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Building Callouses


Guest Odhibjorn

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Guest Odhibjorn

Does anyone have any specific techniques or ideas for building callouses on your hands and fingers besides gripper work and the handles of barbells and dumbells? After a while using my CoC trainer I started to get skin peeling from my right hand (I'm left handed) and naturally my left hand has more callouses than my right. I'd like to even things out a bit so I don't end up having to take breaks from training for my skin to toughen back up. Does draining blisters help or is it best to just leave them be?

Thanks lads :)

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Callouses are bad for the most part. They just lead to skin tearing and sore skin under them. You want tough but flexible skin. So work your hands hard but file down any callouses and keep your hands moistured when no training.

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Guest Odhibjorn

I do work out in the gym away from grip training, ewokhugo. Today is my off week before I start Max-OT... I was just wondering if there was any way to toughen up the skin on your hands besides the regular result of barbell and dumbell lifting.

Thanks for the tips Incindium, I'll take your word for it.

So what about blisters, leave them or drain them with a sterilized needle?

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Back in the age of steam when I did manual work for a living I always popped them. I found they healed up a lot quicker than leaving them. You just have to be careful as the new skin is very tender.

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a quote from David Horne's website

For skin care, use a cream that will be absorbed into the skin. E45 is a very good dermatological cream for dry skin. It is essential to keep the skin on your hands supple and stretchy. Sudocrem is a good antiseptic healing cream, useful in cases of skin loss. Hands that are supple and porous are especially good for grip training and particularly pinch lifting: despite appearances, rough ‘gauntlet’ hands are a disaster waiting to happen; they do not allow the same contact with the weights or allow for any movement in the skin.

the link,

http://www.davidhorne-gripmaster.com/article8.html

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If the blister pops clip the dead skin off as close as you can around the edges, then soak your hand in salt water. It hurts really bad. Do this 3 times a day for 3 days and it's better than a weeks worth of regular skin repair. Very important to keep the new callous from drying out and cracking in the middle. I cut a little piece of athletic tape (must be porous so it can breathe) to the size of the tear and cover it up to protect it. Work the tape into the skin really smooth and it will stay on for a day or more, replace it if it gets really dirty but keeping it on will keep the new skin moist. Make sure to file down thick callous with sandpaper or pumice stone. Thick callous is bad cause of the tearing possability. Use lotion (I like hoofmaker or cornhuskers) to keep the skin flexible. Eat lots of fish oil and lots of water to keep the skin hydrated from the inside out (that's climbers advice-really good idea!).

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Guest Odhibjorn

Great advice, thanks a million Ox. I do use fishoils as part of my daily morning supplements along with other herbs, multimineral and multivitamins. This evening for my pinch grips at the gym, I just put on some band aids then used some athletic tape wrapped around my fingers with the torn / peeled skin and didn't feel a thing.

Edited by Odhibjorn
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From Row2k.com:

http://row2k.com/columns/index.cfm?action=read&ID=152

My daughter is a rower at UGA this agrees completely with what she does to treat blisters and toughen the hands.

excerpt:

"Hello: I just read your article on blisters. I was a gymnast before I was a cox (about 11 years, and I miss it --rowing that is). I work in Surgery as a nurse and I have picked the brains of burn specialists and hand surgeons about this subject because it is a big deal in the sport of rowing. For help in callus formation and open blister protection/skin drying: Wet Tea bags..."

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