Anyone can ask me how much I love Crossfit and like 99.99% of Crossfitters I’m blissfully obsessed! That doesn’t mean that since I started Crossfit that I haven’t been caught in the gym cussing up a storm questioning why I started this brand of torture in the first place…
But that only happens for two reasons: falling on box jumps and when I tear my hands. I fixed the box jump issue with some sweet Rigor Gear guards so lets talk about hand tears.
Nothing sucks more than hauling butt through toes to bar, pull ups or cleans and having to stop and utter some obscenities because your hand is missing skin and bleeding.
After looking around the web I have found some tips for preventing and treating hand tears.
First of all your hands rip for one of two reasons:
1. You’re a softy and your hands haven’t had time to thicken up
2. You haven’t treated your hands to the right kind of loving.
Prevention
Contain your callouses, keep those hands sanded down and smooth. Use a nail file, corn shaver, cuticle scissors, or a pumice stone to keep those bad boys in check. I have even read about people using dremel tools… If that’s true or not I don’t know.
To quote the Crossfit Journal, “Ideally, your entire palm surface should be one thick callus with no bumps or ridges in any one particular area. In order to do this, groom your hands always after a hot shower or bath (this allows the calluses to swell up). While the calluses are still “swollen,” I take a double-edged razor and very carefully shave the dead callus bumps down a little at a time until the bumps are about even with the thickness of the rest of the hand. With my younger students, I simply ask them to get a callus stone (you can buy one at any drug store), and gently sand the callus down even with the rest of the skin. Remember, whenever you groom or shave your calluses, don’t overdo it, since you don’t want to go too deep into your skin. Always leave enough thick skin so to facilitate your workout the following day. The goal is to maintain an even and consistent thickness of hard skin throughout the entire palm.”
Keep your hands well moisturized with a good lotion when you aren’t busy wodding!
Use tape, gloves or Second Skin to protect your hands!
You can also use chalk to help protect your hands during workouts, but there is a thing as too much chalk which can lead to even more tears.
Another thing you may want to look at is your grip! Having improper grip can add to tears on your hands. Fit Bomb has a great article on this! Clicky.
Treatment
Soak your hands in salt water or in the tub with Epson salt to dry out the skin and help with the healing process.
Some people trim the torn skin, but most say leave it attached for faster healing, it is up to you.
Use Neosporin or any other kind of antibacterial medication to clean the affected area. Some people use alternative aids like vitamin e, tea bags, and Dermabond skin sealant - but I haven’t tried those methods.
Cover the affected area, I use Band-Aid Tough Strips, I love the H shaped bandaids! They are perfect for this purpose!
Aquaphor or a thick lotion will assist the skin in recovering and speed up the replacement of new healthy skin!
So take care of those hands, remember lots of scrubbing and lotion to keep those pains away!
Todays WOD:
This girl is SORE. No joke.
The Hubby offered to cook dinner while I soaked in the tub! {WIN}
Nighty!
Questions:
How do you protect your hands?
Do you believe in gloves or no?
Eat clean, train mean, and inspire others!
-Jaren
Sources: Diamond Bar Crossfit, Crossfit New England, Examiner, and Crossfit San Jose.
