Rx Girls: Miami

Hand Care Pt.2

So it’s been a few months since I last wrote about taking care of your hands, and I’ve had the chance to experiment with a few different methods. Honestly, you need to keep them under control because if you don’t you’ll either A: end up with a HUGE hole as a result of your ripped off callus, or B: have creepy man hands. Yea, I don’t like either of those options… Anyway, so the tool I suggested last time was the callus shaver I got from Target. It really works the best out of anything I have tried. It costs like $5 and comes with 3 replacement blades. I’ve had it for about 6 months.

How to use it: After you shower and your hands are nice and soft, gently run the callus shaver over the raised rough parts of your hands. Don’t go too deep, you are just looking to even out the surface. You can’t really mess up unless you push way too hard on your hand, and the end result should have shaved down enough to for you to still feel the rough skin, but for it to be leveled down with the rest of your skin.

There are other methods I have tried, like the file from Neat Feet which is metal on one side and a pumice stone on the other. This also does the job, but I found that it leaves “scratches” on my hands for about a week, even after I put lotion.

Last, is the electric heel smoother I found, which is like the tools they have at the salon. It’s battery operated and has a few different attachments that are different textures and widths. Although it works pretty well, it takes a bit longer to file everything down and your skin has to be reeeeeally soft for it to work. I was able to pick it up for $10 at Target, but I think it was on sale. It might actually be a little more expensive now.

Regardless of what you use, it’s important to keep up with taking care of your hands to avoid pain and injury at the box. I never really thought I would be making a post for other women giving tips on how to get rid of your man hands, but hey it comes with the territory. Anyway, I hope this helped a bit. It really is a pain in the ass, but I can say that when I keep on top of doing this my hands last a lot longer through pull ups than when I don’t. And if you’re close to getting your pull ups but they haven’t come yet, you should probably take off the gloves and get yourself some man hands  ;)

Hand Care

So it has taken a bit of experimenting, but after reading tons of articles and testing different things out, my husband and I have found a really good way to take care of our hands so that they tear as little as possible. There are a couple things that might make your hands more likely to tear: 1) The skin is real soft and delicate, or 2) You have too many thick calluses built up. Either way, taking care of it daily should help you to get through WODs with pull ups and still keep your hands looking nice and smooth.

First, you need to invest in a callus shaver. We bought this one from target and it has worked pretty well. I heard Tweezerman has a good one too. Anyway, after you shower and your hands are soft, run the shaver over the rough parts of your hands until all the skin is even. If you can still pinch it, you can keep shaving it down. The goal is to make it smooth. After that you need to lotion up your hands. This really helps to keep your hands looking nice while keeping them from tearing so often.

If you have an open tear, the first thing you have to do is wash it with soap right away. It might sting, but you have to get all the crap out of the open wound. Next, cut off the flap using a cuticle scissor. This lets you get really close to where the skin tore and lets the would heal properly. Then you have to put either New Skin or ointment on it and cover with a bandage or tape. This will protect it and let it heal. New Skin BURNS but is pretty good for protecting dirt and stuff from getting in there. After a few days you should be fine, just keep it protected while you do your WODs and remember to shave down the thick skin so you don’t tear again!

Hope this helps… having your hands rip is no fun but I have found that doing this stuff regularly saves me from a lot of pain, and also keeps me from having what looks like man hands.