How to throw a punch without breaking your wrist bones

Although fighting can sometimes look glamorous, it can also be pretty scary and dangerous at times. In fact, there have been stories over the years where someone has won a fight, only to require surgery on their wrist days later. In other words, fighting is risky on your body, or at least riskier than people think. There’s also a lot of science that goes into throwing a good punch which a lot of people ignore.

Sometimes, even professional boxers or MMA fighters will even break their wrists or finger bones due to sheer bad timing or misplaced technique. In other words, if you do plan on punching people – then at least try to punch properly. This is because you may regret it if you punch using a dodgy technique – as this could seriously impact your body forever if done incorrectly. Below are five ways how to protect your bones when punching.

Aim to land the larger two knuckles

Perhaps the most dangerous way to throw a punch (for your hands) is to land with your biggest knuckles. These are your middle finger, and the finger next to it (not your ring finger). The reason for this is that these two knuckles were physically designed to land punches, and they’re big enough to take more impact. Of course, if these two knuckles take the bulk of the impact then you could still break your fingers. However, scientifically speaking, the pinky and ring finger can’t land punches as easily.

Therefore, if you land a punch with your outer two knuckles, they’re more likely to break. Or, the impact may run down to your wrist which could cause a sprain or break. Sadly, knowing this and doing it at the moment are two very different things. With adrenaline going during a fight, you’re likely to throw punches randomly which could be dangerous. Like all martial arts, boxing is a craft that takes years to develop, and this includes the ability to be able to throw punches efficiently without hurting yourself

Throw the punch without full-body commitment

In boxing – we’re often taught to throw punches using the hip as a lever. This will add more power to your punch, without sacrificing muscles or energy. In short, this pivot is an effective way to land punches and is fundamentally sound. Whilst this method may seem like second nature to skilled boxers and fighters, it can take years to learn.

So, if you see a newbie trying to throw a punch, often they’ll put everything into it – and not in a good way. This sometimes means throwing punches without using your hips, but instead lending your entire arm to it. This is also a very risky strategy in terms of risk – as if the punch misses, you’ll often be over-exposed to a counter punch.

In other words, when you start punching, it’s best to try and land the punch whilst whipping your hand back. That way, you can still cause damage to your opponent without taking it in your wrist. The main point here is to learn how to use the correct punching technique, as if put everything into your punch and hit an awkward part of your wrist, then you’re more likely to break your own bones. Obviously, the idea of punching someone is to injure them, and not yourself.

Make sure your wrist is closed properly

One of the most basic and rookie errors involved in punching is throwing a punch with a loose wrist. This is a huge problem that can easily lead to broken wrist bones. Imagine driving a car into a brick wall. Now, imagine making this car as aerodynamic and as compact as possible. The chances are that the car would cause a lot of damage to its front, whilst the rest of the car would face less impact.

Now, imagine doing this same experiment but with the car doors, bonnet, and trunk open. If you went fast enough, all of these parts would break off during impact. This may not be the best analogy ever, but the point is that if your fist is loose and isn’t clenched, then the impact is more likely to shatter your bones.

Now, applying this example to the wrist – the point is to punch correctly and land with the main two knuckles. As previously mentioned, these are naturally better at soaking up any damage. However, if you land a punch in a sloppy way with a loose fist, you’re more likely to hurt yourself on impact. The result is that you could easily fracture your wrist or break a finger if it lands awkwardly in isolation.

Similarly, one big mistake made is that people tuck their thumb behind their clenched fingers. This is very dangerous as it means the thumb can take the entire impact – resulting in breakage. To address this, you should punch with your thumb on the side, away from any danger where it’s unlikely to make any contact before the knuckles.

Strike using an open palm or use an elbow instead

If you’re truly paranoid about hurting your fingers or wrist when punching, then there are other methods. Firstly, you can choose to punch using an open palm strike. Secondly, you can choose to elbow instead. Depending on who you talk to, these striking methods are either worse or better than typical punches. Regardless of how much damage they can do, they’re certainly safe for your hands compared to conventional punches.

When throwing elbows, the reason is that it’s very difficult to hurt your own elbow. This is because you can’t swing elbows from distance, so there’s less likely to go wrong. Due to the physical structure of the elbow too, it’s not got as many small bones as the wrist. With this in mind, there’s less that can go wrong as it’s more of a solid structure when landing.

In terms of the open palm strike, this technique hits using the edge of your palm. Like the elbow, this has fewer small bones so there’s less to go wrong. If you watch MMA legend Bas Rutten, he would often use open palm strikes during his fights in Pancrase. Here, he once broke a spleen by using this method. In terms of power and safety, it seems that the open palm strike is highly effective. In short though, these two methods are much safer for your bones when compared to throwing regular punches.

Use a wrist wrap

If you’re in a gym setting, then hand wraps can significantly help keep your wrist bones safe. The reason for this is that a wrap absorbs a lot of the impact when the punch is thrown, which makes it safer on your wrists. On a similar note, wearing gloves is also better for your hands than punching bare-knuckle.

Sometimes, if you watch bare-knuckle bouts then they will often use wrist wraps. Amongst many fighters, this is considered the safest method on your hands. In terms of damage, you can still do a lot when wearing wrist wraps. Obviously though, if you were in a street fight then it would be very inconvenient to wear these before fighting. In terms of training though, wearing wrist wraps is a very simple and effective way of keeping your hands safe without compromising much in terms of power.

Conclusion

Overall, there’s quite a lot that you can do to protect your wrists when punching. This can be done by wearing the right equipment or working the bag with less intent, to changing the structure of your fist and body when throwing punches. In brief, there are a lot of obvious and more subtle changes that you can do to improve the safety of your hands.

Ultimately, this boils down to your punching technique and is something that you can improve over time. As a result, it’s best not to be too eager when starting out in terms of power and intensity. Having said this, it should also be noted that there’s a lot of luck and randomness involved in fighting. Therefore, even if your technique is perfect, there’s always a chance of injury which shows you just how dangerous violence can be.