Bad hands, ripped calluses, fire hands, hang clean hands, blood blisters – the names could go on… But no matter what you call them chances are, if you’ve been lifting, you’ve had your fair share of the blighters. We’ve made a quick guide to help you clear up your calluses and reduce the pain, please see below:
The key is prevention, if you can keep your hands from splitting open in the first place then you’re going to be saving yourself a lot of pain down the line.
Here’s a few of our top tips in order to prevent calluses:
- Shave them with a razor. Keeping them down will stop your skin being trapped in the bar.
- Use pulling straps where possible. For exercises like high pulls, dead pulls and hang Snatch we’d highly recommend you purchase yourself a pair – they can be found on amazon for as little as £2.50! HOWEVER do not use straps on hang cleans, power cleans or full cleans enough examples of wrists breaking when the lift goes wrong can be found on YouTube.
- Use the hook grip – for details on how to do it please read our first issue here: www.liftingtimes.co.uk/archives (and you may as well subscribe while you’re there!).
- Use plenty of chalk.
For treating calluses & open cuts:
- Clean (not that type of clean but sanitize) them where possible with either sanitizing wipes or running the wound under cold clean water. This is also for your club members safety.
- Tape, tape and more tape. Wrap your calluses to reduce the pain – be warned however it will hurt when you come to take off the tape! We’d then suggest to soak your hand with the tape in warm water for at least 5 minutes.
- Use pulling straps on Snatch while they heal… but never Cleans.
If all else fails you can always try to man up or woman up!
