Professional boxing can be a brutal sport and, while professionals don’t usually wear head guards, it’s imperative they have the right safety equipment to prevent serious injuries. Even if you’re a beginner boxer, or you’ve been boxing for years but without the intention of becoming professional, injuries are still possible in most parts of the body, but especially the hands. That’s why it’s crucial that anyone who takes part in boxing or boxing fitness activities has the right size boxing gloves for them.
Buying boxing gloves online means you can’t try them on first, so you need to know what size boxing gloves are right for you. But knowing what size boxing gloves to buy isn’t just about your weight category – you’ve also got to consider what type of training you’re doing in them and how big your hands are.
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We’ll help you understand why the right boxing gloves are crucial for your training, and how to know what glove size you need.
Why Do You Need Boxing Gloves?
Whether you’re hitting a punching bag or focus pads, a person’s face or body, there can be a huge amount of power in your punches that creates a shockwave through your hand and arm. Anyone who’s ever punched anything without boxing gloves will know how painful this can be. We strongly advise against ever punching without boxing gloves – focus pads may be cushioned, but they don’t provide the support that boxing gloves do.
By wearing boxing gloves when you strike, the additional cushion over your fists absorbs some of the shock, massively reducing the risk of injury to your hands, wrists, arms and even your neck. Boxing gloves have a velcro wrap around your wrists to further support them when you punch to prevent twisting, sprains and strains and keep you safe.
When you punch with the proper technique, your power is generated in your lower body and moves up from your rear foot into your leading hand, so even if you think you’re not a particularly strong person or don’t have huge biceps, you can still have a powerful punch and require boxing gloves. Punching with the incorrect technique can increase your risk of injury further as you may be twisted in an awkward position or make contact with the incorrect part of your hand which can be very painful. If you’re starting out, you should learn the right punching technique before maximising your power to reduce the risk of injury and improve your performance.
The Importance of the Right Size Boxing Gloves
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Wearing boxing gloves is essential for your safety, but you can’t use any old pair – you need the right size for you. They’re designed to protect your wrists, thumb and knuckles, so if the boxing gloves are too big and your hand is moving within the glove, you can still get injured as your hand isn’t properly protected from the shock of the punch. Likewise, if the boxing gloves are too small, your movement can be restricted and the bones and muscles of your hand may move unnaturally as well as take the brunt of the punch, increasing your risk of injury.
Boxing gloves are also different from MMA gloves, so you should only use the right gloves for the right sport. MMA gloves are smaller and fingerless to allow for certain grappling moves, but this isn’t a sufficient level of protection for boxing punches.
Understanding Boxing Glove Sizes
Now that we’ve established the importance of wearing boxing gloves, it’s imperative to get the right gloves for each part of your boxing training. When you’re hitting a punching bag, you need larger boxing gloves with more padding to protect your hands as you hit the bag. Unlike striking a real opponent, the punching bag won’t be affected by the might of your punch – but your hand will. So, to keep training safely, you’ll need larger cushioned gloves for bag work.
Similarly, when you’re sparring, you don’t actually want to hurt your training partner, so you’ll need even larger gloves to protect them as well as yourself from your punches. If you participate in boxing fitness classes such as Boxercise or Boxfit, you’ll only need boxing gloves to strike punching bags and sometimes focus pads, so one type of large, cushioned boxing gloves is sufficient for your fitness training. For beginners, the same principles apply. However, if you’re just training with punching bags or sparring to get fit, a larger, more cushioned glove is ideal.
When you go to invest in a pair of boxing gloves, the first consideration is your weight.
Here are the required boxing gloves for each approximate weight category:
- Under 45 kg need 6 – 8 oz gloves
- 46 – 68 kg need 10 – 12 oz gloves
- 69 – 80 kg need 14 oz gloves
- Over 80 kg need 16 – 18 oz gloves
This is general advice, as you also need to factor in your hand size; if you have particularly large hands, you may need a larger glove size and smaller hands will require a smaller glove size. Moreover, a heavier glove doesn’t make you punch harder, it’s about protecting your hands from injury.
What Boxing Gloves Do Professional Boxers Use?
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Unlike in sparring, in professional boxing matches, the boxer does want to affect their opponent with their punches, so professional boxing gloves are smaller than sparring and punching bag gloves. Typically, a professional boxer under 66 kg will use 8 oz gloves, while a pro over 91 kg will use 10 oz extra large gloves. In training, however, professional boxers will also need to protect their hands from their own force, which is why Mike Tyson – famous for his hefty punch – would wear 18 oz gloves.
What Size Boxing Gloves Should You Get?
As boxing gloves are mostly about weight, they can be used by both men and women of the right weight category, although some companies offer slightly smaller or narrower boxing gloves for women. If you think a boxing glove based on your weight may be the wrong size for your hand, you can also measure the circumference of your hand to determine more accurately what size boxing gloves to get.
Simply take a flexible tape measure around your whole hand between your knuckle and your thumb knuckles, across your palm to find out your hand circumference.
Typically, the right weight of boxing gloves for hand circumference in inches is:
- 6 – 8 oz gloves for 5.5 – 6.5”
- 10 – 12 oz gloves for 6.5 – 7.5”
- 14 oz gloves for 7.5 – 8.5”
- 16 – 18 oz gloves for 8.5 – 9.5″
The Importance of Hand Wraps
The right size boxing gloves are essential for your safety, but to protect your hands even more, you should also use hand wraps. Hand wraps are a long strip of material used to wrap around boxers’ hands that look a bit like bandages. They’re wrapped relatively tightly around the palm on both sides of the thumb and around the fingers, worn inside the boxing gloves to further protect your hands from damage.
Hands have the highest concentration of small bones in the whole body, so hand wraps are used to support the bones and the surrounding tissue, muscles and ligament to prevent any awkward movements within the glove, keeping your hands safe from harm. Whether you’re sparring, hitting a punching bag or in the ring with an opponent, it’s crucial you wrap your hands well to prevent injury.
Get Your Boxing Gloves Today – Maxx Pro Boxing
For professional and beginner boxers alike, buying high-quality, durable and affordable boxing gloves is essential for your performance as well as your safety in boxing training. Get your boxing gloves and hand wraps from the top supplier of boxing equipment across the UK – Maxx Pro Boxing!
Source: https://t-tees.com
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