How to deal with hitting?

My 2 year old has started whaling on me today. He used to hit gently so it was clearly communicating frustration but my god, it was like putting a kangaroo in the car! He broke my glasses from kicking and hitting me so much. Then getting him ready to bath became absolute carnage. He’s clearly communicating frustration about something he doesn’t want to do but .. Jesus it hurts. And it’s every possible transition that’s setting him off so i can’t absorb this many hits at this intensity!

He doesn’t understand when I explain, consequences don’t have an impact because he doesn’t understand, what’s left?!

It’s only me he’s hitting, not dad and dad is he primary parent. He’s GLP and hyperlexic but I think would be lower needs if I had to guess. He’s also switched from every food to no food almost overnight - we think it’s a textures issue. I think he’s seen someone hit in nursery (he started a few weeks ago) and picked it up as a nice tip with how overnight it’s been, or it could just be a nice new development step, joy 😂😭