Aug 14, 2009 CrossFit WOD
Posted by crossfitproper

“You’ve got a lot of choices.  If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you’re not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.”  - Steven D. Woodhull

WOD

Main site rest day! Come in and do our workout, it will be fun!

We have a free workout class at 11 pm. Bring a friend and give them a taste of CrossFit!

People have been tearing their hands up from pullups lately, if you DONT want to tear you HAVE to take care of your hands at home! I frequently visit other affiliate sites and I found CrossFit One World posted a step by step system for prevention for tearing hands. Here it is.

How To Avoid Tearing Your Hands

Many of you have experienced hand tears during high rep pull-up workouts. Keep in mind that we are doing a lot of heavy Olympic lifting over the next few weeks. The Olympic lifts can tear your hands up pretty good also. Some tips on avoiding the tears (and the tears)….

1) Take care of your calluses! There are a ton of easy ways to do this. Buy a callous shaver (local drug store) or a cuticle cutter, or just hit them with a pumice stone on a daily basis. In the shower when your hands are soft is the best time to use the pumice stone. Want to grind those calluses down quickly? Use a Dremel tool with a high grit sandpaper bit or a grind stone bit. I know it sounds crazy, but it works friggin’ great! Don’t forget to hit ALL the rough spots on your hands, not just the calluses you get on your palms at the base of your fingers. You may get calluses and rough skin build up on the fingers. You will tear there also, so tend to your entire hand.

2) After you  smooth out your calluses, use some Cornhusker’s Lotion on you hands. The stuff works miracles in keeping your hands soft. Of course, if you are using your rough hands as an excuse to get out of giving your significant other a massage becuase you are tired, then pay no attention to any of this information.

3) Avoid excess chalk. If you are doing kipping pull-ups, understand that your hands have to rotate a bit around the bar. If your hands don’t slide around the bar, all that pulling puts the load on the palm at the base of the fingers. If you have any kind of calluos, you are going to tear. You need to slide around the bar. More chalk does not make your grip better. Strengthening your grip makes your grip better! The purpose of chalk is to dry your hands. Pat a shitload of chalk on your hands in the bucket, but before you grab the bar, try to pat as much off as you can. I like to clap and rub my hands together until I don’t see any more chalk. By the way, pat your hands off in the bucket. Don’t be a chalk slob!

4) Avoid a huge kip. As you get stronger, work on not using such a sweeping kipping motion. The more you are kipping, the more your hands want to slide around the bar. Practice dead hang pull-ups when pull-ups come up in the warm-up. This will increase your pull-up strength and help you refine your kipping movement.

So many people ask, “Why don’t you just wear gloves?” The reason is simple and it has nothing to do with being “tough.” Gloves work great in a conventional gym. Gloves protect the palms by putting a thick pad between the palm and whatever you are gripping. Most CrossFit athletes quickly discover that maintaining a good grip during high rep workouts gets very hard when you are sporting a thick pad on your palm. On the other hand, if the gloves don’t effect your grip, I would say go for it!

I rarely tear even without taking great care of my hands. For me, I avoid chalk when I am doing pull-ups. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of heavier barbell and Olympic lifts for reps, so I have made an effort to take better care of my hands. You can CrossFit and still have normal looking hands if you put a little effort into hand care.