Punching a Heavy Bag Without Gloves: Is It Worth It?
Have you ever seen someone punching the heavy bag without gloves at the gym, and you've wondered "is it safe to do that?"
Well, you're not the only one.
In this page we'll cover if you should do it, the benefit and risks along with much more.
Table of Contents
- Punching a Heavy Bag Without Gloves
- Handwraps for Heavy Bags
- Training with MMA Gloves
- Ideal way to hit a Heavy Bag
- How Often to Hit a Heavy Bag
- Benefits of a Heavy Bag
Is it OK to Hit a Heavy Bag Without Gloves?
Punching a heavy bag without gloves can have its advantages including strengthening the wrist and the hands. However, it is easily one of the most dangerous activities that you can do striking-wise.
Unless you are a very experienced striker, you will at minimum want to hit the heavy bags with handwraps, if you decide to opt-out of gloves.
The hand is comprised of only 27 bones, and these bones aren't large by any means, which makes them extremely fragile.
On top of that, once you injure your hands once, you're more than likely to injure them again. One of the best examples of this is Floyd Mayweather Jr, as he is not only famous for being one of the best fighters in history, but his one weakness are his hands that constantly break.
Do I Need Handwraps for Heavy Bags?
Handwraps are commonly used by fighters as it provides great stability for the wrist when throwing punches.
Regardless of your experience with striking, one wrong angle and you can injure your wrist especially vs a large weighted object such as the heavy bag.
This is why handwraps are essential, and if you decide to hit a heavy bag without gloves, you should strongly consider using handwraps.
Heavy Bag Training With MMA Gloves
Another common training routine is to hit the heavy bag with MMA gloves. In fact, you'll see fighters in a gym consistently strengthening their hands and wrists in this manner to prepare for a bout.
MMA gloves are very lightweight (4 oz) so you'll want to ensure that you gradually work your way up when training as it doesn't offer the most protection.
Ideal Way to Hit A Heavy Bag
The ideal way to hit a heavy bag to maximize your time, energy while staying safe is to do it with boxing gloves.
Boxing gloves offer the most protection for the hands and wrists, and it'll allow you to hit the bag with greater power as well.
There are many risks associated with a heavy bag, and if you're just looking to get some cardio or striking in, you'll be able to do this without a second thought when wearing boxing gloves.
How Often Should you Hit the Heavy Bag
A heavy bag can be a very important part of your training but you'll want to limit it to only a few times per month.
Although it can have tremendous benefits, it also comes with higher risks especially if you're putting work in without gloves.
It can lead to wear and tear on the hands and joints, so you'll want to make sure that you take several days off to recover, to ensure that your hands have the necessary time off.
Benefits of a Heavy Bag
Punching a heavy bag can allow you to develop your power shots that you can't work on with smaller bags. When using smaller bags, fighters typically work on their combination strikes and placement rather than power.
A heavy bag allows you to use all of your power to see the threshold of how hard you can hit without giving up accuracy.
When throwing haymakers, they aren't the most accurate strikes, so it's important for fighters to figure out what the maximum power they can use is, without sacrificing technique.