Tonights Ring Strength WOD was fantastic, felt great, lots of fun, but cost me an old reliable friend, my false grip calluses.
If like me you are mourning the loss of your calluses; read up on Coach's guide to tears and calluses.
http://gymnasticbodies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=151&highlight=#151
Coach Sommer said: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
