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Skin Tears - Two Hands Pinch


Paul Savage

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I have rarely trained two hand pinch or narrow pinching, i prefer wide plate pinching as i find it to have good carry over to other things. Now i am training for euro pinch in contest and the webbing of my thumbs tears every session. I have been attempting to condition / harden the skin up so it eventually does not tear. To those more experienced, is this a worthwhile method? The last time i did euro pinch in contest my skin tore every session without gloves, then tore badly 20+kg off my max at the contest (sharp setup).

I will be using the same setup. What do i do?

Edit - pinching 'through the palm' does not work for me, i dont think my hands have the right shape for it.

Edited by Paul Savage
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Try applying pawpaw cream to your hands before going to bed, every day. Also make sure you consume plenty of 'good' fat (unheated olive oil, salmon, walnuts etc).

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Try applying pawpaw cream to your hands before going to bed, every day. Also make sure you consume plenty of 'good' fat (unheated olive oil, salmon, walnuts etc).

Wouldnt the cream make the skin soft though?
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Yes it will and that in itself will reduce tears. Harden the skin will make it worse and reduce friction. Tears are typically initiated by slipping and adding friction (by maintain soft skin) will reduce slippage.

I pay a lot more attention to my skin these days and rarely tear the thumb web.

Edited by Mikael Siversson
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Yes it will and that in itself will reduce tears. Harden the skin will make it worse and reduce friction. Tears are typically initiated by slipping and adding friction (by maintain soft skin) will reduce slippage.

I pay a lot more attention to my skin these days and rarely tear the thumb web.

Always thought of this as the other way around as why does the skin naturally harden with manual labour etc hopefully you are 100% correct, will try it - thanks.
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I am by no means anyone you should listen to for pinching advice. But I have the same exact problem. The crease between the webbing and the thumb is just so frail that it rips every session. It starts ripping 3-4 lifts into the session. I have tried different widths they still rip. Now I'm gripping it a bit further down my thumb and I can lift 30-40 in a session without them ripping. Sure I lose a 2-5kg by grabbing it further down. But at least I can train and make progress! I thought about filing my 2HP down to make the edges completely round. But I figured that if the plates are sharp in a contest, what good will it do me when I've deceitfully been training on round plates and have my thumbs rip in a contest with sharp plates? My solution is to lift with a grip that wont rip my thumbs regardless if the plates are sharp or not.

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Could you have your warm up sets be done 'bare' and then add some athletic tape on the apparatus for your WORK sets? You'd be warming up with progressively heavier weights with the sharper edge and then be putting some tape on the Pinch when you hit the work sets. Just a thought from someone who doesn't know much.

Edited by James Fuller
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I am by no means anyone you should listen to for pinching advice. But I have the same exact problem. The crease between the webbing and the thumb is just so frail that it rips every session. It starts ripping 3-4 lifts into the session. I have tried different widths they still rip. Now I'm gripping it a bit further down my thumb and I can lift 30-40 in a session without them ripping. Sure I lose a 2-5kg by grabbing it further down. But at least I can train and make progress! I thought about filing my 2HP down to make the edges completely round. But I figured that if the plates are sharp in a contest, what good will it do me when I've deceitfully been training on round plates and have my thumbs rip in a contest with sharp plates? My solution is to lift with a grip that wont rip my thumbs regardless if the plates are sharp or not.

Use moisturiser? haha I thought about doing this but last time i did wsh comp i took a 6kg jump on the thickbar lift instead of the plan'd 5kg jump, missed the lift on height by a very small margin, and this cost me a podium finish. I could have went 3kg lighter and still would have got 3rd. Am saying this as i don't want to miss any kilos.
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Could you have your warm up sets be done 'bare' and then add some athletic tape on the apparatus for your WORK sets? You'd be warming up with progressively heavier weights with the sharper edge and then be putting some tape on the Pinch when you hit the work sets. Just a thought from someone who doesn't know much.

Well i don't know if the tape wouldnt just tear with sharp plates but you can use gloves to protect the skin, it's just in competition you can't use anything so you need to find some way to train it how you will do the event in competition.
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It is allowed within the rules to smooth over the edges - how much has never been "defined"- but I don't feel you should ever be "cut" on a Euro setup. Perhaps "torn" as the skin gets stretched but never actually cut because of a sharp edge. NO ONE should ever be "cut" on a Euro. Jedd and I have both written on the subject - maybe look at those and see if there are any technique hints you might be able to incorporate into the process?

My advice, for what it is worth, is simple - Round the edges over!

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It is allowed within the rules to smooth over the edges - how much has never been "defined"- but I don't feel you should ever be "cut" on a Euro setup. Perhaps "torn" as the skin gets stretched but never actually cut because of a sharp edge. NO ONE should ever be "cut" on a Euro. Jedd and I have both written on the subject - maybe look at those and see if there are any technique hints you might be able to incorporate into the process?

My advice, for what it is worth, is simple - Round the edges over!

This is first time today i have actually been cut recently but pretty badly torn each time. Only issue with rounding the edges is davids setup is very sharp so i will no doubt get cut to bits on the day if i am used to a blunt setup.
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Try applying pawpaw cream to your hands before going to bed, every day. Also make sure you consume plenty of 'good' fat (unheated olive oil, salmon, walnuts etc).

IMO best advice hands down. Heal from the inside out. This method works wonders for bending and not filleting your index fingers.

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Definitely round the edges over as Chris has mentioned. It may be a form thing (I've learned a few good tips (or possible forgot them after talking to Aaron, and Jedd reminded me in his DVD)). Anyways, I would also look at maybe going with a narrower width.

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I changed my grip to where the sharp edge rests more on my thumb than my webbing. It was a small change that helped a lot with webbing tears. Good luck man.

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Ok thanks guys will try stuff out.

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