Rips!

I think this is something every gymnasts should talk about. I have a huge one from yesterday, I was fulling around on the rings without my grips and I was going into a back uprise and I slipped because I forgot to chalk up a lot and now I've got a quarter sized rip right below my pinky finger on my right hand.

I've heard many suggestions, rip it off(the skin), I was thinking to the the excess skill die and dry up then rip it off, the school athletic nurse said to let it air dry at night and neosporin it at day along with cleaning the rip with peroxide; this seemed like the sensible thing to do.

Any suggestions I want to get this thing healed up as fast as I can, the season starts soon and this is my first year in gymnastics and I'm trying to set a good impression and maybe get varsity for rings.

Currently I am just airing it out at night,peroxide and slabbing on neosporin at day and putting a few bandages on it.

Probably the most over-used part of a gymnast's body are his hands. Rips, blisters and torn calluses are an unfortunate fact of everyday life for us. Over the years I have tried many methods of dealing with them.

First and foremost of these is reasonable moderation. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will your calluses be. You would like to work up to the edge of a rip, but not over that edge into an actual rip. It takes much longer to heal an injury and completely re-grow new callus than to add another layer to an old. Also don't discount the negative impact unnecessary rips will have on your training.

The most efficient method that we have found to promote new callus growth is simple but rather painful. It is also an excellent way to promote callus health when you hands are simply "hot".

1) Remove the torn callus; trimming as closely to the edge of the wound as comfortably possible.

2) Smooth the edges of the wound with either a razor blade (proceed slowly!) or a pumice stone. These are available in handled versions as foot callus scrappers at all drug stores.

3) Now soak your torn callus in a bowl of water super-saturated with salt (to supersaturate continue adding salt to a warm container of water until the salt in no longer able to continue dissolving and you have a small amount of undissolved salt in the bottom) several times a day for at least 10 minutes.

Initially this may be quite painful. How painful will depend on the depth of the rip. If it is a very deep "bloody" rip, you are in for an interesting experience. :shock: It is necessary however, as we need to encourage the growth of callus immediately, rather than new soft pink skin that will simply re-tear right away anyway. Unless the blister is unusually deep, in one to two days it should be mostly healed - compared to the 5-7 days needed for conventional treatments.

4) Use just enough medicated chapstick (my personal choice as you can easily carry it in your pocket) to prevent drying to such an extent that the rip cracks. Do not however use Neosporin or something similar; in my experience the use of these type of products will promote the growth of new skin rather than a protective sheath of callus.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

So the purpose of soaking it in salt water is to promote callus growth?

I use Hand-e-Balm. It heals your rips quickly, it grows tough calluses that don't rip very often, and you don't have to use it a lot because you wont need it with the protective calluses. This stuff lasts for a while because the calluses, as i stated, and also when you rip you barely have to apply any so make sure you get the smallest size possible. I got the largest size possible and I bet I will have it for years to come. I am going on two years right now.

Great info. I also recommend a decent hand scrub in the shower to keep callouses fairly smooth and without rough edges to help prevent ripping.

Nic

Coach Sommer said:

you have a small amount of undissolved salt in the bottom) several times a day for at least 10 minutes.

So is longer than 10mins a greater advantage. I had a blister on my finger and cut it off, I just put some salt on it and it did sting bad. Today it had healed a little, I had put sudocrem and cocoa butter on it too. Today I got salt solution and soaked some tissue with it, I then stuck it on with duct tape, it was not stinging much at all. I left this on for about an hour, it had changed colour when it came off and looked smoother.

What action does the salt actually have? would it be an idea to mix salt in the cocoa butter or other creams to keep it moist and salty as long as possible?

The purpose of the soaking in a salt water solution is increase the speed with which the top layer of skin toughens into callus. You should separate your salt water and moisturizing treatments. I do not recommend keeping a rip overly moist as this will simply cause the area to rip again quite easily.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

I do not recommend keeping a rip overly moist as this will simply cause the area to rip again quite easily.

Thanks, that is what I thought too, I let mine dry after the first hour of "salting" today, it dried up nicely and I was able to cut back a little more skin at one point on the side, it was much clearer which bits of skin were "dead" as they were very white & dry. If it is left too moist it seems you could easily peel back more skin and delay healing even longer. I used a small electric wire snips to take it off yesterday, these are great tools, it was dry and hard enough today to cut a little more with a fresh stanley blade.

Looks to be healing a lot faster than my last one.