Hi Shane,
Is it better to wear gloves or build up hand callouses when lifting? If hand callouses are better, then what is the hand care to prevent painful bloody rips?
:)
Sunny
Hi Sunny,
Good question! Definitely building up calluses is the better route. When you wear gloves you remove bar feel. It's like the difference between driving a standard and automatic. There's an intangible "feel" of the road with a standard, and there's a similar "feel" to the bar that you just don't get when you wear gloves. Some people feel like the gloves give them a better grip because their hands get sweaty. For you guys.. use chalk! Chalk delivers the ultimate bar grip while retaining 100% bar feel!
Finally.. to prevent torn calluses... and the caveat here is that there is no perfect system for preventing them 100% of the time, but when you start to notice that the calluses are getting tipped or pointy and/or are starting to fold over a bit, it's time to get out some good old coarse sandpaper and just smooth them over a little. Get rid of the tip/point but don't get rid of the thickened base.
A number of years ago after three heavy months of deadlifting, I tore a good callus off my hand and yep..it was damn painful and bled like crazy! That was my lesson. Now every month or two I'll use some sandpaper to keep them even.
Hope that helps!
:)
Shane
Hi Sunny,
Good question! Definitely building up calluses is the better route. When you wear gloves you remove bar feel. It's like the difference between driving a standard and automatic. There's an intangible "feel" of the road with a standard, and there's a similar "feel" to the bar that you just don't get when you wear gloves. Some people feel like the gloves give them a better grip because their hands get sweaty. For you guys.. use chalk! Chalk delivers the ultimate bar grip while retaining 100% bar feel!
Finally.. to prevent torn calluses... and the caveat here is that there is no perfect system for preventing them 100% of the time, but when you start to notice that the calluses are getting tipped or pointy and/or are starting to fold over a bit, it's time to get out some good old coarse sandpaper and just smooth them over a little. Get rid of the tip/point but don't get rid of the thickened base.
A number of years ago after three heavy months of deadlifting, I tore a good callus off my hand and yep..it was damn painful and bled like crazy! That was my lesson. Now every month or two I'll use some sandpaper to keep them even.
Hope that helps!
:)
Shane
