb, especially when MMA gloves are used exposing the thumb knuckle or allowing the thumb itself to tuck under the fingers upon impact. To help prevent this, make sure you wrap your thumb with the wrap going on the other side of the hand (usually this happens after wrapping your wrists).

One of the most common used hand wrapping technique is the basic American hand wrap. Unfortunately, this technique is only efficient for pure punching but no grappling. Many fighters will tape up their hands, following this technique and then cut out the tape wrapped over the palms. Unfortunately, this decreases the structural integrity with the tape moving laterally to be only supported by any tape that was laid to and from your knuckles and wrist. A modified Muay Thai wrap or a Mexican-style boxing wrap may be better since there's more support on the wrists and due to the fact that they both leave the palms open already, they allow a better grip for grappling, harder strikes and more padding over the knuckles to prevent arthritis.

It's a good habit to always roll up your wraps after use so that they do not wrinkle and cause a hassle while putting them on again. Also, if you do have any previous injuries with your hands (eg:a fracture), you might want to pass that spot more than once for security. If it's too much of a hassle, there are also hand gel wraps that slip on like a glove and cover your wrists as well. They usually have a small length of wrap at the base to secure it around your wrists. Unfortunately these are sometimes not allowed during competitions so it may be better to keep yourself or your cornerman/cutman familiar with a wrapping technique.