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Hello all – I’m new to KM and loving every moment (well, there’s the odd moment where ‘love’ is replaced by ‘so tired’) but it’s been great so far.
My question relates to punching – when I punch I can feel my knuckles cracking and there’s a fair bit of pain in the top of my hands. The left is worse than the right (not that I have much of a left jab at this point anyway) and it’s frusterating.
I’m not sure if this is something that will improve with more punching, or if I’m doing something wrong – my knuckles were shredded after the first class so I’ve been using hand wraps, so I’m wondering if I’ve got too much wrap inside my fist?
Any thoughts and/or advice are welcome. Thanks very much and I look forward to participating on the forum.
cheers!
Welcome to the forum. Ok, to adress your question. First make sure to check with your instructor and have him watch you punch. He may have a few suggestions as to how you can prevent some these injuries. Odds are you are attempting to punch with your whole fist instead of adjusting your wrist to hit with the first two knuckles only. Hitting with your whole fist will cause you to hurt your lower portion of your hand resulting in Boxers Fractures a common injury in professional boxing.
As to tearing up the skin on your knuckles…this unfortunately is going to continue untill the skin on your knuckles thickens to prevent this. The only way to develop thicker skin on your knuckles is to keep punching. Even after your skin gets a bit thicker you will still notice you tear the skin sometimes. An unfortunate side effect to hitting things. You can do some things to help lessen how torn up your knuckles are by a) Wrapping your knuckles B) wearing MMA or boxing style gloves.
Hopefully this information will help you. Most people dont realize when they first start hitting things that you can actually damage your hands if not punching correctly.
Re: Punching pain
What were you punching in class? Do you wear gloves? Do you have a pre-existing medical condition like DJD or arthritis? More info, please.
I’d suggest a few things to toughen your hands, but I’m reluctant to if your knuckles are in way bad shape.
Re: Punching pain
quote \”G.V.\:What were you punching in class? Do you wear gloves? Do you have a pre-existing medical condition like DJD or arthritis? More info, please.I’d suggest a few things to toughen your hands, but I’m reluctant to if your knuckles are in way bad shape.
Hitting the tombstone bag is not too bad, but the focus mitts is the worst. No preexisting medical conditions. I’m in good shape, strong wrists (lots of pullups and deadlifts), and my knuckles have healed over so fire away.
Okeydokey then, I think the fastest and easiest way to toughen those badboy punching fists is to do pushups on them (elbows at your sides). I personally had a hard time with them at first, so I initially used my thumbs as ‘crutches’ to decrease the stress on my knuckles, so you could do the same.
Once you could do a comfortable set on your knuckles (with the thumbs tucked in hammerfist), try doing them on your front two knuckles. Personally, I find those easiest to do with my arms like 45 degrees away from my body.
Well, that’s my routine (along with pushups on my fingertips), and has worked for me. Give it a try.
Another thing that I tell students, which was recently reinforced by other, more experienced instructors. Though punching may be more common and more natural, palm strikes are generally easier to do…create almost the same amount of damage, and usually don’t hurt your hand as much.
I’m not arguing the merits of one over another, but I do think it’s good to be aware of both combatives, so that if a person prefers palm strikes, they should practice with those. Krav Maga usually stresses the use of whatever is more comfortable…and if punching is less comfortable than palm strikes, I would encourage those.
Does anyone know the possibility of tearing the schapholunate ligament from palm heel strikes?
I just tore mine and I know the tear is usually caused from a similar position.
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