Finger pain

[Mainbeam]

Anyone suffer from pain if their fingers when hitting the speedbag? I have a pain in my wedding ring finger that feels like a bruised vain - very painful. I've taped my finger up now when working out. Wondering if this is because my fingers aren't conditioned like they once were. Like a guitar players fingers that become tough because of the strings.

Thanks

Paul

[Dutchman]

It's not unusual for various aches and pains to set in, especially when you are first starting out. How you are addressing the bag, and for how long you are hitting per session are just a couple of reasons that you may be experiencing this. Are you wrapping your hands, or are you going bare knuckle? If you are doing the latter it may be advantages for you to get a good pair of wraps and start using them until you condition your hands. Reducing the amount of time you hit the bag may also be in order.

[Mainbeam]

Thanks Dutchman. I'm not doing anything over the top. Maybe 3x3 minutes at the moment. I will tape up my hand until the pain subsides. Otherwise it will hinder me using the bag - which I love to use! Wondering if I made the mistake of hitting it with my wedding ring on and now I have to wait for pain to stop and start again without ring on. Silly of me probably.

[rehamco1]

pain

Anyone suffer from pain if their fingers when hitting the speedbag? I have a pain in my wedding ring finger that feels like a bruised vain - very painful. I've taped my finger up now when working out. Wondering if this is because my fingers aren't conditioned like they once were. Like a guitar players fingers that become tough because of the strings.

Thanks

Paul

Do you take off your ring when you hit the bag? I don't have pain in my fingers but in my wrists wrapping them helps.

[Zaza]

I never take my rings off... don't think they will ever come off at this point. I've gotten those pains before and I believe you're right, it's a brused vein or something. I find it goes away in time...lately I've been working a larger, heavier speed bag and after a few hours of hitting, I feel it in my elbow joints! Getting old.

[Mainbeam]

I think I will let my finger rest and then tape it up when I bag. Pain is subsiding now as I haven't used it.

[Speedbag]

Anyone suffer from pain if their fingers when hitting the speedbag? I have a pain in my wedding ring finger that feels like a bruised vain - very painful. I've taped my finger up now when working out. Wondering if this is because my fingers aren't conditioned like they once were. Like a guitar players fingers that become tough because of the strings.

Thanks

Paul

I have had that from time to time on various fingers and I found the main culprit is hitting with "a loose fist", meaning just barely closing my fingers into a fist, hitting with relax hands, not a clenched fist. We baggers often hit with the relaxed fist, for clenching the fists hard to stay tightly closed adds a bit of stress or tension into the forearms. When I'm hitting "in the zone" and not thinking about anything in particular I tend to let my hands relax, which lets the loosely held fingers, especially the large knuckles of the fingers, bang against each other, especially when cranking it out at high speeds or hard punching. Remember, we hit more of the sides of the hand a lot more then the front, so the angle of contact, usually hundreds in a workout, can leave the hands hurting. I have found the answer for me is to hold my fingers a bit tighter in the fist, or use hand wraps with tend to bind the fingers together tight enough to not let them bang against each other.

Another culprit could be an overinflated bag, which feels like a brick. Hitting an overinflated bag really fast with a loose fist can make for a bad day on your hands.

and I always advise taking off all jewelry from the hands and wrists when punching. Just a precautionary measure, but I still see lots of people punching with rings.

[reggabdeeps]

I agree, take the ring off and deflate the bag.

[Mainbeam]

Agreed on taking my ring off. Here's a question - how do you know the optimum inflation of the bag? Not too much and not enough? Thanks

[fedora]

It's recommended that they are between 3 to 4 pounds psi. You can get a gauge pretty cheap. I used to use one but after a while you can tell by the feel when it is just right. Now I just press in on the bag and see how far my thumbs go in. If they don't go in at all or barely so, it's too high. If they sink in more than an inch it's too low. Also the way the bag feels on your fists and the way it rebounds will tell you if it's too high or too low as well. You will start to discern this after baggin a while.

fedora

[Mainbeam]

Thanks for the advice Fedora.