Rips And Tears

If you CrossFit for long enough, you'll either witness or fall victim to the picture above. Somebody stays on the pull-up bar for too long, or messes something up on the barbell. Callouses rip, hands will tear, and the end result is a minor injury that can keep you out of action for a while.

Though ripping your hands open is viewed by many in the community as a sort of right of passage, in reality it's a largely avoidable injury that people have little to no excuse for incurring.

If you know that you're running through a WOD that has the potential to shred your hands, you might want to consider taking the time to tape up your hands. Don't know how to do that? Check out this article from Rifs Blog and you'll be an expert in no time.

Just for the record, chalk is also a great tool to use to help avoid tears. However, when used in excess, chalk can actually help to tear your hands up faster. When chalk gets built up on your callouses, it makes it easier for the bar to grip the skin on your hands, thus making it easier for your hands to get shredded. If you use chalk, be cool and use it sparingly.

My worst experience with tearing my hands up came at the end of my first day at my level 1 certification at Rogue Fitness in July 2009. At the end of the first day at every cert, all 60 of the participants get run through a workout. The workout we got put through was Fran (21-15-9 rep rounds for time of thrusters and pull-ups). I made it through the first round of pull-ups unscathed. The second round ripped my hands open just enough for the third round to shred them even more. It's amazing how much damage 45 pull-ups can do. The second day, I had to tape my hands up and wear gloves just to get through the hands-on portions of the training (including muscle-up and pull-up progressions). Lesson learned for next time...

My hands, post-Fran at the July 09 Rogue Fitness L1 cert. Not as graphic as the picture above, but proof positive that blood doesn't have to be shooting out of your palms to have messed your hands up something fierce...

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WOD 101213 Monday

Warm-up

S/S: Overhead Squat technique work, 10 minutes. Follow that up with a max rep effort of Overhead Squats at 95/65#.

WOD: Complete 4 rounds for time of:

-20 Wallballs, 20/14#

-20 Sumo Deadlift High-pulls, 65/45#

Finish: MobilityWod of your choice.