Hand Care: How to avoid skin issues

The challenges obstacle athletes face in competition and training are hard enough. Skin issues are an unnecessary, avoidable burden. In this blog, I will cover, how to prevent blood blisters and rips on your hands and how to care for these skin problems.

Common skin issues are caused by soft skin getting caught and pulled when swinging. This causes the layers of skin to separate, sometimes resulting in a blister, and sometimes a rip. There are two basic methods to prevent this from happening. One is to toughen the skin, so it does not rip. This can be accomplished by drying your hands out with chalk before a workout and by gradually toughening your skin over time. The other method is by making the skin smoother, so it does not get caught. Most high-level athletes trim loose bits of dead skin and sand their hands to keep them smooth and tough.

One of the reasons I rarely have any skin issues is because I train pretty consistently. When I do take breaks from training, my skin changes noticeably. When toughening your skin, you have to be aware of how close your hands are to ripping.

Knowing when to end your workout can save you a lot of trouble.

Your skin is tougher when it is dry. Wearing gloves can result in the opposite of the intended effect. If you use gloves, your hands get sweatier, and your skin softer causing more rips and blood blisters. A much better option is to dry your hands out with chalk during training to create drier, tougher skin.

If you are just starting out, have low expectations for how long your training sessions will last. Gradually toughening your skin takes time and cutting a session short is better than getting a rip. You can increase the duration of your obstacle training sessions as your hands become more resilient.

By removing flaps of dead skin, or by sanding down calluses, you can prevent your skin from getting unnecessary rips. Sanding your skin briefly before training is a good practice.

During training, your skin can get bunched up in some areas, especially if you are repeatedly using the same type of hold. These clumps of skin can cause skin issues, but they are easy to deal with. If you start to notice your skin bunching up, during your break between obstacles, you can massage your skin back into position. Circular motions pressing into the problem area or pushing motions away from the center of the clump work well. In most cases, calluses bunch upwards so some downward massage with the thumb on the opposite hand can help flatten them back out.

After training, clip off any bits of dead skin that were pulled free during training with a pair of nail clippers. Then, sand your skin until it is pretty smooth. It is important to do this now while your skin is still dry from chalk use. Clipping and sanding dry skin is much more effective than softer skin. When sanding your hands, your focus should be to smooth your calluses, not to flatten them. Taking off too much skin can weaken it enough to cause rips in subsequent training sessions. Once you have finished clipping and sanding, it is important to use a moisturizer to keep your skin flexible and healthy.

I know before, I said that skin problems are avoidable, and in many cases, they are, but they are also inevitable. Knowing how to properly care for your rip can be the difference between having a spot on your hand that opens every time you move, and one that heals quickly so you can get back to training.

Depending on how bad the rip is, most of the time all you need to return to training is a good tape job.