Do my wrists hurt from punching properly???

[GeoGiant]

Recently I have been trying to refine my punching technique.

Usually I wear a grappling style glove or boxing glove, depending on what I'm doing. I've been throwing anywhere from 200 to 500 punches - jabs, crosses, hooks, uppercuts. I lift weights and do a lot of push-ups using different angles so my wrists, hands & forearms are fairly strong. I have NEVER had a problem with my wrists hurting after bag work... that is until I started to focus on punching with the primary contact being from my index & middle finger knuckles.

Have I been punching wrong and now making this correction will cause me pain until I adapt or am I focusing too much on those 2 knuckles? I notice that my fist rotates a lot more when i focus on the 2 knuckles.

[GeoGiant]

Buller? Buller? Buller?

[Throwdown0850]

Everything has a limit, maybe you should take a break for a few days on the wrists and see how you feel. maybe you just agitated them from all the work is all?

[GeoGiant]

Acoms Razor. It stinks getting older

[Toptomcat]

If you feel that focusing on hitting with the top two knuckles is hurting you, then don't do it. While it's about the most common advice given when the question is asked, the MA community isn't unanimous in recommending it- such luminaries as Bruce Lee and Jack Dempsey have advocated hitting with the bottom three.

[joesteph]

I've been throwing anywhere from 200 to 500 punches - jabs, crosses, hooks, uppercuts. . . . I have NEVER had a problem with my wrists hurting after bag work [until focusing on] my index & middle finger knuckles.

Have I been punching wrong and now making this correction will cause me pain until I adapt . . . I notice that my fist rotates a lot more when i focus on the 2 knuckles.

How did you strike the heavy bag before? Was it with a vertical fist? Impacting with the middle knuckle? The two middle knuckles? If using the first two knuckles isn't natural for you, causing a greater twist than the wrist joint accepts, there will be a strain. It could even be that this concentration on the first two knuckles and the horizontal fist is causing your wrist to fail to be straight.

Regarding the latter:

If your wrist is bent up or down at the point of impact it will snap backward or crumple downward, often resulting in a painful injury to the joint. (Martial Mechanics by Phillip Starr, p. 39)

You might not notice this bending because it might be slight, but with so many hundreds of punches executed and with a new knuckles emphasis, it's likely adding up and taking its toll. Personally, I don't care what the "official" way of striking is supposed to be; I use what's natural for me when striking a WaveMaster or BOB, which would be the vertical and three-quarters fists. The official way (the horizontal fist) has been saved by me for forms and MA drills.

A caveat here, though, is that I've read a KarateForums post in the past by someone who had broken her middle knuckle more than one time when breaking boards. She suggested that it's too much emphasis/impact on one knuckle, and using the first two would have divided that impact between two knuckles and still get the job done.

[Kuma]

If you've been punching just fine with a vertical fist before, you may as well keep using it.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[GeoGiant]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

The only reason I started changing my punching focus is because I want to try board breaking. I don't know if this description helps but I'd like to try the break while standing in a front stance, left foot forward / right foot back, using my chambered right hand to do the break, punch ending with my knuckles parallel with the floor.

Any board breakers here? Assuming yes, do you punch through the board using the 2 knuckle approach or do you just punch with the only focus being where you want to strike the board?

[TKDKeller]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

The only reason I started changing my punching focus is because I want to try board breaking. I don't know if this description helps but I'd like to try the break while standing in a front stance, left foot forward / right foot back, using my chambered right hand to do the break, punch ending with my knuckles parallel with the floor.

Any board breakers here? Assuming yes, do you punch through the board using the 2 knuckle approach or do you just punch with the only focus being where you want to strike the board?

You should always punch an object, like a board with your first two knuckles but there are ways to build your knuckles, try knuckle pushups/punching a phone book, you can also duck tape the phone book to your heavy back and punch it that way as well.

[todome]

Check the axis of rotation. The tendency is to rotate at the ulna but this results in a spiral path. That can be hell on the wrists. The best way to correct this is, temporarily for training purposes, to concentrate on the withdrawing arm being sure to snap the forearm aggressively at kime so the elbow tucks in at the back creating a strong connection. The feeling should be the ulnar side of the forearm (pinkie side) locking in and up into place.

One side feeds the other. Correcting the punching side should be easier with that in mind.