Hands

September 14th, 2009, by

Take Care of Your Hands

Sometimes the little things slip my mind. One of the things I ALWAYS intend to tell people when they first start is how important hand care is. We use our hands all day, and at the Fort they take a beating. For the brave few who have found that they really like gloves, hand care is a no-brainer. (sissies) But for those of us who chalk profusely and grind our hands against rugged steel knurling, hand care becomes essential in order for us to keep training. Know why? Because it's VERY hard to train with torn callouses. Here are my 3 tips for good hand care:

1. MOISTURIZE - find a good thick hand cream and goop it on before bed
2. LOOFAH - I recommend using a "Feet first buffing pad" on your callouses in the shower every morning (or however frequently you find yourself in the shower)
3. FILE - If you end up with rough spots on your callouses, grab an emery board when your hands are dry, and file them gently

Tears happen because there are rough, raised spots on our hands that catch; it usually happens during pull-ups. You want your callouses to be hard, but they should be flat and smooth, not huge raised masses of hard skin. I know a lot of people glamorize torn hands, but it's nothing to be proud of. A tear is an injury and an opening for infection....not to mention your DNA gets all over our bars.

Category: CrossFit

5 Responses to "Hands"

  • Tommy Mo
    September 15, 2009, 5:34 pm

    I'll weigh in here and Bill can appreciate this. I'm a huge fan of Epsom Salt baths. It started as home therapy for a problematic lower back. While it really helped loosen up the muscular tightening I experienced (that was incredibily painful and yielded me immobile for nearly a week) it also helped with my hands.

    On those days where your hands are sore/sting/tight/etc and I was soaking in the salt, I would submerge my hands in the water and then basically do a wrist-flex on the bottom of the tub. Basically, hand flat and then raise the palm while the fingers stay on the floor of the tub under water.

    Press and hold for about 10-20 seconds per hand and rotate for about 5-10 minutes. The stretching combined with the salt loosening effect helps huge.