Boxing hand wraps are a must if you’re serious about boxing. Even if you only do boxing casually we recommend you wear hand wraps. Without them you are going to do some serious damage to your hands.
Hand wraps offer your hands that much-needed protection. If you don’t wear them you might end up breaking some bones! As boxers, we use our hands a lot and punch a whole lot more.
There are many small and fragile bones in your hands and because of the amount of punches boxers use, there can be a chance of breaking or injuring your hands if you’re not careful. Your hands are your most important assets and you want to keep them protected at all costs.
Many boxers have been forced to retire early due to hand injuries. Prince Naseem Hamed and Tony Jefferies were both forced to retired respectively due to chronic problems faced by hand injuries.
The job of hand wraps is to keep your hand together and tight while also provide support for your wrist, knuckle, and entire hand. They are there to ensure your joints are kept together while you punch. After all, the last thing you want is to fracture your hands.
How to Wrap your Hands Using Hand Wraps
We’re going to show you how to wrap your hands the proper way. While there are various ways you can wrap your hands using hand wraps, this is one of our favourite ways.
We’re using Fortis Predator hand wraps which are extra long at 5 metres/200 inches. Being slightly longer means you have extra protection for your hands.
1. Attach thumb loop to thumb making sure you start wrapping from the back of your hands. Don’t start from the palm of your hands otherwise the hand wraps will fall off.
2. Wrap around your wrist 4 times. This ensures you have enough protection at your wrists.
3. Wrap around hand diagonally 4 times
4. Wrap around fingers and make an X pattern. Start from your pinky finger and ring finger and go through all your fingers. When you’ve put it through all your fingers you should have done 4 ‘X’s.
5. Wrap around knuckles 4 times
6. Wrap around thumb twice. This is to ensure your thumb is locked in place.
7. Any excess wrap you have left, wrap around your hands. Put velcro strap on and you’re done.
That is how to put your hand wraps on for boxing. It’s the same method for all combat sports including Muay Thai and MMA.
Wrapping your hands is actually pretty simple. It just takes some practice if you haven’t done it before. Some boxers prefer tighter hand wraps. It all depends on how tight you want them.
Bare in mind that competition wraps are different and they are wrapped up using a different method. Professionals usually use gauze and tape when it comes to professional fights.
There’s many different methods to wrap your hands and keep them protected but this is our favourite method. The most important thing is you keep your hands safe and protected.