Hand Care for Rip Prevention
No matter how big or small, a rip hurts like nothing else. It stings to open your hand. It stings to close your hand. It stings when the rip gets wet. It stings when the rip is too dry.
Help prevent yourself from all this stinging and unnecessary pain by taking care of your hands prior to a rip occurring. When discussing hand care, there are some essential steps you can take for proper hand care and rip prevention.
1. Reduce callus build up
A rip occurs when the bar, barbell, or any other handheld implement catches a callus and rips it away from the skin. If the calluses are maintained, by means of a pumice stone, then there is no balling of skin for the bar to catch and tear away from your palm. Using a pumice stone to scrub calluses down level with the palm is the best way to prevent rips. Leave just enough to toughen up the hands; if you can feel any mound forming then its time to scrub them down.
2. Use Chalk and/or Grips
Both chalk and grips help protect the hands by providing an extra layer of material between the hand and the bar. As you can imagine, grips will provide more protection than chalk can, but can take some getting used to. These two products can, and should, be used whenever excessive gripping is involved. When used in conjunction with tip #1, the chances of ripping are greatly minimized.
3. Allow Your Hands to Rest
When we push muscles too hard for too long, they start to break down, leading to soreness and then eventually an injury. These injuries present themselves in the form of torn or strained muscles. We can apply that same concept to the skin. Though it is not a muscle the same rules stand. Our skin can only handle so much pressure before it needs a rest. So, if your hands are sore let them rest, before it leads to an injury in the form of a rip.
4. Practice Sanitization
This one may seem weird but regularly washing your hands with an antibacterial soap does just what the name implies: kills bacteria. Ridding your hands of bad bacteria allow the skin to maintain its health and longevity, and in the case of a possible rip, would even prevent infection from happening.
5. Find a Quality Palm Balm
Using a quality Palm Balm, such as our highly rated GripEEZ, after each workout helps your hands recover from the workout they just had. The anti-inflammatory properties of the coconut oil mixed with the shea butter will reduce healing time so you can get back on the bar tomorrow.
Bonus Tip: GripEEZ Palm Balm has tea tree oil mixed in for anti-microbial benefits (see tip #4)
Adding these tips into your daily routine will only take a few thoughtful moments each day. Care for your hands today to prevent rips tomorrow.