injuries

[vandwedge]

I'm new to the speed bag, and I notice that my joints are a little achy/stiff sometimes after working out, even though I wear thick padded gloves. Is this likely to turn into something more serious/permanent over time?

Is there anyone on the forums who has been using speed bags for 15+ years? Do you have chronic hand pains or arthritis or anything similar?

[Speedbag]

I'm new to the speed bag, and I notice that my joints are a little achy/stiff sometimes after working out, even though I wear thick padded gloves. Is this likely to turn into something more serious/permanent over time?

Is there anyone on the forums who has been using speed bags for 15+ years? Do you have chronic hand pains or arthritis or anything similar?

Hi Vandwedge and welcome to the forum and speed bagging.

Personally I passed the 15 year experience line 25 years ago, so I'm logging my 40th year of fairly active speed bag training. During that time I have had "achy hands" for short periods of time, usually after a lay off of some months in between serious workouts. The most important word in your post is "NEW". Many beginners will end up with some hand issues, for different reasons. One of the first is obvious, you are not used to blunt trauma of repetitive punching. During a normal speed bag session you can hit the bag hundreds of times. It takes a while for the hands (joints and skin) to get used to that.

A second problem is the area of the hand that is mostly hit, which is the sides, especially the outer edge, where the pinkie finger is. If you look at any X-ray or study of hand anatomy you will see that most of the solid stabilization of the hand is from the front, not the sides. When you hit the sides of the hand, particularly the outer edge, the longer hand bones (metacarpals and phalanges) can easily be knocked together. Think of the guy you shake hands with that puts the gorilla grip on you, and your hand screams. The speed bag will do this a bit more subtle until you get used to it.

The best answer for this, besides starting out a bit easy and gradually increases your punching force and training time, is using hand wraps. Wrapping the hands will offer more support to the hand and wrist bones than gloves will. Gloves really protect the skin more than the joints and bones inside. There are many methods for wrapping the hands. Here is just one of many video's demonstrations. I have found most wraps are way too long for my needs on the speed bag only, so I shorten my wraps by cutting out a section and sewing the ends back together. I did this for a while and would use the wraps until my hands got didn't "ache" after workouts, usually after three or four workouts when I got back into it. Hands wraps offer more hand support, but personally I find them a pain to use and challenging to stay on an not unwrap. I also prefer bare handed, for it just lets me feel the bag better, which helps when you start passing the fists through the bag to different sides and the fist hits from different angles. You will find most experienced baggers end up hitting the speed bag bare handed.

Third, you're hands could be hurting because you are simply hitting too hard or your bag is overinflated. An overinflated bag will feel like a brick, as well as being harder to control. You should feel a bit of give to your bag when the hand contacts it. That might be harder to feel with a glove on.

If you really get into speed bagging, and start hitting it often for long, then longer periods of time, you will join the ranks and possible ailments of many other athletic endeavers that are "overdone" and create the typical overuse syndromes suffered by many a middle aged weekend warrior. That is why they call it "tennis elbow" for tennis players, "overhead throwing syndrome" for pitchers or baseball or softball players, and chronic rotator cuff pain in weight lifters that live by the creed, no pain, no gain.....( and eventually no cartilage).

Listen to your body, and do the right thing early, before it becomes chronic . If it hurts, you might want to stop for a while and ease back into it. If it continues to hurt, get it check by a real life professional that can actually see you personally, not just via keyboard.

Hope that helps.