How to Condition Your Knuckles: Guide to Harden Your Fists For Fighting

Conditioning your hands to be able to absorb the impact upon connection determines whether you’ve successfully landed the punch or not.

Be it self-defense or professional fighting, your punch should have enough power to stop your opponent’s advances, especially for self-defense where the situation is much detrimental, the main goal is to stop your opponent with a single effective strike.

Today, we’ll be learning about conditioning the knuckles and the misconception involved in it.

Keep reading because you’ll drive home some valuable information about hardening your fist and learn key drills to help you achieve your goal.

Conditioning your knuckles? Is it even a thing?

There are many blogs and research material which claim that you can partially condition your knuckles. Personally, I agree with those because of the word “Partially”.

As a professional fighter, hardening the knuckles is a wrong approach. However, for self-defense, it does make sense. (I’ll explain this in detail later on)

For fighters, their fists are the money makers and thus when they emphasize conditioning the bones, they cause damage to the bones which are already hard enough.

When pressure is exerted from a strike on to the bones, it leads the hard bones to crush.

martial arts

My personal experience with Knuckle Conditioning

Two friends of mine – One a boxer at state level whereas the other a Black Belt Karate practitioner at a national level. Both of them shared their experiences and unique take on knuckle conditioning with me.

My boxer friend shared that though we are told to strengthen and harden our fists, knuckle conditioning is not everything.

On the contrary, my friend practicing Karate emphasized the importance of knuckle conditioning.

Experience of a boxer

My boxer friend shared that he tried knuckle conditioning in his earlier days and he realized that all that’s happening is that his knuckles are dealing with more damage.

So, he was stuck in this never-ending loop of drill-damage-heal. In fact, pain sometimes would be so unbearable that he would even cry. 

He shares that after every drill, a fighter should let the knuckles regenerate for a time period between 4 to 5 days.

Lastly, he signed off saying all of this may not have improved his knuckle strength but it did improve his punching capacity. 

So now, he could hit a wall, a punching bag, or a coarse material more times than when he first started. Can he hit it with more power? That’s not clear. (TAKEAWAY: Avoid bare-knuckle punching in boxing)

Experience of a Karate practitioner

Almost everything that the boxer said completely resonated with my friend who practices Karate.

After I shared my takeaways from my conversation with my boxer friend, my Karate friend shared the information which I had little to no information about, he said, Karate along with Kyokushin and Enshin are only a few of the traditional martial art forms that emphasize hardening knuckles.

The reason why they do so is because of self-defense. Karate as a martial art originally called Chinese Hand or Tote circled around empty hand techniques to be used against an armored samurai who used to exploit them.

They were taught to condition their hands in such a way that they could damage if not penetrate through the bamboo armor of their enemies. The sole purpose of knuckle conditioning was to cause damage without breaking the hands. Though it came with a risk, they had to do it.

Takeaway: Knuckle conditioning makes sense for self-defense but comes with its own sets of risks which a professional fighter should avoid taking at all costs. Which beckons the following question?

Is knuckle conditioning even worth it?

Tough knuckles can help you throw dense punches in large volumes. We’ve already learned this above.

Many so-called experts claim they make the punches strong (which I don’t feel is right). But yes, knuckle conditioning does help increase the volume and density of your punches.

But the most fascinating aspect of knuckle conditioning is that it prevents injuries during training. By deploying pressure on your knuckles, you make them stronger and resistant to damage.

Are there multiple ways to condition your knuckles?

Absolutely. There are many ways in which you can condition your knuckles and I’m going to share all of the techniques with you. 

All you shouldn’t do is use your bare knuckles for these drills right at the start. I’ll explain how you can harden your fist step by step and improve your hand strength.

Drills to strengthen your knuckles in Boxing, Muay Thai, and MMA

Rice Digging

An ancient martial art technique has made its way to boxing and MMA gyms across the world.

Rice Digging is a technique which is synonymous with Pound-for-Pound boxer Andre Ward and many other. 

To perform rice digging, get a large tub of rice. Start by keeping your fingers straight and together and start to dig your hands. While bringing your hands back up, try grabbing the rice and squeezing it in each hand and releasing it. 

The more you do this drill, the tougher your hands will get overtime because the process toughens your skin by building calluses all over your hands, thereby making them tougher. (We’ll study the rice digging drills in detail below)

Wall Punching

THIS DOES NOT INVOLVE PUNCHING WALL WITH YOUR BARE HANDS. Use newspapers as the props between the wall and your fist. It’s advisable to have 1-2 inches thick newspapers against the wall. 

Place the newspapers against a flat and solid wall. Start punching the wall continuously at a slow speed from about 10” away. As time progresses, you can improve power. (NEVER HIT THE WALL USING EXTREME POWER.)

Give it your 50-60% and when the newspapers wear out, replace them. (Yet again, this exercise is not something I would recommend to a professional fighter unless you Tony Ferguson).

Push-Ups Using Fingers and Fists

You might have seen this drill in motion already or perhaps must have attempted yourself. It’s a simple push-up drill except you use your fist and fingers rather than your palms.

Since the pressure of your body falls on the wrists and fists, it naturally makes them stronger.

Initially, it’s advisable to use a towel for this drill, since the hard ground can be tough and painful.

Hand Grip Exercises

Using a lever-type device, you can work with additional resistance. A handgrip is a device that allows you to squeeze and apply pressure.

It’s similar to the products we checked in our Chin Conditioning Guide, where we learned about building strength with increased resistance. 

Using Hand Grip for exercising will improve endurance, strengthen your forearms, improve dexterity and overall conditioning of your hands.

There are many hand gripping equipment that you can use in your usual exercise regimen.

Forearm Workout

Forearm exercises help to reinforce the wrists by exerting pressure on them and help you with denser fists. You can work your wrist and forearm through the following exercises:

Pull-ups: 3 sets of 10, immediately followed by 20-30 seconds of straight arm dead hang.

When performing the dead hang, make sure you squeeze your fist as hard as you can so you can work your forearms. 

Reverse forearm curls: You can perform this drill with a straight bar or a curled bar. Do 3 sets of 12 reps.

Using the same bar, you can also perform wrist curls – 3 sets of 15, squeezing at the top. These are just a few of the examples, you can also do chin-ups using towels for a challenging grip.

Holding barbell

The barbell drill works great for strengthening your hands.

However, I’d suggest you use a small towel and roll it around the barbell so you can prevent it from slipping out of your hands when they become sweaty.

Try to grip it with both your hands for a minute and then release it. Do this drill for 3 sets of 60 seconds.

Please note that some of these exercises will also help with the power and the speed of the punch.

If you want to know how to measure the power of your punch check this guide here

Rubber ball squeeze

Another simple drill to strengthen your hand is by using a hard tennis ball. Try to squeeze the ball for a minute or two and then let it go.

Do 3 sets of this exercise for 90 seconds each. By trying to squeeze the ball, you’ll force pressure which will ultimately work your forearms and your hand.

Classic Newspaper Drill

One of the most popular hand conditioning drills involves a newspaper. Lay down two pieces of newspaper on each other.

Fold them in half and try to tear the newspaper with both hands. I know it sounds easy, but trust me its’ not.

Keep doing the drill till you end up ripping all of the newspapers. To make it even more challenging, you can set up a specific time within which you can try to achieve your goal.

It’s similar to the handgrip equipment. These are grip resistance bands that help you exert more pressure. You can do a variety of drills with these bands.

For instance, you can grip a band with one hand with your fingers and palm facing upwards, while the other end of the band is placed under your feet. 

Stand with the elbow at your side and try to bend at a 90-degree angle.

Now use the other hand to grip right below your wrist as you try and curl your wrist up and against the resistant band. You can do 3 sets with 10 reps using one hand at a time. This drill will strengthen your wrists.

Punching Bag Drills to Condition your hands

Punching Bag Drills to condition your hands can be done in numerous ways.

As we’ve studied in our Boxing, Muay Thai, and MMA Gloves Guide, the density of each of these gloves differ.

Thus, the slimmer the gloves, the more will be the impact on your hands. Boxing gloves are heavily padded followed by Muay Thai gloves and MMA gloves. 

Regardless of which gloves you are using for conditioning your hands, you must wrap your hands.

Wrapping your hands

By wrapping your hands using heavy-duty cotton, you’re able to prevent injuries. Wrap it in the loop and place it around your thumb.

Ensure you wrap at least 2-3 layers before you wear the glove. With the final wrap, ensure you tuck the wrap under the cloth of your wrist or with a Velcro.

Make sure to wrap both your hands and never use the punching bag without wrapping your hands first, even if your goal is to condition your knuckles.

Punching with Boxing gloves

To begin your knuckle conditioning, start with hitting a heavy bag at least three times a week for 6 months.

Do not try bare-knuckles punching before you’ve conditioned your hands this way.

Do this drill with your hands wrapped and 12-16oz boxing gloves on. Start the drill with a softer bag and then work your way up to a firm bag.

Once you’ve completed the 6-month drill with boxing gloves then move on to the MMA gloves which naturally are less padded.

Punching with MMA gloves

To stay safe, there are gloves which are well-padded, you can make use of them. You can use these gloves for working your stand-up game and even ground and pound.

You should do the punching bag drills three times a week consisting of 3 rounds with each round lasting for 3 minutes.

Once you’re well acquainted with the MMA gloves, you can transition to using just hand wraps or bare knuckles within the next 6-8 months.

Punching without gloves

When you’re punching without gloves, try to increase the pressure on your hand bones, make sure that the bag is made of leather or synthetic leather and not canvas.

Canvas will shred your skin upon repeated contact with your knuckles. To make it worse, once it shreds, it’ll keep cracking back open and thus the healing process will take much longer. 

After nearly a year of punching bag drills using boxing and MMA gloves, you can finally start punching with your bare fists.

For bare-knuckle heavy bag conditioning, Do the same drill – 3 Rounds of 3 minutes each using only 50% of your power. (Just do this once a week, so your hand gets enough time to heal)

When you’re punching bare fist, ensure tight fists, wrists straight, squeezing the forearm upon impact.

Make it a habit of getting these three things right. Slightest miscue can lead to a major setback, thus do not sleep on these points.

Rice Drills to Condition your Knuckles

Rice Drills as explained in the excerpt above in one of the most ancient techniques used to condition your hands. It’s being used as a technique to strengthen hands, improve power and for therapy. Let’s check out some of the rice drills in detail:

Knuckle Twisting: The first rice drill involves using a lot of force as you try and twist your knuckles into the rice.

As you force your grip, you’ll need to exert a lot of pressure while holding the rise and then release them into the bucket.

Additionally, you need to push your knuckles into the rice and twist them to apply additional pressure.

Rice punching: Again, something I won’t recommend to a professional fighter. Punching your knuckles into the rice can be included in your workout regimen for self-defense.

Stop the drills when your hands start to feel sore or your skin breaks.

Do this drill only for a few minutes and use both your hands to condition the knuckles on each hand. Remember, you can also replace rice with a coarse material as seen in several martial arts practice, however, that’s even more unsafe.

Thumb Digging: Instead of using the knuckles, you use one finger at a time and try to apply pressure to dig into the rice.

Do it for each finger starting with your thumbs! Do not continue the drill if you’re under excruciating pain or start bleeding.

I’ve already talked about the grab and release drill above; you can do that as well.

Conditioning your Knuckles takes time and patience

Sure, you’ve seen people punching rock and wood to condition their knuckles but that’s not the right way to do it. You cannot condition your knuckles overnight.

It’s progressive conditioning that takes place over months and even years.

The primary goal while conditioning your knuckles should be to avoid damaging your carpals (wrist), phalanges (fingers) and metacarpals (hands).

True that Karate and other martial arts work on the principle of injuring the area, allowing it to heal and repeating the process over a thousand times.

But you can’t take your chances with that in boxing. Also, remember, that you should not compromise with the healing time.

Allowing the tissues to regenerate is a crucial part if you want to ensure the wrist safety.

Though there is no measuring stick in this conditioning process. You can use the volume of punches you throw without feeling pain as a significant indicator.

Also, the callusing and deformity of knuckles isn’t the right way of judging or measuring improvement, so I’d request you to not be delusional.

It is no way indicates the strengthening or hardening of your dermis layers. If you go by this approach, you’ll end up causing more damage to your knuckles in the long run.

Conclusion

Like Shane, I believed that knuckle conditioning is merely a myth. All it can achieve is causing an injury.

However, after researching and studying this topic in detail. I can admit that there’s truth to knuckle conditioning and it can take place over time.

Though I still believe that professional fighters should avoid risking their hands, I’d recommend it for self-defense.

After all, a denser fist coupled with a strong forearm can not only prevent injuries but help pack punches in great volume.