Torn Up Hands?

CrossFit One World Advise & Photo:

1) Cut the chalk! Notice how white Doug's hands are. All that chalk is not helping your pull-ups and is not going to make your grip stronger. Chalk serves a purpose, to dry the hands so you can get better grip. I occasionally put a little chalk on my hands, then I make sure to rub my hands together until I no longer see any chalk. My hands are then dry, and I can grip the bar. When you heavily chalk your hands, your hands stick to the bar. You start kipping and all that violent movement transfers to your hands. If your hands don't slide a little you tear. People with a very pronounced kip tear even more when they use excessive amounts of chalk. I often hear people say that they have to chalk heavily because they sweat profusely through their hands. Try drying them with a towel and then lightly chalking them as I described.

2) Take care of your callouses! Look at the hands above. He has torn at all his callouses. If you are building up huge callouses on your hands, at some point they are going to tear. Knock those callouses down! You can use a nail file, cuticle cutters, or my favorite: a Dremel tool with a grinding stone on it. Jolie turned me on to this good advice: buy a good pumice stone and use it on your callouses in the shower when your callouses are warm and soft. And don't forget- your significant other will appreciate the fact that your hands do not feel like a cheese grater when you give him/her a massage!

3) Practice pull-ups with no kip! Dead hang pull-ups are an excellent way to build the strength to do pull-ups without a violent kip and make your kipping pull-up more proficient.

100 Day Burpee Challenge:
Day 23:
Burpee Buy-In: 276
Burpees Remaining: 4,774

Today's WOD:
Skills Work - Work on your weakness. Having troubles doing a sound clean ... today's the day to fix something!