Knuckle conditioning. Safely?

[Sandman1995]

Other then hitting the heavy bag and doing knuckle push ups, that kind of thing, is there any way to improve knuckle strength without killing the nerves? or would it be better to do that.

[greynotsoold]

The very last thing a boxer should be doing is knuckle push-ups. It is best not to even shake hands; some ding bat trying to impress you with his firm grip can mess your hands up. You try and protect your hands.
So you build up strength in your wrists and forearms and hands. Personally I always liked a hard heavy bag...there is an article related to this in the current Ring magazine.
The best thing you can do for your hands is land your punches properly, on the two large knuckles. If you are like most everybody else, you will not always do this and will end up with no knuckle on your small finger to speak of.

[Youngblood]

Yah like grey says, protecting your hands is the smartest bet. Wrap properly, and wrap always. Wear good gloves with good protection. You can strengthen your fore arms, and you wrists but there is little to be done for strengthening your hands. You protect them.

Here's a little known fact: there are no muscles in your fingers to strengthen. Not one muscle. Just tendons and bone and skin.

[Andre]

You can toughen the skin and that is done safely first stage with very fine sand then they built up in coarseness as the skin got harder.
In the old days of Asian bare knuckle fighting it paid to have tougher skin and callouses to split your opponents face, but not now, not for boxing in gloves anyway.

[Douglas]

Yah like grey says, protecting your hands is the smartest bet. Wrap properly, and wrap always. Wear good gloves with good protection. You can strengthen your fore arms, and you wrists but there is little to be done for strengthening your hands. You protect them.

Here's a little known fact: there are no muscles in your fingers to strengthen. Not one muscle. Just tendons and bone and skin.

I've heard even to resist the urge to take a casual jab or so at the heavybag when just walking by if your hands are not protected.

[DavilaJones]

I have a question if I may, from what I understand bones become stronger by 'breaking down' a very small amount and then growing larger. That's why you see a lot of people in martial arts and boxing who have really big hands and knuckles.

Wouldn't putting your fists under controlled stress be beneficial over time?

[greynotsoold]

I always liked to hit a hard heavy bag for that reason, but my hands are a mess. My middle and index knuckles are very large, while the knuckles on my small, outside fingers have not been seen in years. I think that, on my right hand, part of the knuckle between the middle and small knuckles is actually under the middle knuckle.
It is very important to be aware of which knuckles your punches are landing on- this affected by proper punching technique and understanding how to utilize that technique at different distances. Nobody ever bothered to tell me this and it took me some time to figure it out for myself.

[Dia bando]

I always liked to hit a hard heavy bag for that reason, but my hands are a mess. My middle and index knuckles are very large, while the knuckles on my small, outside fingers have not been seen in years. I think that, on my right hand, part of the knuckle between the middle and small knuckles is actually under the middle knuckle.
It is very important to be aware of which knuckles your punches are landing on- this affected by proper punching technique and understanding how to utilize that technique at different distances. Nobody ever bothered to tell me this and it took me some time to figure it out for myself.

Can't say I'm a lover of the heavy bag myself, seen to many hand injury's I feel it does more harm than
good. People seem to try to punch to hard on the bag,resulting in broken bones seen it happen to many times.

[Andre]

I always liked to hit a hard heavy bag for that reason, but my hands are a mess. My middle and index knuckles are very large, while the knuckles on my small, outside fingers have not been seen in years. I think that, on my right hand, part of the knuckle between the middle and small knuckles is actually under the middle knuckle.
It is very important to be aware of which knuckles your punches are landing on- this affected by proper punching technique and understanding how to utilize that technique at different distances. Nobody ever bothered to tell me this and it took me some time to figure it out for myself.

Can't say I'm a lover of the heavy bag myself, seen to many hand injury's I feel it does more harm than
good. People seem to try to punch to hard on the bag,resulting in broken bones seen it happen to many times.

Specially the low shots to the more compact and heavier part of the bag.

[Dia bando]

I always liked to hit a hard heavy bag for that reason, but my hands are a mess. My middle and index knuckles are very large, while the knuckles on my small, outside fingers have not been seen in years. I think that, on my right hand, part of the knuckle between the middle and small knuckles is actually under the middle knuckle.
It is very important to be aware of which knuckles your punches are landing on- this affected by proper punching technique and understanding how to utilize that technique at different distances. Nobody ever bothered to tell me this and it took me some time to figure it out for myself.

Can't say I'm a lover of the heavy bag myself, seen to many hand injury's I feel it does more harm than
good. People seem to try to punch to hard on the bag,resulting in broken bones seen it happen to many times.

Specially the low shots to the more compact and heavier part of the bag.

Yes you are right, I feel to much heavy bag work is bad for your hands and wrists correct wrapping of
your hands helps as well as helping to protect hands and wrists.
Wrapping is off tern overlooked hand injury's are no fun and can lead to long term problems for fighters.