Can you punch a punching bag without gloves? No, you should always wear gloves when hitting a bag. While some people avoid using protective gear, injuries are a real issue in boxing. Punching a bag without protective equipment significantly increases your chance of hurting yourself.
It’s not hard to see why this is the case. Think about punching dirt or sand a few hundred times with no protection, and ask if it’s safe. It’s not, right? A few lighter blows probably won’t do any real damage, but for serious users who may make dozens of heavy hits in each training session, damage can add up quickly.
Let’s look at why protection is so important when using punching bags.
Table of Contents
1. Boxer’s Knuckle
1.1. Force and Area
1.2. Newton’s Third Law
2. Gloves and Wraps
2.1. Types of Boxing Gloves
2.2. Hand Wraps
3. Considerations for Buying Gloves
3.1. Weight
3.2. Thumb Location
3.3. Glove Style
4. Glove Theory: Why Some People Hate Them
5. Final Thoughts
1. Boxer’s Knuckle
One of the primary risks of using a punching bag without a glove is developing a boxer’s knuckle.
Boxer’s knuckle is a condition where damage around the first knuckle on a hand, usually through repeated strikes against things, causes a thickening and weakening of the extensor tendon. The result is a visible swelling around the knuckle, causing pain and making the hand hard to use.
Boxer’s knuckle is relatively easy to diagnose, but treatment frequently requires surgery and can take five months or more for complete healing. That’s a long time for a boxer to be out of practice, and in some cases, it can effectively end a boxer’s career.
Related: The Best Filling for a Punching Bag
1.1. Force and Area
One of the biggest concerns in using a punching bag is how you hit it. The conventional rule in striking is that the greater the force and the smaller the area, the more power you can get. This detail is why glass breakers have a pointed tip instead of a flat hammer head; concentrating all of their force into the smallest possible area makes them drastically more effective.
Unfortunately, the human body can’t always handle the force we put out while punching. This problem is especially apparent if you have the training to maximize the impact of your strikes. Knuckle areas are durable, but they have limits, and amateurs, in particular, are more likely to hit a punching bag wrong. Too many wrong strikes add up quickly.
Gloves help solve this problem by increasing the area of a strike, thereby dispersing the force across a wider area. You’re still hitting the bag with the same power, but instead of taking the brunt of the impact on two knuckles, the glove spreads it out over a whole hand.
This setup significantly reduces the force on any one part of your hand, keeping it under a safe threshold. You can still hurt yourself by punching at a poor angle, but protecting your hand goes a long way toward mitigating the risks.
1.2. Newton’s Third Law
Can you punch a punching bag without gloves and ever be safe? Probably not, and here’s why.
Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that there is an equal but opposite reaction when one object exerts a force on another. When using a punching bag, this means that the harder you hit the bag, the more impact you suffer yourself. However, if you don’t hit it hard enough, you won’t get any meaningful training out of it.
Fortunately, there are ways to address the laws of physics. When you punch a bag, the reaction force has to go through the padding on your glove before it reaches your body. If you have thicker padding there, it absorbs more of the impact. That’s the mechanism behind a glove’s protective power.
2. Gloves and Wraps
There are two main layers of protection when using a punching bag: gloves and wraps.
Gloves are the more obvious of the two, thanks to their bright coloring and iconic, mitten-like design. Even people who have never used a punching bag before can probably describe a boxing glove in general terms. They’re iconic enough to be the main symbol of the sport.
What’s less obvious is that gloves come in several styles.
2.1. Types of Boxing Gloves
- Bag Gloves: Bag gloves are the standard type of boxing glove. Although not recommended by experts for serious combat training, they can work well for basic practice on punching bags.
- Sparring Gloves: Sparring gloves are relatively large variants of bag gloves, usually somewhat heavier than athletes wear in competition. As discussed above, area significantly affects force, so bigger gloves ultimately reduce the impact and help protect not just the person attacking with them but also the target.
- Competition Gloves: Competition gloves follow strict sporting guidelines. They tend to have less padding, so they’re not as protective as bag gloves or sparring gloves.

2.2. Hand Wraps
The other part of protection for using a punching bag isn’t as evident. Hand wraps look like long strips of cotton gauze and wrap around the body like tape. Used correctly, hand wraps provide extra protection around the knuckles while immobilizing the wrist.
While locking a joint in place may sound bad, it’s outstanding protection in boxing. Here’s why.
When using a punching bag, the proper form indicates that force needs to start from your foot, up through your body, and out through your hand. Every joint it passes through is a potential damage spot if you punch incorrectly, and the weakest of these joints is the wrist.
An incorrect punch could cause you to move your wrist at a strange angle. That puts most of the force of your punch into your body, increasing your risk of injury. Hand wraps immobilize the wrist enough to treat it as part of your arm, which reduces the risk of damage.
There are two main types of hand wraps:
- Quick Wraps: Quick wraps are essentially miniature gloves. They offer more protection to the knuckles but less to the wrists. While easy to put on and take off, quick wraps aren’t nearly as effective, so they’re a poor choice for most people.
- Traditional Wraps: Traditional wraps may look like mummy wrappings, but they get the job done. They take longer to put on than quick wraps but offer significantly better wrist protection. Traditional wraps are ultimately the better choice for most people, with the best options about 180 inches long.
Traditional wraps can add bulk to your hand size, helping them fit in larger gloves better. That is particularly helpful for people with smaller hands. People with large hands may need extra-large gloves or, in a few cases, to custom-order them to size.
Hand wraps are so effective that they’re visible in some of our oldest records in boxing. They predate gloves by a significant margin, but the fact that they’ve gotten used for thousands of years displays how effective they are.
3. Considerations for Buying Gloves
There are three primary considerations when picking boxing gloves.
3.1. Weight
Boxing gloves usually weigh between eight and sixteen ounces, increasing in increments of two ounces. You may occasionally find gloves a little outside this range, but most people don’t need those. Boxing leagues usually have regulations for minimum glove weight in matches.
As a general rule, lighter gloves have less padding and allow more of an athlete’s punch to hit a smaller area. However, they also have less protection around the wrist.
Heavier gloves are safer for the target and the user’s wrist. Their weight can also increase a boxer’s power as a form of strength training, though experts usually alternate between heavier and lighter to avoid changing their form too much.
(As for why this works, it’s essentially the difference between punching someone through a blanket and punching them through a mattress. Someone who can still knock out other people through the thicker padding is far more durable than others, and their blows might be too dangerous without the extra protection.)
Many people do best with a ten or twelve-ounce glove when hitting punching bags. For an especially large or strong person, a fourteen-ounce glove might be more appropriate. Only the lightest boxers should consider going under ten ounces.
Also, remember that glove weight isn’t the same as glove fit. Some gloves have more room inside, and some have less, so never buy based on weight and style alone. Instead, try the gloves out and see how well they fit you when wearing hand wraps. That will help you figure out the ideal fit.
3.2. Thumb Location
Gloves can have different thumb locations. The best gloves allow you to make a fist, or at least get reasonably close to the right shape. A proper fist is far more durable and doesn’t expose your hand the same way.
Cheaper gloves usually force the thumb to stick further out. Aside from preventing proper form and ensuring you can’t throw the best strikes, an exposed thumb is an injury risk. For example, if you end up sliding your hand along the bag from a bad hit, you could strike your thumb and force it out of position.
Some stores only carry gloves with poor thumb locations. That is a real injury risk, though, so it’s better to find stores that carry proper glove designs.

3.3. Glove Style
Finally, gloves have different styles. Even within the same weight category, how they distribute the weight can impact their performance.
Gloves with more weight near the wrists tend to be sturdier and work for people with previous wrist injuries. These tend to be a good choice for people using lighter punching bags.
Gloves with more weight and padding around the knuckles are more protective and absorb hits better. These gloves are better for hitting heavier punching bags because the pads absorb a lot of force that would otherwise travel back into your joints.
The knuckles and the wrist are the two main places for most padding, and therefore weight, in gloves. Heavier gloves can have more padding in both areas.
Ultimately, picking the best glove style depends on factors like your weight, punching power, wrist health, and more. Don’t be afraid to use gloves with different designs for different situations.
If you want to know more, you can read my guide on choosing the best boxing gloves.
4. Glove Theory: Why Some People Hate Them
While the effectiveness of gloves and hand wraps is clear, some people still prefer to avoid wearing protective equipment. There are many reasons for this, but the most common is that some people want to train the way they expect to use their techniques.
In simpler terms, you don’t drive a Volkswagen Beetle if you want to learn how to control a Formula One racecar. Both are ostensibly cars, but they’re so different that skills with one don’t translate well to another.
Resistance to gloves is more common among people who expect to do bare-knuckle brawling and fight outside competitive areas, where protective gear is often mandatory.
However, while throwing a punch without a glove is different than punching with one, the fact that too many strikes without protection hurt your body still applies. If you damage your wrists and knuckles too much by trying to learn how to punch without support, you’re ultimately reducing your effectiveness and undermining your own goal.
In short, it’s always better to wear gloves when practising punching. If you can’t stand wearing them, consider shadow boxing. If you’re not physically striking a target, gloves are unnecessary, so this can be an effective alternative.
5. Final Thoughts
So, can you punch a punching bag without gloves? In the most literal interpretation of this question, yes, that’s a thing most people are physically capable of doing. However, literal answers aren’t the best here.
Realistically, it’s always better to use gloves and hand wraps when training with a punching bag. These stabilize your form, reduce the risk of injuries, and ultimately lead to better performance. There are no good reasons to avoid using gloves.
It’s always best to start using protective gear as early as possible. But if you don’t have high-quality gloves, that’s completely fine! The most important thing is to use protection for your hands. And if you decide to take up boxing seriously, then you can invest in higher-quality gloves.
If you’re unsure how to use gloves to their full effectiveness, then you can read some of my reviews.
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