Split Knuckles

[SleepySasquatch]

Hey fine fine people, I was hoping you could offer me some advice on this little matter

Amongst my boxing classes and occasional MMA club pop-ins i've been fortunate enough to never have any long lasting injuries or serious strains. However my one niggling irritation is the fact that my knuckles are extremely dry and so when punching, particularly when training power, I find my knuckles splitting open constantly and upon removing my gloves and undoing my hand wraps i'm often greeted to skin falling off. Now this doesn't bother me on any aesthetic or even clinical level; while the skin's healing back I regularly apply anti-septic cream and change plasters and, well, my hands have never been especially beautiful anyway . It does however stunt the development of my abilities as even jabbing can cause a small but noticeable pain.

I would sincerely appreciate any suggestions on how to deal with this problem as I simply can't live a life without punching things aimlessly.

[adouglasmhor]

Moisturise, atrixo hand cream or some such.

[gcollin]

i would talk to sifu (sensei in your case)

[righty]

Don't be afraid to moisturise. Do it multiple times a day to get some water into those dried out skin cells.

What exactly do you mean by "change plasters"?

What type of hand wraps are you using? Just plain woven cotton?

[Frodocious]

I'm with those who've suggested moisturising. I occasionally get the same problem and using a good moisturiser works wonders. Use it several times during the day.

[SleepySasquatch]

Due to my being an idiot I had never thought to moisturise . I'll be certain to start doing so.

Righty: By change plasters I mean take off the last plaster/s I had on the knuckles, check if the area is weeping still and maybe wipe it off a little if so, apply some anti-septic cream and put a new plaster on. And yep, I use plain woven cotton hand wraps.

Thanks for all the replies everyone

[Mike Flanagan]

Sleepy

This may or may not apply to you at all, you may just have very dry skin on your knuckles or whatever, but...

I see a lot of people have problems grazing their knuckles when hitting a bag. Personally I very rarely graze my knuckles yet I never use gloves or wraps. I avoid it simply by always punching 'straight', ie. a straight line from elbow to knuckles regardless of whether its a hook, uppercut or whatever - and direct the strike into the centre of the target. Its a different ethos but the way I figure it I'm never going to actually hit anyone wearing gloves or wraps, its going to be 'au naturale' so that's the way I practice.

Mike

[seiken steve]

haha mate this is the least of your worries. i tried doing a kata in my living room last night and ended up punching a wall, knuckle is all purple now

[SleepySasquatch]

Originally Posted by seiken steve

haha mate this is the least of your worries. i tried doing a kata in my living room last night and ended up punching a wall, knuckle is all purple now

Combat Rule No. 1: The Wall Always Wins
lol, bad luck mate. Atleast it'll make you look cool showing up with purple knuckles and the swashbuckling story of how you took on five sharks to get them that way

[Van Zandt]

Try something like this so you don't look too gay pulling out a bottle of E45 or Nivea.

[adouglasmhor]

vz they look like lube, how is that not gay?

[righty]

Some added tips here.

Depending on what type of plaster you are using, they may not be a good idea. Mostly because the sticky bits can make any sort of dry skin worse as you peel them off. It also doesn't let the skin breathe in areas.

Wraps, being made of woven cotton can actually be quite abrasive, making the problem worse even though you apply them quite tight. So instead of putting plasters under them, you could try some similar that isn't adhesive. If you can get some soft padding from the chemist (similar to the padding on the plasters) that might be worth a go. you could also try something generally less abrasive. Silk comes to mind, but even a piece of finer weave cotton. The wraps will hold it in place too.

For really dry hands use moisturiser. But another trick you can try is you put a more than usual amount of your hands and put some latex or similar gloves over them and go to sleep like this. Sure it will feel a bit gross, but it works.

[Van Zandt]

vz they look like lube, how is that not gay?

Dug myself a fine hole there, haven't I?

[SleepySasquatch]

Originally Posted by Van Zandt

Try something like this so you don't look too gay pulling out a bottle of E45 or Nivea.

No worries. I have some E45 cream now but I usually just take some out and rub it on before practice without removing the pot from my bag and as we all know, having your hand covered in white cream that came out of nowhere while in the changing room is totally not gay

[asthmamaster]

One thing i do find tho with grazed knuckles is this, even punching straight sometimes brings out that nasty peeling away of skin from the knuckle esspecially from twist punches and corkscrews. even a reverse punch if done correctly can do it, if you using the whole body to put force on the bag, while turning the wrist and fist into the bag , thus creating the thrust effect. Why do you think htere are split knuckles in fist fights? for me its worse when your single breaking boards and you break the two punching knuckles on each hand. lesson learned but, its about letting go working through the pain, and blood, and just keep punching. build up the calluses on the knuckles and sooner or later it will build up enough to not split and rip open. Just a thought and input for the conversation.