Elbow and Knee Fractures?
- Thread starter arnisador
- Start date
Hmmm. Interesting question. The hand is a collection of small joints, with correspondingly small bones. The elbow and knee are large joints, with only a few large bones.
Punching the face presents many risks. One is the obvious hardness of the skull. Another problem that may not be quite as obvious is the amount of curved structures in the face. Arched structures are usually quite strong. I think when most people think of broken hands from face punches, they think of the classic 'boxer's fracture', where the bones of the pinky (5th metacarpal) are broken. If you look at the metacarpals, as you move from the 1st to the 5th metacarpal, the heads of the joints curve more and more inward. People who do not know how to punch correctly often use this side of the fist to make contact, and the already curved joints snap.
The elbow is the joint formed by the ulna, radius, and humerus. When you strike with an elbow, you should be hitting with the end of the ulna. Since it is a much larger bone than the fingers and metacarpals, it would stand up better to a face strike.
The knee joint is comprised of the femur, tibia, and patella. When the joint is bent, the patella is pressed into the joint snugly, and you probably end up striking with the reinforced patella or the end of the femur. Either way, much stronger bones than the small bones of the fingers and hands.
Then again, I'm not a doctor, physical therapist, etc...I could be completely wrong.
Cthulhu
Punching the face presents many risks. One is the obvious hardness of the skull. Another problem that may not be quite as obvious is the amount of curved structures in the face. Arched structures are usually quite strong. I think when most people think of broken hands from face punches, they think of the classic 'boxer's fracture', where the bones of the pinky (5th metacarpal) are broken. If you look at the metacarpals, as you move from the 1st to the 5th metacarpal, the heads of the joints curve more and more inward. People who do not know how to punch correctly often use this side of the fist to make contact, and the already curved joints snap.
The elbow is the joint formed by the ulna, radius, and humerus. When you strike with an elbow, you should be hitting with the end of the ulna. Since it is a much larger bone than the fingers and metacarpals, it would stand up better to a face strike.
The knee joint is comprised of the femur, tibia, and patella. When the joint is bent, the patella is pressed into the joint snugly, and you probably end up striking with the reinforced patella or the end of the femur. Either way, much stronger bones than the small bones of the fingers and hands.
Then again, I'm not a doctor, physical therapist, etc...I could be completely wrong.
Cthulhu
I posted an answer on the original thread.
