Who can identify?
You're on your last set of toe-bars for practice, two reps to go. Suddenly, you feel a strange burning sensation on the palm of your left hand. You drop the bar… And watch your hand in shock…
A tear - right in the middle of your hand.
(Horror music)
You fall to your knees and scream in pain.
Although it might be a bit dramatic, we can all agree that an injury like a tear, tear or blister in the hand can be very annoying. Not only does it hurt and make the shower excruciatingly painful, but it can also keep you from working out for a few days.
Hand care for CrossFit is important, but it's something that isn't necessarily “coached” in gyms, because it's not a movement or a skill.
I am here today to help change that. Going forward, it's time to start valuing your hand care just as much as your mobility/skills work.
Hand Care for CrossFit: Why Your Hands Tear
If you're new to CrossFit, you might not even have calluses yet.
Hold on, and they will come. Calluses are basically thickened or hardened skin that builds up over time on the areas of your hands that you use most often.
Let's walk through a scenario where a callus becomes a problem. For kipping pull-ups, when you jump on the bar and start kipping, the callus can actually get "caught" between the pressure of your body weight and the bar. With enough friction over time, the callus eventually tears.
And as hundreds of thousands of athletes can attest… torn calluses hurt!
In some cases, you may just see blood blisters forming instead of tears - which are also annoying and end up tearing.
How do you take care of your hands for CrossFit?
In order to avoid tearing, I recommend that you proactively shave off your calluses. This will help keep your hands smooth, so there's no pinching, blistering, or tearing of the skin.
CrossFit Hand Care: How to Shave Calluses
Let's go over the best and safest way to shave off your calluses and keep your hands cool.
Hand care Step 1: Soften your hands.
The best time to shave calluses off your hands is right after a shower or bath, when they've recently gotten wet and your skin is still a bit damp. If not, just wash your hands with warm water and soap before you shave.
You will need a callus shaver - if you don't have one, Here's a link to a solid, inexpensive one on Amazon that I recommend .
Hand care Step 2: Callus shaving time
Take the callus razor (it should have a new blade on it) and apply pressure to the top of the callus that needs to be shaved. Maintain pressure with the razor and glide over the entire area you wish to remove.
It shouldn't hurt, you're just removing the top layer of "dead" skin. Repeat several times in different directions until you feel smoother skin underneath. Note : Don't try to get rid of ANY skin, we never want to expose 'raw' skin. Take it one shave at a time, removing a small layer of skin with each pass of the blade. For reference, I will typically do 4-5 passes of the callus razor over each major callus on my palm.
WARNING : You should not attempt to shave calluses that are painful or painful to the touch. Typically, this means there's actually a small blister under the callus that you can't see - and you'll want to leave that alone. Wait to shave your calluses until your hands are no longer sore. I always shave off my calluses the night I've had a full day off. This usually means it's been well over 24 hours since my last workout and the calluses are ready to be removed.
Hand Care Step 3: Repeat
Shave off any calluses you have on both hands until you feel your skin is even and you have removed any rough skin. You might even find that some of your fingers are also calloused. Feel free to shave them too, but be aware that the skin is usually not as thick as the calluses we find on the palms of our hands. Usually I only need to do 1-2 light strokes of the callus razor on my fingers, with much less pressure than needed for my palm calluses.
Hand Care for CrossFit Step 4: Lather Up
Run your fingers over the palms of your hands and check your work. If you feel any random rough spots, go ahead and shave some more. Once you're ready to go, take some lotion and lather your hands. Rub it in until your hands feel nice and soft to the touch again.
Disclaimer: I don't recommend putting on lotion right before you hit the gym...it will make it very difficult to hang onto a barbell or pull-up bar. After my rest day ritual, I usually shave off my calluses and apply the lotion right before I go to bed on Thursday night (again, after more than 24 hours without training).
Hand Care for CrossFit: Servicing Tears
Already have a tear? It happens... and it doesn't have to be the end of the world.
As we mentioned earlier… The worst part about heartbreak is showering and/or washing your hands afterwards. Yeah.
Something I recommend to help with tears is putting some Vaseline on it before you get in the shower. This helps waterproof the area and it won't sting as much.
A secondary option would be to wear rubber gloves in the shower. Granted, I've never tried this one 🙂
There are a number of CrossFit hand care kits that claim to help heal rips and tears, but I can't say I've tried any of them either.
If you already have a tear on your hand, there is something you should do:
- Take a break. It does not mean resting completely. It just means not using your hands for anything that tears them apart. A few days off the pull-up bar and your hands should be healed.
- Keep them clean. When you have a tear, you have an exposed wound that will be exposed to all sorts of nasty things. Be sure to wash your hands regularly and use topical antibiotic ointment to prevent infection.
- Keep them hydrated. In Colorado where I live, I tend to have very dry hands. When my hands get dry, especially with tearing, the skin will tend to crack and tear again. With a nightly application of hand lotion, it seems to prevent dryness and cracking.
If your hand(s) got torn and you really want to continue training normally, here's what I recommend:
WOD & Done : This is a grip that I use whenever I have a tear that I want to try and protect so I can keep training. It's a piece of elastic tape designed for single use - with three holes for your fingers to fit through. The tape then rests on your hand and will protect any tears or blisters you may already have.
Please understand that I usually take a break from heavy manual movement once I get ripped, but in a pinch (or in a competition) I will use WOD & Done to train through existing blisters.
CrossFit Hand Care Tips: Switch Up Your Grip
If you find that your hands tear often, another thing to consider is changing the way you grip the bar.
If you grab the bar high - with your hands curled over the top in a "suicide grip" - that means the main part of your hand that the bar passes over is the palm of your hand (which is the most stretched area). tears and blisters easily).
Try adjusting your grip a little lower so that your fingers wrap around the top of the bar, and the main gripping area is the pads just below your fingers. This will help change where the friction is on your hand and possibly lead to less tearing.
CrossFit Grips
Disclaimer: I am not paid or sponsored by any of these brands, these are just personal recommendations based on my own experience testing them. To be transparent, I'm not a frequent user of grips and actually MUCH prefer bare hands.
- Victory Grips : These grips are designed in a way that allows athletes to grip the bar differently. That's because the handle bends and wraps around the bar - locking you into the bar. This takes a ton of pressure off your forearms, allowing you to hang on to the bar longer.
- WOD Nation: This grip is slightly more affordable and sits on your hand a little differently than Victory Grips. It goes through the middle of your hand and has two finger holes. Often I don't even put my fingers in the holes. Instead, I simply wrap the handle over the bar.
How can I toughen up my hands for CrossFit?
I get a lot of CrossFit newbies coming to me complaining about the pain in their hands.
Listen... it's normal! Your hands will harden over time. As you continue to practice CrossFit, you'll notice your hands changing and you'll likely see fewer rips and tears. The key is consistency – and of course, make sure you take the time to take care of your hands by getting rid of those pesky calluses.
Parting Words on Hand Care for CrossFit
While this mindset may not align with common CrossFit culture… Tears are NOT a badge of honor.
If you walk around the gym showing off your tears and bragging about them to your friends, cut it! Tearing your hands is a setback, not something to be proud of. It can get you out of the gym for a few days or even weeks at a time. This will only cause you to miss workouts and prevent you from achieving your goals. The less rips you get, the better, I promise.
If you are tearing up...follow the steps I recommend above, do what you can to help it heal, and please...don't post pictures of your bloody hands on social media social.