Double Edge Fitness

Mastering Hand Care: Essential Tips for CrossFit and Gymnastics Athletes

• Jacob Wellock

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Speaker 1:

All right, everybody, this is my quest to make somewhat valuable content for you guys. Back, got the mic. See how many times I can be interrupted during this, since we're doing it right out here in the gym and let's make sure the mics working looks like it's working. So you know we're gonna talk about today Handcare, taping your hands, what gimmicks work, what gimmicks don't work, and some basic fundamentals when it comes to working out grip, pull up bars, barbells, dumbbells and so forth. So we got the gear out here, got all the stuff. I'm gonna go over all this stuff and give you my honest feedback on what I think.

Speaker 1:

So, first off, in this lovely training style that we enjoy, called CrossFit, hands can get beat up a little bit, and many of you that have been around the block for a little while probably know that you've torn, you've had blood blisters. I got one right now and it happens. It is something that happens when you're doing a lot of high-volume gymnastics, barbell work, cycling a dumbbell. It just happens the hands can get beat up. If you've been to my class, you've probably heard me say things. Like you know, it's not worth ripping today, so break up your sets. Oh, I forgot the chalk bucket. It's right over there, but like breaking up your sets so that you don't rip, because if you rip bad and I've seen, I've personally had some really bad rips where a big flap of skin just comes right off the hand If you rip bad it can mess up a whole week of training, right. So it's like it's not worth. Unless you're getting paid to compete at you know, crossfit chances are. It's not really worth shredding your hands to squeeze out a couple more reps. It's better to let your flesh cool off and come back hit another set, not rip your hands. Keep your hands healthy for another day of training With that.

Speaker 1:

One thing that needs to happen over the course of time with training is you need to condition your skin. You need to rough them, tough them up a little bit, you know, get what you call cowboy hands, working man's hands where they're a little bit, you know, calloused, calloused, overhardened. Now, some of you ladies might be pretty adverse to that idea. Totally fine, I understand it. Me personally, I like to ride a fine line between tough, leathery hands and, you know, hands that aren't cracking and falling apart all the time and beat up. So I do actually, contrary to what you might believe, prioritize taking care of my hands. Pretty good, and I don't rip too often. It still happens. The ego gets in the way. I want to hold on for a big set, or I didn't properly take care of my calluses, and then one pinches on a bar, muscle up and just rips off a chunk of skin. It happens, it's just part of the deal. You know, after doing this for however many years I've been doing it now my hands are pretty tough.

Speaker 1:

If you ever watch gymnasts, you'll see gymnasts take a whole flap of skin, whole flap, right off their hands and bury it with chalk and get back up on the bar. People whose hands are that beat up, that shredded, tend to believe that their nerve endings in their skin are just destroyed. They just don't feel the pain anymore. It's something they're numb from from well, constantly beating the hell out of their hands. And gymnasts probably have some of the roughest, toughest hands there are. Well, in our style of training we do a lot of gymnastics, so hands are going to get beat up.

Speaker 1:

So where to start? Where to start? Let's start with maybe basic hand care and then we'll get into the grips and the various gimmicks of crossfit that people like to sell you. So first hand care. I don't know if you can see it. Oh, you can see, I got some calluses. I got a little split right here in this finger but I have some calluses.

Speaker 1:

One of the most important things that you can do when it comes to you want calluses but you don't want them built up. When they build up and get chunky like I got four of them right now they're kind of chunky. When they get like that, you want to do something to take them down a notch. If you will, I prefer to use this is Wad Rod. I actually used to sell these, sat around for a long time, but you can use an emery board, anything with a little sandpaper or a little grit to it, and you just sand these babies down. Right, just sand them down. I'm literally doing my hand care right now for you guys on this video. So sand them down, get them smooth. Now. You don't take them down to raw skin, just take them down a little bit. It's like, right there, I just did that hand. Now these three calluses right here, just nice and smooth. You don't feel the grit going over them. Now hit both hands.

Speaker 1:

I do have three main calluses that take the brunt of all my weightlifting and gymnastics work that get built up right here. I just take this. I probably do this maybe once a month, not too often. But when my calluses are getting a little crunchy, a little thick, go ahead and take those down a notch, all right. So that's literally dead skin. So now these calluses are nice and smooth, all right, you can also get calluses up here. You probably felt those before, right here in the middle of the finger, where that crease is. You know it's not a bad idea to go ahead and take a little flesh off right there. Again. You're not taking this down to raw skin. It should not hurt at all. Zero hurt, alright. No pain involved here, alright.

Speaker 1:

So prior to this deal, I do that I use this razor blade. Word of caution I don't use this anymore. You want to know why? Because I've gone too deep, taken too thick of a chunk of skin out with it and caused myself to bleed, and I just have very little confidence in my abilities to use this correctly. But you can find these things at CVS I mean anywhere, any pharmacy or whatever. But basically you just take this thing and you put it on the callus and you take off small layers. Again, I don't use this. Some of you ladies out there might know about these things, some of you dudes might, I don't know but this was pre-finding good sandpaper tool and I find the sandpaper emery board style things to be much more effective at getting the rough part of the callus down without taking off flesh. This takes off flesh. So yeah, word of caution to using these. They do work really well if you know how to use it right. I've just never had great luck with them.

Speaker 1:

Another thing, thing I forgot to bring out I have a little pair of like nippers that when I do get a hunk of skin laid over, it's like they're little tiny scissors that I can go and trim that skin around. So when this thing rips off, I trim that skin around. So that's hand care number one. All right, a little sandpaper, so forth. Then hand care number two Say you get a little booboo. This thing rips First off. You need to clean that thing. All right, it's the worst thing in the world, but go and get some antibacterial soap, maybe a little hydrogen peroxide. I just use antibacterial soap, wash my hands. Really good, it stings like a mofo, right. It does not feel great, but you go and wash your hands really really good.

Speaker 1:

Okay, we do have a pretty clean gym here, but still you don't want to trap bacteria. You know disease up in here, put some goop on it, put a band-aid on it and then your finger swells up because it got infected. I've done that before. All right, I've trapped bacteria in my skin and my finger swelled up. I had to go on antibiotics for it. So don't be a ding-dong and not disinfect your hands really well before applying goop and a band-aid? All right, so let's talk about goop Two kinds I like when it comes to dealing with a cut or a rip.

Speaker 1:

So you clean your hands, you cleaned up the skin. You know where that flap of meat is hanging and you need to heal it. So one of our members she actually owns Dermalicious and we've been getting this stuff from her for years. It's called Callus Quench and Cut Quench. It's her blend of specialty goods and it works really really well. I haven't found a better product that works to heal my when I tear my hands or keep my calluses moisturized than these two things. So this is a little sample pack. We do have the bigger tubes of it at both gyms. I mean, to be honest, I tear so infrequently these little guys they might last me two years, all right, so it's worth the investment to have around, but so it's hypothetically.

Speaker 1:

I just sanded, just cleaned up my cut and then I'm going to go wash my hands really well, and then I'm going to take this cut quench. I'm going to put a little layer of it on my rip. All right, now I'll take that. And then I will take what is known as a band-aid. And if you have infant or toddlers at home you know these are everywhere, right, so they're easy to find, but we do have them in the gym Take a little band-aid and just cover it up Now, don't keep it on there all the time.

Speaker 1:

When I first rip, I will keep this stuff wrapped up for the first 24 hours. Then I'll start letting it dry out. Then I will apply this usually in the evening before bed, and put a bandaid on it, sleep with it, take it off, let it dry out. I can say hydration, let it heal, so forth. You just don't want to turn into a soggy mess, but keeping it moisturized allows it to heal much faster. To wear a little rip like this, it'll heal in like two days for me if I'm, you know, using this stuff properly and not re-tearing it like I did today, all right. So I split it open again today. It's just part of the game, it is what it is. So we have that.

Speaker 1:

Next things fundamental hand care all right. Lotion all right. You might find this surprising, but I'm a big believer of using some lotion. Don't get any weird ideas, but using the lotion. I like lotion that has Vaseline in it. I don't get too weird and nerdy about the lotion. I know that there's a whole deal out there with. Can't even think At home we have Aveeno, if that tells you anything. I anything, you know. I love you guys buying, buying that for the gym. So we keep this stuff I buy in. Bulk works pretty good.

Speaker 1:

It is something just to keep the hands, you know, moistened up. It's not something I abuse, though. I'm not putting lotion on every 30 seconds of the day. I put lotion on once a day, usually in the afternoons, usually before bed. Lotion my hands up and they can heal overnight. That's kind of how I think about that. So don't be adverse using lotion to keep your hands healthy If your hands are really messed up. I've seen people with eczema and stuff with their hands. I've seen people with like eczema and stuff with their hands bury their hands in Vaseline and sleep with those gloves. That can help heal a lot, all right, so don't be adverse using some lotion. If your hands are really messed up, maybe you need to see a doctor. This is beyond my scope of help, all right, so that's some basic hand care there. Next hand care. This might come shocking to you guys.

Speaker 1:

Hydration Alright, I know, when my hands are getting really dry and cracky, especially my lips, another skin. If my lips start getting chapped, I know I'm not drinking enough water. Good old H2O, alright. So staying well hydrated is another important aspect of taking care of your skin. Now there's a laundry list of supplements I wrote down.

Speaker 1:

But take it for what it is. I don't think about this too much. I do not take any of these for the purposes of hand health. Never thought about it once.

Speaker 1:

But hydration is important and a simple, simple math equation is you take your ideal body weight, times it by 0.7, that's how many ounces of water you should drink per day. Alright, ideal body weight. If you don't know how to figure out your ideal body weight, ask your coach. We can help you do that. But for instance, mine is around 200 pounds. You take 200 pounds, I think I would know this. I do drink, I try. I shouldn't say that I'm perfect with it. I do try to drink a gallon of water a day but for instance, the math comes out to times 0.7, 200 pounds, 140 ounces, so just about a gallon of water a day. But for instance, the math comes out to times 0.7, 200 pounds, 140 ounces, so just about a gallon of water. Yeah, so hydrate and I like that equation. There's another equation that you factor in exercise. But if you're, on average, drinking that equation of your water per day, you're going to be just fine.

Speaker 1:

And just a friendly reminder water stripped of its minerals, like reverse osmosis, kind of what we have here at the gym. It is suggested that you add electrolytes to some of your water, you know, throughout the day. All right, so I do drink elements. I have an unflavored element in here right now. All right, I'm not paid by Element to say that, so it's just something I use and believe in. Yes, I do drink the unflavored the most, probably more than anybody in the gym.

Speaker 1:

Next, gimmicks and equipment. Alright, first off, you can be that person with the gloves. Come into the gym, you got the gloves. These are construction gloves. All right, I didn't have any of the other gloves. Might be some in here. Hold on, oh snap, I'm back.

Speaker 1:

So these no, these are for doing yard work, shovelling snow. No rep, no rep. These cute little guys. I personally not a hater, but I'm not a fan of them. So these little gloves here have built-in wrist wraps to them. But if you're really, really worried about beating up your hands, they could be something you may want to check out. All right, probably a reason that these are hanging out in the uh recycle bin? Because I probably made a smart-ass comment to somebody about their gloves and they're like well, I don't want to wear those again. I didn't mean it, I was just joking, just joking, but these are actual weightlifting brand gloves.

Speaker 1:

All right, they got a little wrist support built into them. They got a little hand support. Fingers are exposed so you can grip something. I guess. Go ahead, use them. I'm gonna tell you one of the downside to using these when it comes to using a barbell is you can't get a full grip on the bar. If you can't get a full grip on the bar, you're not going to be as strong, all right. So this takes up circumference, if you will, when you try to grip the bar and you're not able to get as much hand on the bar. So same with pull-ups, right. But yeah, so there's these. I personally am not a fan of them, all right.

Speaker 1:

Next, let's talk about this. We got these were just outlawed by CrossFit. Illegal, same as using, you know, tren, testosterone, blood doping. These are added to the list of cannot use performance enhancing equipment. I say that because these grips, they have a rubber Kevlar coating on them. They're made of rubber and Kevlar. They are very tacky. If you've used them, you'll know that you stick to the bar, literally stick to the bar, and I'm not going to sit here and pretend that they aren't advantageous. They are. They do help, and, um, quite a bit. But uh, like I said, the crossfit gods outlawed them. But I don't really care for high volume pull-ups, high volume toes to bar. I use these in high volume. That's basically anything over 20-30 reps in a set I'm gonna use these. Or bar muscle ups Anything over five to ten reps I'm gonna put grips on. These are my other grips. These are the bare, complex ones. These are not outlawed. These ones are okay. These are still approved by CrossFit.

Speaker 1:

I got the little finger holes in here. This is just personal preference, whether you get them with finger holes or without them. I personally I do use the finger holes right and what this does is it protects what these grips do. What it shows is it protects your flesh right here. This is going to be the main bulk of when you grab something that is going to get lit up. So this puts a barrier between your skin and the bar or dumbbell or kettlebell that is going to protect it. I personally, a lot of people are going and like these ones. I like a lot. They don't have the finger holes. You can get these with the finger holes. I've just always used these ones with the finger holes Don't really know why, because I don't really use them per se.

Speaker 1:

I put them loosely on my fingers. I don't slam them all the way to the bottom like this. I don't like that because then this thing will crunch up and then if you're doing toes to bar or in some barbell cycling, for instance, I don't like having this between the barbell and my hand. So if I'm wearing my grips in a workout, I'm going to take my hands out of this and I usually spin this around, so it's just a preference to me. Some people lift with them on, they lift, just fine. I don't. I don't like that, so I like to be able to spin it. Or, in the case of these ones here, when I'm not using them, this thing is just curled down and I can use my hand and grab the barbell.

Speaker 1:

These are the two grips that I use when we're doing high volume gymnastics stuff. If we're not doing high volume for instance, like Friday's workout, I had nine toes to bar. You know it was rounds of power cleans, toes to bar and pistol squats. I didn't use grips for that workout. I know my skin's threshold limit for sets and I know what it feels like when I'm getting to a point in the workout where I feel like I'm going to tear and I can kind of gauge the workout. I guess, if you will preemptively if I'm going to use these or not, all right, next, you got these little things, so a few members use them.

Speaker 1:

These are self-adhesive athletic grips. Basically what this does it comes out of the wrapper, right, and it emulates this, but it actually sticks to your hand, right, it sticks. It's athletic tape. It's sticky and it sticks to your hands and becomes one with your hand and it adds a barrier, if you will, between the pull-up bar and your skin. Me personally, I am not a fan of these. It's just something that can get gummed up and weird during a workout and I'm personally not a fan of them, but it is something that I've seen. I'm not a I'm personally not a fan of them, but it is something that I've seen around the CrossFit gimmick space that people do use and there's some people that love them teach their own. I mean, you just have to kind of find what you know works best for you Folks that have smaller hands I don't have big hands, by any means of average hands Grips that aren't super thick.

Speaker 1:

They make these. I have a pair at home that are one millimeter super thin, so the thinner the grip, the more circumference you're gonna get around the pull-up bar, for instance. Right, I go with whatever these ones are. I can't remember five millimeter, just their most popular version, because for me, when I am doing the high volume, you want a little bit of barrier to absorb heat. If it's super thin, more heat is going to transfer, which is going to cause a rip. So I want a barrier that's going to absorb heat and friction and so forth. Hope that makes sense.

Speaker 1:

Next, let's talk about tape. Tape this is something that I always have with me. It's something that I use quite often. This is probably, out of all the gimmicks of fitness, this is probably the thing I actually do use the most and I'm going to tell you why. So you might see out in the gym people taping their thumbs, right, if you've been around my brother or Leo back in the day, who lift heavy weights, hook, grip a lot. So hook, grip on the barbell. You're going to take your thumb and you're going to wrap your fingers around your thumb like that. That's going to create a lock on the barbell.

Speaker 1:

Hook gripping is super important if you want to perform at your best, if you want to lift your heaviest weights, if you want to cycle your most rips, hook gripping is vital, right? What this does is it strengthens the chain, right? Typically, our grip is probably going to be a little bit weaker than our back and legs, right? Most likely. Now there's some of you guys out there that have freakishly strong grips, right, a few rock climbers in the gym that can just hold on to anything. But if you don't, you should still hook grip anyway. It's going to allow more power to transfer from your legs and back to the barbell and hook gripping for the barbell. You don't hook grip to pull a bar, but it's going to strengthen the chain so when you pull that bar off the ground your grip won't break loose. So if your grip breaks loose when you pull that barbell, just a little bit, just a little bit like that, it's going to send a weakening signal down your entire body and you're going to bleed off strength and power. All right, instantly right out the gate. The second you pull that barbell off the ground, it is going to weaken the entire chain. So if the grip stays strong, the body stays strong. That's how I like to think about it. So, yes, I hook grip every single barbell I pull off the ground. I have hook grip on it. Unless I'm deadlifting, then I will, depending on the weight, do double overhand regular grip to strengthen my forearms. But when my grip starts to go, I'll either start double hook gripping or mixed grip in order to keep my grip strong. So my back stays strong when I'm deadlifting. But the hook grip.

Speaker 1:

You've probably seen people tape their thumbs. You've seen me tape my thumbs. I'm a big believer in taping your thumbs. One, it provides a barrier. So when you're hook gripping that barbell there is a lot of pressure in that hook grip. Taping it's going to relieve some of you like, oh it hurts, it hurts the hook grip. You do get acclimated to it. I don't need to tape my thumbs for every lift of every day. If we're just doing, you know, some single power cleans at a moderate weight, I don't need to use tape for that. But today's workout, which is five sets of four at 80% power cleans and then a bunch of power cleans in the workout, it's a high volume and heavier weights. I tape my thumbs because it's going to protect it. One and when it doesn't hurt it's not going to psychologically mess with me when I'm pulling that weight off the ground. So I take my thumbs.

Speaker 1:

This is stretchy athletic tape. Yes, we do sell it at the gyms. I loosely keep it in stock. It is the most stolen thing from the gym. Yeah, you can get hook grip tape online. What we sell it for is basically what you're going to pay for it online anyway, trying to make money off this stuff. I don't get any wholesale agreements with it. But, um, it's a, it's stretchy hook grip tape. We get this stuff from jbirdcom.

Speaker 1:

All right, but you take it, take your tape. I go halfway. I start with half the tape and my thumb. I go halfway, I fold it over and then I wrap my thumb one layer around. Oh, hey, one layer around my thumb. Hey, first interruption of the video. And that is how I tape my thumb, just like that. I can still bend it. I'm not losing blood flow to it. This stuff is stretchy and just that one little layer of tape provides a nice little barrier and makes that hook grip a lot more comfortable to use. So that is taping your thumbs. Yes, I would tape both of them if I were gonna work out right now, but for the sake of saving tape, I am going to not do that.

Speaker 1:

Another thing that you will see me use tape for from time to time. So, for instance, I have a little cutty right here, a little boo-boo. I will use this same tape during a workout and I will tape that boo-boo. Alright, so you'll see, you know, some of my fingers once in a while be taped up like this. And I like this tape because it's stretchy. Athletic tape is rigid. It's meant to stabilize a joint. It's athletic tape. You know they use the tape ankles a lot and so forth. This is stretchy tape so you can still flex through it and because I can get a couple wraps on there, it's not like a band-aid, it's gonna come right off, alright. So there you go, tape up my boo-boo and you'll see me do that.

Speaker 1:

Now, some of us, when you're doing pull-ups, the goal is to get a big, meaty grip on the pull-up bar Big, meaty grip. But you'll see some of us hang from our fingertips doing pull-ups. Bet you want to know why. This is why it purely depends on which part of my hand hands get the crap beat out of it during the workout. So if I feel my palms starting to get hot, like they're going to tear, I will switch and hang from my fingertips.

Speaker 1:

If it is a high volume pull-up or toes-to-bar workout, I'll preemptively tape my fingers also right, even if I'm using grips. So let's say I'm just trying to, like, slay the leaderboard that day. Be that guy right, let the ego come out of me. I will preemptively tape these two fingers right here and wear my grips and that's going to protect those pieces of meat when I know I'm going to have to do some sets hanging from my fingertips versus just my palms, all right, so that's why folks will tape these two fingers. Leo, actually, if you guys remember back in the day, probably still does it, but he tapes. He uses grips too, from time to time, but he does tape those fingers. That's his main hotspots. And again, the more you train, the more you learn where your hotspots are in your hand and then you come up with strategies to protect them.

Speaker 1:

All right, so let me go grab this real quick. Stay with me, stay with me, okay. Okay, you know what it is. It's effing chalk. Right, chalk is necessary for training, not going to pretend it's not. But this stuff, you guys, it is straight up abused, mutilated, annihilated. It's an excuse to take longer breaks, it is. It's abused in just such a bad way to take longer breaks, it is. It's abused in just such a bad way. It's kind of like, you know, oh, just abused.

Speaker 1:

So chalk usage let's talk about chalk. So reason people use chalk is because they feel like they're slipping off the bar. Right, I'm just gonna bring up something. If you feel like they're slipping off the bar, right, I'm just going to bring up something. If you feel like you're slipping off the bar and you grab a roll of tape and you put tape on the pull-up bar, I'm coming for you, I'm coming for you, I'm going to find you and we're going to have a long chat. Right, we do not install tape on the pull-up bars ever. Right, some gyms do it. Here's my thing get a stronger grip, all right. Start training your grip. We do not need to put tape on the pull-up bars right Now. What that does, what chalk does is it creates more friction. All right. When you have more friction, you're able to grip the bar better. All right, if you have more friction, you're able to grip the bar better.

Speaker 1:

If you have smaller hands or if your hands are getting super sweaty mid-workout, you feel the need to chalk up, to hold on to said pull-up bar. I get it, it's fine. We do get sweaty. We have these little guys called sweat towels and I know that not a lot of places offer this kind of service. Where you have a sweat towel. You'll see me have one during a lot of workouts and you'll see me wipe my hands off more than my face to keep my hands dry. So keeping my hands dry is very important to creating enough friction, but not too much friction, which is what I want to get at.

Speaker 1:

If you rip a lot, you tear your hands a lot. Two things are going on. You either got just I don't know, I guess really weak hands, skin like your skin. Just tears easy doesn't necessarily mean a negative thing. But if you do tear a lot, I've found with myself in the past that the more chalk I use, the higher the probability I'm going to tear right. My worst rips are when I'm using chalk. Now you've seen me make comments.

Speaker 1:

I didn't use one bit of chalk today. That's most days. I don't use chalk hard at all. I use chalk more on lifting with the barbell than I do on the pull-up bars any day of the week. All right, because it creates too much friction. And when you have too much friction your hands get hot. And when it gets hot you blister, all right, and when you blister, that piece of meat's probably going to rip off and you're going to be bummed out. So limiting this to maybe just a little bit I'm not saying this to conserve chalk. This stuff's cheap, I'm not concerned about it.

Speaker 1:

Some of y'all need to figure out. You're getting chalk everywhere up in this place Chalk on the rig, chalk up in your face, chalk on the ground effing chalk everywhere up in your face, chalk on the ground. Epping chalk everywhere Blows my mind. We don't need to get it everywhere. We can be very conservative, putting chalk on, alright. So when you put chalk on, just loosely cover your hands, dry them up.

Speaker 1:

The whole goal is to keep your hands dry, not add a thick ass layer of chalk. Now if you're like oh, I rip a lot, so I need to use more chalk, that is actually the inverse. If you rip a lot, you probably don't want to use as much chalk, because it's creating more friction All right and it's drying out your skin more. So dry hands, more friction, bigger chances of tearing. So when I use these grips, you'll see me hardly ever use chalk. I may put a little bit on here to keep it dry. One and to add a little more friction with these. That's it. I don't use chalk, hardly at all. So maybe try to be a little more conservative with your chalk use and see if that helps you.

Speaker 1:

On the pull-up bars Now, there are different kinds of pull-up bars between both gyms and even inside of both gyms there's two different kinds of pull-up bars. So here we have what's called the spiel bar, which Chris Spieler designed, made many, many years ago. It's the very smooth bare steel, very smooth bare steel bar. That happens to be my favorite pull-up bar. All right, probably twofold. It's the one I train on the most, so it's the one I'm the most used to. But when I'm on that bar the probability of me shredding my hands goes down to near zero. Then you have the texture bars. So those are the darker black ones and you can feel the difference. Those have a coating on them. They're more tacky and you do get a better grip on that than you would on the Spielbar.

Speaker 1:

The Spielbar is meant for your hands to be able to move and not tear. It creates less friction. So when you are doing your muscle ups, your toes are bar, your hands moving, as long as you're not creating a bunch of artificial friction through various grips and things, that is going to prevent you from chalking using a smoother barbell. Now if you work out at Double Edge South and you hear it all the time oh, I love the pull-up bars at Double Edge South, great, glad you do.

Speaker 1:

Those are bead-blasted stainless steel bars. They are very tacky and you literally stick to them. I will say they're pretty legit. But my hand care and needs at Sal Gym are much different than at Midtown Sal Gym. Small sets on that, those bars. I will be using these every single time, every single time. I don't care if it's five reps, I will be using these grips every single time because those bars absolutely shred my hands. But I can hold on for big sets because I glue to the bar down there. But with that extra tackiness I don't train on those bars all the time. It's a recipe for me to tear my hands, right. So a lot of people get their first bar muscle up on those bars because of how tacky they are. You literally stick to them. But again, depending on where you work out, what kind of pull-up bars you're using working out with is going to depend on what kind of equipment and gimmicks you're going to use for your training.

Speaker 1:

One other thing, and there's also the blue pull-up bars, the shiny blue ones. Those are just smooth pull-up bars, right? You're not gonna stick to those nearly as well. Now, if you're using these like rubberized Kevlar deals, you kind of stick to everything, right, whether it's a smooth bar, bead blasted stainless steel bar. You're gonna stick to everything with these ones. It's probably why they're. That is why they're outlawed in CrossFit sports games, crossfit games. I can't even use them in the open, I guess, but because you do stick and then because of this fabric that's on the back, you can stick to the bar, but that fabric is a nice barrier that keeps you from shredding your hands, alright, so that's that. That's that. Need another drink of water, because you get a little dehydrated here Talking to you guys.

Speaker 1:

Last thing I meant to talk about was a thumb tape. Dumbbell snatches, even kettlebell snatches, but dumbbell snatches, the way I taped up my thumb, let's do this again. Don't want to waste tape. It's valuable stuff. So tape up my thumb. When I'm doing dumbbell snatches, I will take this tape up high. Dumbbell snatches I will take this tape up high, really high. I'll probably get one more wrap and I'll take this up here because when I'm doing dumbbell snatches, cycling the rubber on that one side of the dumbbell many of you have seen it, you've asked me about it I will get a rubbing blister from the dumbbell up here. Those things suck. It'll take the skin straight off that joint. That knuckle Skin will just be gone. So I do tape my thumbs up high, even though I'm not hook gripping the dumbbell. I don't hook the grip the dumbbell I can't, hands aren't big enough, but I do still tape my thumbs, doing those purely to protect this joint from rubbing on the dumbbell. Alright, that's another thing I tape up for to protect the hands.

Speaker 1:

So hope you guys got maybe a little bit of valuable information out of this. If you didn't, my apologies, my deepest condolences to you, but this is years of accumulated knowledge right here. All right, this is just years of accumulated knowledge. I use the word CrossFit gimmicks loosely. There's a lot of stuff out there, a lot of equipment. I'm not a big cross-fitting equipment kind of guy. I used to be used to have all the gear in the bag and all the stuff and now I just come and work out, but some of this stuff does provide value. So you know these are the things that I still use, these are the things I believe in and these are how I protect my hands.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, if you guys got questions on this, all your coaches know all the same stuff Like this isn't like specialty things for me. By any means, ask your coach, hit me up, ask me. And yeah, best of luck taking care of your hands. It's important and it's something that can facilitate a good week of training or a bad week of training if you tear your hands. So hope this little hand care episode helped you guys out.

Speaker 1:

All right, you guys, if there are other things you want to learn, just let me know and I'm really going to try. It's hard for me to make content, just this little setup and this little deal, this. By the time I get this out, it's gonna be a few hours. So I want to make stuff that you guys actually value and want to learn about and it helps me to, inspires me to put the effort into this stuff. So had a handful of questions on hand care things over the last few weeks. It's like I think I'm going to make a video on that and they're like, oh, that'd be awesome. So here I am doing that. It's how easy it is to get me to make stuff that if you want to learn. So love you guys, see you in the gym. Let's have a great training week and yeah, hit me up if you got time.