51118// Hand Care, Callouses, Rips, Tears
Friday Night we are hosting the fighter weigh-ins for the Cage Fight MMA fundraiser for the high school. I have no idea what to expect. What is certainly going to happen though is that there is going to be a lot of people at and around the gym who I don't know. Please take a moment to make sure you don't have any valuables in your cubby or laying around the gym. I will be there keeping my hawk eye on equipment and making sure people aren't getting into things they shouldn't be, but I have no idea what kinds of people will show up!
Heavy Day//
Deadlift 5-5-5-5-5
We Just did Cindy yesterday and it's likely that you did 50+ Pull-ups. I'm only guessing, but about 4 of you drew blood, 10 of you revealed some fresh skin under a tiny flap, 20 of you took an extra second before jumping back up on the bar to check on your hands, and none of you would be excited to see another bar hanging movement on the board today.
"I tore, what do I do about this?"//
1. Clean the wound with soap and water and disinfect any equipment you've touched. You can use "new-skin" or another liquid bandage after you clean it. It will sting like a mother... for a second, there is usually also an analgesic in liquid bandages and the stinging quickly goes away. I would recommend only using new-skin once.
2. Obviously keep the wounds covered when necessary, like if you work with your hands or need to touch people. But whenever you can, leave it uncovered. In my experience the moisture that is locked in by something covering it up prolongs the healing process. Do not cover it while you sleep.
3. I would defer to our nurses on this one, but I personally don't like to do anything that might prolong the healing of the exposed skin. I like to keep it clean simply by not touching stuff. Slathering it with ointment or cleaning it with hydrogen peroxide just doesn't seem to help it heal any faster.
4. Once the exposed fresh skin appears to have a thin healed layer on it, sometimes even as fast as the next day, then you can start using lotion or vitamin E. But certainly wait until it's no longer oozing hand juices.
5. As you're healing up, you might be left with a skin crater where a callous used to be. That ridge that is left is a prime spot to re-tear before everything evens out again. You should be doing something to eliminate that ridge or crater like using a file, sand paper, WOD rod (pictured below), nail clippers etc. Anything to eliminate that abrupt edge is important.
One thing I'll hear people (usually newer athletes) say is, "I just need to build up my callouses." Like this is Golf or something. Or somehow callouses are magic skin armadillos for your hands. Callous-bad. Callouses are Satan's dirty trick to make CrossFitters miss their favorite workouts. As a callous builds outward and becomes thick and brittle it grabs the bar or rings harder and harder. You'll create a situation where your hand is moving about the bar, but that callous is staying in place. Thick brittle callouses become deep and painful tears.
