Hi, My Name Is Milkbone ...

[milkbone]

and I'm a bend-aholic.

I just have to say, I love this site, but it's starting to become harmful to my health. I must take a break from bending. My left hand is killing me (between my thumb and index finger). I told my girlfriend she had to take my bucket of steel stock and lock it in her car so I couldn't get to it. On to my question ...

When you guys are treating hand soreness, do you ice, heat, or both? Also, how long do you take off when your hands hurt enough to hinder your bending abilities? I keep trying to come back after a few days when my hand stops hurting but the pain comes back quickly with each bending session. I must also say that I'm new to bending so I'm constantly trying to bend the next highest material. I'm working on a hard 60d now. I can bend the Home Depot 60d spiral nails very easily. I've also done zinc plated and galvanized .25 x 6 inch hex bolts from Home Depot, although the galvanized hex bolts were pretty tough. I've bent the new 60d nails slightly, but the grade 5 hex bolts have shut me down completely. Should I just drop the bending for a week or two and try to recover or should I lay off longer? Any input is appreciated.

[nils]

I have started to have every other bending session as a volume session with quite easy nails and not going near failure.

Has worked very well for hand health!

Nils

[chrisof4]

I agree with Nils, volume is key. I have only been bending for three months, but my best gains have come just recently when I began higher volume workouts. About every two weeks, I test my strength on material I have struggled with before, but most of my workouts consist of bending several nails I have already mastered. Yesterday, I bent four 60D galvanized nails, and fifteen 8-twist TT's. Pretty much I just bent until I was exhausted. Then I finished with a contrast bath for my hands and wrists. Today, I am a little sore, but not so much that I am miserable, and I definately am not injured. Now I will rest my bending until Wednesday. Bending twice each week seems to give me enough time to recover. Also, I try to master a certain level of bending before I move on to the next one. If you are not fully bending the 60D nails, hold off on the grade 5's until you can bend the 60Ds confidently and in volume. Just my two cents.

If you can't seem to recover, take about five days and rest completely. Use contrast baths to speed your recovery (use the search function to find more info), and sleep with mittens on your hands. Mittens will increase circulation and speed recovery. By the end of five days, your hands will probably feel stronger than ever, and you should feel ready for a strong bending session again.

But the biggest thing is to listen to your body. You will know when you are ready to bend again, and if you rest completely for a few days, you will probably recover faster than you think. Also, if you start bending, and everything is hard and your performance is lousy, then stop. Rest for another day or two and then try again.

I hope that helps.

[austinslater]

Chrisof4 great advice!

Austin

[milkbone]

Cool. Thanks for the info guys. I have not tried the hard 60d nails completely fresh. I think I will take your advice and rest for 5+ days and then do some volume work with the easier Home Depot 60d nails. Interesting idea about the mits. Have any of you ever used something like NicoFlex on your hands? I was tempted last night but had visions of waking up with the stuff in my eyes or, even worse, on the noodle.

[FbaLLPlaya_53]

I've used mittens and contrast baths for my hands, and yes they work very well. Milkbone I've never heard of Nicoflex before, is it like Icy Hot or Tiger Balm?

[John Beatty]

It's like that, but stronger. Ironmind sells it. I put some on my back before the finals at this year's Strongman Nats & then made the mistake of covering my back with the T shirt & suiting up for the Girl Squat. My back was so hot I could barely concentrate on lifting.

[Slayer]

Nicoflex is almost too hot to use. I tried it before on my back before deadlifting, and it felt like it was burning. I don't think it would feel to bad on the hands though.

[David Ostlund]

Nicoflex rocks! Equi-block is good too. You can find it on vet-supply websites. I don't know how well it would work on hands though. For me, these work much better on large muscle groups. I put my hands and wrists in an ice bath after every bending session and it has worked great for me.

[Rekx]

Contrast bathing and mittens baby! Nothin' better!

Hey one thing I did is I bought some very nice mittens that have a little pocket for a heat pad. Then i went on ebay and found 80 heat pads for $20. I wear thhe mittens pretty much everynight, but when my hands are REALLY sore or maybe injured, I put those heat pads in the mittens and it feels great.

[milkbone]

Yeah, the Nicoflex is strong stuff. I love to use it pre-workout if my back is feeling sore on deadlift or squat day. You have to be conservative with the stuff because the more you sweat, the hotter it gets. It's not often you find products that work exactly, if not better than advertised. It actually turns my skin red where I've applied it.

I'll try to find this contrast bath again in the search function. I didn't have any luck last night, but maybe I need to pay more attention to the search parameters. If someone has time, can you give me the Q&D version of the contrast bath. I'm assuming hot/cold or something along those lines? Thanks.

[GordonV]

Hand Recovery Thread

[milkbone]

Thanks for the link GordonV.