Punching Bag Safety

The punching bag is the best tools out there for helping to improve MMA and boxing skills.  One thing that is often overlooked is safety.  The objective of this article is to point out common punching bag injuries and some ways to avoid running into problems.  Some of the tips mentioned in this article may seem obvious, but they are still brought up because they are not as uncommon as we’d like.

The most common injury is the fractured or broken hand, which often results from improper bag contact during a cross or a hook.  Whenever you strike the punching bag, you should aim to make contact such that the flat part of your pointer and middle fingers are flush against the bag.  Avoid striking such that the only point of contact is the knuckles as with excessive pressure, knuckles can still break or fracture.  Distributing the weight across your fingers will lessen the blow.  

A common mistake is striking the punching bag such that the main point of contact is across the middle and ring fingers.  Your hand is very week between the middle and ring knuckles and this kind of punch can result in a fractured or broken hand.  Again, stick to the flush middle/pointer fingers punch to avoid this.

Some beginners squeeze their thumbs with their other fingers during a punch.  And yes, you guessed it, upon impact, they often jam or fracture their thumb.  When you make a fist, your thumb should be away from the other fingers.

Even though the following tips seem pretty common sense, I believe they should be revisited because they do still happen.  When you are practicing on a punching bag and the bag sways, realize that the harder you punch it, the more it will come back at you.  Practice dodging and remember to shift out of its way.  If you have a strong punch, the bag will swing a lot and you could potentially knock yourself out.  

When hanging a punching bag, please read the manual to determine the optimal place to hang it, and use the hook/ hanging apparatus included.  Follow the hanging instructions step by step and ensure that the ceiling or platform used to hang the bag can support the weight.  

Last but not least is kicking.  Just like you can jam or break your thumb, you can injure your feet if you accidentally make contact with your toes.  Aim to point your toes away from your knee, and make contact with the flat part of your foot.  Some punching bags have very hard bases, and sometimes the bags themselves are a harder/different material towards the bottom.  Keep this in mind when you are kicking because if you hit one of the harder materials, regardless of whether you point your toes or not, you are asking to get injured.

The objective of this article was not to scare you away from boxing and MMA; it was to review common injuries and mistakes so you can achieve your goals without getting hurt,  And yes some of the tips reviewed seem trivial, nonetheless they still happen.  Train hard, train safe.