How To Wrap Hands for Muay Thai?

You may be wondering how to wrap hands for Muay Thai? It is crucially important that fights know how to wrap their hands for Muay Thai. Wrapping your hands for Muay Thai in the correct manner will save you severe injury. If one’s hands are wrapped correctly then it will save you from breaking your hands.

Why wear hand wraps in Muay Thai?

It is a vital element to know how to wrap your hands for putting in work on the heavy bag, pads, sparring, or fighting. Whether a person is doing Muay Thai, MMA, Boxing, or Kickboxing, it is crucial to wrap your hands. Any time your fist is colliding with something else you run the risk of breaking your hands. If hand wraps are worn correctly it will prevent the knuckles, hands, and wrists from fractures.

Do not begin hitting a heavy bag bare-knuckle or with gloves alone. Gloves alone are not enough protection to prevent breaks. Wraps are a very cost-wise solution to prevent fractures. A ball of hand wrap does not cost very much are vitally important. Wraps are a lot cheaper than a broken hand. This advice will work with any combat sport such as MMA, boxing, Kickboxing, or Muay Thai.

In this guide, we have consulted with the experts of Muay Thai to better explain how to properly wrap one’s hands. If you’ve come to learn how to wrap hands for Muay Thai, then read on as you are in the right place. Let’s learn how to wrap hands for Muay Thai.

How To Wrap Hands for Muay Thai

Basic How To Wrap Hands for Muay Thai technique with Penek Sitnumnoi

Penek Sitnumnoi is Muay Thai all-star. This Thai-born striker was able to collect impressive titles in Lumpinee Stadium, Channel 7 Stadium, Onmoi Stadium, among others. Penek was able to remain unbeaten through ten fights in 2011 thus earning him the honor of Fighter of the Year from the Sports Writers Association of Thailand.

Penek offers a basic on how to wrap hands for Muay Thai using a standard cotton roll of hand wraps.

Start by putting your thumb through the loop. Wrap around the wrist with four layers. Follow this up with a wrap around the thumb, the angle should be starting at the wrist and going upwards towards the fingers around the thumb. After wrapping around the thumb you should be back at the wrist now.

Wrap around your wrist then across the top of your hand and under knuckles. You should now be on the underside of your hand at the index finger knuckle. From here, begin wrapping around the knuckles. Continue wrapping for three layers. Go across the back of your hand and wrist.

Bring the wrap across the back of your hand and loop through your finger knuckles starting between the pinky and ring finger. Wrap around the top of your hand and under the wrist. Wrap the finger knuckles between middle and ring finger and wrap across hand and wrist again. Then bring up and wrap in between the knuckles of your index and middle finger. Bring across the top of the hand and under your wrist again. Finish by wrapping the wrist with several layers until out of the wrapping.

It may be easier to follow Penek with a video guide. See below for ‘MUAY THAI: How To Wrap Your Hands.’

How to wrap hands for Muay Thai, boxing, or kickboxing from Kru Vivek Nakarmi

The head instructor at Pentagon MMA Kru Vivek Nakarmi offers a highly popular video on how to wrap hands for Muay Thai or any technique taught in Boxing, MMA and kickboxing. Kru Vivek calls this the closed palm style of wrapping. He begins with a roll of hand wraps, not gauze.

Put the hand wrap loop around the thumb to start. Bring it across the wrist starting on the top side. Wrap around the wrist three times. Then go over the thumb once, this starts on the underside of the wrist and is brought over the top-side of the thumb. Once around the wrist on the top side, and add one more loop around the wrist.

Next, starting at the underside of your wrist on the thumb side, bring hand wraps up and across the back of the hand and bring across the underside of your knuckles. Then, wrap around your knuckles three times. Bring it across the back of your hand around the wrist.

You should now be on the underside of your wrist just below the thumb. Bring the wrap across the back of your hand and in between your pinky and ring finger, in between the knuckles. Bring straight down across the palm towards the wrist. Repeat for going in between each finger.

Once the fingers are wrapped, wrap around the wrist once and bring it across the back of your hand. Bring the wrap under your hand on the palm side of the knuckles. Follow this up with wrapping around the knuckles. This should loop two to three times depending on the wrap’s length and hand size. Finish around the wrist.

It may be easier to follow a visual guide. See below for Kru Vivek Nakarmi’s ‘How to Wrap your Hands for Muay Thai, Boxing, or Kickboxing – Closed Palm Style.’

Wrap hands for Muay Thai from Superbon using gauze

Superbon Singha Mawynn is one of the most notable Thai fighters in kickboxing. He trains alongside the legendary Trainer Gae. The Thai-born kickboxer has notable wins over fighters such as GLORY, Kunlun, and K-1 Champion Marat Grigorian, all-time great Giorgio Petrosyan, and former GLORY Kickboxing Champion Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong. The former ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Champion offers a guide on how to properly wrap a fighter’s hands.

According to Superbon, this is the way to wrap hands for Muay Thai, or kickboxing, like a professional fighter. Superbon stars with hand wrap gauze which is a soft white material. He explains that it will prevent breaking in three areas these being the knuckles, hand, and wrist. He also warns viewers not to wrap too tightly as it may cut off natural blood flow to the hand. Additionally, he says with his technique it would be best to work with another partner.

Wrap the fabric thickly around one’s fingers to create a bundle. Fold the thick bundle in half. Hold it with your thumb and wrap it across your knuckles. Using a ball of gauze continue wrapping around your knuckles. After several layers, pull the gauze down around your hand then begin wrapping the wrist. Wrap multiple layers around the wrist, he suggests 10. Then loop it around the thumb and then across the back of the hand, repeat.

Next, wrap-around the index finger, in between the knuckles, then loop around the back of the hand before moving to the next finger. Repeat this process for each finger.

Once the fingers are wrapped, continue wrapping around the knuckle and wrist until the gauze is nearly gone. The land few inches of the wrap get tucked and pulled tightly under the wrapping on the palm of the hand.

A video guide is likely easier to follow along with. Consult with Superbon’s video guide below on ‘How to wrap your hand like a professional fighter.’

While Superbon recommends using gauze for this, it should work with a standard cotton roll of hand wraps. Kru Marn with Brad Newton shows a similar technique with standard wraps. See the video ‘How to Wrap Hands for MUAY THAI (Thai Style)’ here.

3 different options in material to wrap hands for Muay Thai

Whether punching in MMA, boxing, Muay Thai, or Kickboxing, there are three standard wraps that one can consider. There is gauze, as we Superbon use above, cloth wraps, and elastic bandage wraps. Which is the best material to wrap hands for Muay Thai?

Cloth wraps are the gold standard and are always recommended. They are cost-efficient and reusable while also offering tons of protection. Cloth wraps should be available through any sports store for purchase. These wraps should not break the bank.

Gauze is used at the highest levels and offers a paramount level of protection. They are light and inexpensive. Typically, a fighter needs a second person to help. But these are not reusable.

Elastic bandage wraps are very similar to standard cloth wraps. They are reusable as well. An advantage of these is that due to their stretchiness, they will not become loose during a workout.

There are more accessories that someone should use when hitting the heavy bag or pads. However, start with a standard set of cloth wraps and add boxing gloves on top. Which is the best material to wrap hands for Muay Thai? Any of them will work as intended but please use wraps.

After you’re comfortable with standard wraps and boxing gloves there are other accessories one can consider in addition to the wrap hands for Muay Thai. There are bag gloves which specifically designed for protection when hitting the heavy bag. Additionally one can look at compression wraps, Knuckle Guards, Shock Guards, fast-wrap gloves, and even hand wrap rolling helpers. But again, start with standard hand wraps and boxing gloves and then later figure out what is most comfortable for you.

Knuckle protection is paramount when it comes to combat sports. Whether one is striking in MMA, Muay Thai, Boxing, or Kickboxing, knuckle protection is not optional. Wrap your hands the correct way, and add a glove on top, the prevent breaks and fractures. A fracture in one’s hands will offer a lifetime of pain that is easily preventable. One must utilize wraps and learn how to wrap hands for Muay Thai.