How bad does MMA mess up your hands?

[xentreos]

Threads like this make me respect the wisdom of traditional martial arts more over time. Yes its true that we cant hang with MMA guys in a fight BUT my body is healthier over time and I dont have any problems due to taking multiple shots to the head and breaking hands on opponents and such.

Well yeah, we engage in combat. You engage in ancient pro wrestling.

 

[Pepy]

wraped + high quality gloves but still it happens sometimes

 

[franklinstower]

Well yeah, we engage in combat. You engage in ancient pro wrestling.

No need to be a dick man...... I am a huge fan of MMA its just that in the few times I have had to use my marital arts they have served me well but without permanent health problems. I remember my instructors always telling us to mellow out with our sparring and such for health reasons. They knew what they were talking about.

I have a friend with cognition problems due to blows to the head being in MMA..... I dont think he thinks it was worth it at this point....

 

[MCS]

sprained wrists, bent fingers, twisted knuckles - all just from punching. bad as a beginner since the motion is off, chronic for pros because of the amount of reps. wrist tape is very important on all levels, as wrist injuries can nag. can't do much for fragile hands, other than big gloves and touch sparring.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

All that hand protection (wraps and gloves) prevent the hand from microfracturing and the bones coming back more calcified (harder).

Karate guys punch hard things for years to strengthen their hands. After a while they can punch bricks and cinder blocks with little problem. You tell a professional boxer to punch a cinder with no gloves on and he'll be out of work for a while.

 

[Sunken]

if you hit hard enough your small brittle hands will break

 

[xentreos]

No need to be a dick man...... I am a huge fan of MMA its just that in the few times I have had to use my marital arts they have served me well but without permanent health problems. I remember my instructors always telling us to mellow out with our sparring and such for health reasons. They knew what they were talking about.

I have a friend with cognition problems due to blows to the head being in MMA..... I dont think he thinks it was worth it at this point....

I feel you, my bad Sherbro I was being hostile for no reason. Not a bad point to be made honestly, a similar practice could be applied to training for MMA. McGregor has a similar philosophy of "upgrading your software, without damaging your hardware". His training reflects that, a lot of reenacting scenarios and flow work rather than sparring and raw bag work.

 

[AusTosh]

I'm here reading everyone's posts, confused as hell....I train and compete in shinkyokushin karate where our tournies consist of full contact bare knuckle knockdown rules. Because our rules are strictly bare knuckle we have to prepare (punching with the main two big knuckles) and condition (little things like closed fist pushups (using the main 2 knuckles) on timber or a hard surface can help) our knuckles to be able to withstand the impact without breaking any bones...

Damaged hands come from years of bad form imo.... and yes i'd say when you start off as a beginner considering you are still in the initial conditioning phase.... sure injuries and accidents as well but you can condition your wrist and knuckles.... like any other bone lol.

 

[j123]

but you can condition your wrist and knuckles.... like any other bone lol.

Waht about.... the chin bone?

brb gonna condition my boner. Bone is in the name

 

[AusTosh]

Waht about.... the chin bone?

brb gonna condition my boner. Bone is in the name

Haha yeah true got me there! However, regardless of your chin being conditioned or not i was in the hindsight that the cause of concussions delivered due to hits to the chin is mainly from the rotational acceleration or twisting causing brain strains, then concluding to a possible concussion. But yeah knuckles, wrist you can condition them lol

 

[biscuitsbrah]

I don’t know about you guys but I’ve injured my fingers, hands, wrists, elbows from grappling more than punching.

But yes punching in mma gloves has damaged my hands. Especially if you punch the ground/forehead/elbow

 

[j123]

I don’t know about you guys but I’ve injured my fingers, hands, wrists, elbows from grappling more than punching

for some reason start on the knees and drilling from there, my knees feels fucked after a class.

I've injured my toes from grappling. There used to be a gym hero that would do random judo shit he saw on YouTube, of course me being completely green at the time didn't know how to brace it, and when I did what I could to brace it, my toe got jammed. Took me about 3 months for it to get back to normal. Even doing a "dropstep" takedown, the pain was pretty bad and I couldn't do it.

 

[WildBoyDan]

I have ligament damage in both wrists due to mma and boxing. They can be sore for a few days after a heavy session or accumulative build up of punches, over a month or so training. if i rest them (just do lightwork) for a week or 2 they tend to recover then the process starts again lol

 

[biscuitsbrah]

for some reason start on the knees and drilling from there, my knees feels fucked after a class.

I've injured my toes from grappling. There used to be a gym hero that would do random judo shit he saw on YouTube, of course me being completely green at the time didn't know how to brace it, and when I did what I could to brace it, my toe got jammed. Took me about 3 months for it to get back to normal. Even doing a "dropstep" takedown, the pain was pretty bad and I couldn't do it.

Do you still grapple once in a while? You should start from guard if you guys are knee wrestling lol

 

[j123]

Do you still grapple once in a while? You should start from guard if you guys are knee wrestling lol

I still grapple, not as active as before, but I'm looking to get back again, I kinda miss it.

We normally don't midget wrestle, but when there's 12+ people we have to, the spacing's too small.

 

[cooks1]

You rarely hear fighters talking about it, the amateur guys I know all have one or two fingers that are so fucked up from grappling in gi and punching people they basically feel pain every time they punch

Well, I am a grappler by trade, but I have been training stand-up a while at my local.

My hands are fine. Pristine even. But that might have something to do with the fact that I almost never hit anything but air. In my experience the keys to making sure your hands never get hurt are the following:

Poor Footwork
Slow handspeed
Low affinity for 'taking one to give one'

And last but not least (at this is where I truly stand out)- T-Rex Arms.

If you can achieve those 4 pillars, like me you can enjoy life with almost no risk of hand injury.

Now........If I could just figure out how to protect my face.

 

[listrahtes]

Threads like this make me respect the wisdom of traditional martial arts more over time. Yes its true that we cant hang with MMA guys in a fight BUT my body is healthier over time and I dont have any problems due to taking multiple shots to the head and breaking hands on opponents and such.

This is kind of a dumb argument. You dont train fighting and are happy to live healthier because of this wisdom. Wow mindblowing. Thats fine but dont compare it to any functional working ma.
There is no wisdom in TMA. Just nonfunctional training combined with mostly highly delusional practitioners about their ma skills. Without sparring martial arts is just movement training.
You could say "Threads like this make me respect the wisdom of Zumba".

The truth is TMA training is very light in comparison to any competitive sports. Naturally they dont get injured much but also dont learn much. There is no onesided equation.

 

[franklinstower]

This is kind of a dumb argument. You dont train fighting and are happy to live healthier because of this wisdom. Wow mindblowing. Thats fine but dont compare it to any functional working ma.
There is no wisdom in TMA. Just nonfunctional training combined with mostly highly delusional practitioners about their ma skills. Without sparring martial arts is just movement training.
You could say "Threads like this make me respect the wisdom of Zumba".

The truth is TMA training is very light in comparison to any competitive sports. Naturally they dont get injured much but also dont learn much. There is no onesided equation.

Your reading comprehension is shit.

Most traditional martial arts can be adapted to MMA, some more some less. I never said no sparring was needed in order to be functional.
What I said was that we were told to mellow out on our sparring for health reasons. I don't know anyone who thinks light sparring is comparable to heavy MMA sparring in this day and age. What I do know are a lot of people who never intend to compete in any sport who can defend themselves in a reasonable way -- not at the level of boxing, kick boxing etc and who are healthy.

None of these people have broken their hands repeatedly, none of these people have had multiple blows to the head and the resulting long term negative effects of that, and none of them have pumped their bodies full of steroids either.

If you think there is no wisdom in avoiding brain trauma for the average Joe then I don't know what to tell you man. Have at it, and have fun in your later years.....

 

[fluffball]

There is not a single joint in my body that is 100%. That could probably be said for someone who's played a lot of badminton, though. Using your body wears it out (although not using it wears it out a lot faster.)

 

[aries]

There is not a single joint in my body that is 100%. That could probably be said for someone who's played a lot of badminton, though. Using your body wears it out (although not using it wears it out a lot faster.)

That's the conundrum, doing too much vs doing too little. Where does the balance lie for long term health? I would have thought that certain parts of your body would suffer most from practicing an activity for a long time. For running it would be the knees, for Muay Thai it would be the shins e.t.c.