The Proper Way to Wrap Your Hands For Boxing

Boxers need to wrap their hands to support their hands and wrists with hand wraps, both very breakable parts of the body that are meant to assist with maneuverability. The fingers in the hand can easily break when punching a hard surface and proper wrapping can protect both the wrist and fingers.

With a boxer, or anyone learning to fight, they start with first learning how to throw a punch.

Learning how to throw a punch is necessary to keep from hurting yourself in the process. You need to know how to stabilize your wrist while you throw punches so you don’t hurt it. The problem is that the wrist is not very strong. Even 45 seconds straight of throwing punches can be enough to cause the muscles in your wrist to give out.

Boxing matches last for far longer than that and have many rounds. Wrapping your hands and wrists protects them from damage and helps to support your wrists.

There are quite a few different methods to wrap your hands when boxing. It depends on what you find comfortable and what works for your hands and the type of fighting you are learning. The intention is always of course to protect your knuckles and provide support to your wrists.

This means you need to be sure to wrap them firmly, but not too tightly. The circulation of blood to your hand and fingers should not be interrupted and you should be able to wiggle them freely.

Here is one method that is commonly used by boxers:

Step One

Hold open the hand you want to wrap and make sure it’s not tense; it needs to be nice and relaxed. Take the wrap and loop it over your thumb before pulling it over the back of your hand and tying it over the wrist three times.

Step Two

From the thumb side of your wrist, Pull the wrap over the back of your hand and over the palm, clearing it up over the knuckles around two or three times. Now take the wrap and make an ‘X’ over your hand to your wrist and back. Do that a few times to build on the stability.

Step Three

Keep pulling the wrap over the palm to your thumb. Wrap it around your thumb, then return it to your wrist over your palm. Don’t twist the wrap, keep it flat and straight.

Step Four

Wrap back around your thumb once in the opposite direction. Then wrap across the back of your hand and over your wrist again. Follow around your wrist, across your hand and through the space between each finger.

Make sure the wrap doesn’t twist.

Step Five

Now that you have wrapped through your fingers you can wrap back up your hand onto your wrist, then use the remainder of the wrap to your knuckles and then you can tuck the rest of the wrap away. Flex your hand and wrist to make sure it’s firm but not too tight.

There you go, you’re ready to start throwing safe punches.

If you're still still looking for the best hand wraps to use check out DMB's collection.