CrossFit: How to Take Care of Your Hands?

CrossFit is a sport as comprehensive as it is intense. While it is recognized for improving cardiovascular capacity, strength, endurance, and self-confidence, CrossFit is tough on the skin of the hands. Yet, if you want to improve and reach your goals, an efficient grip—without any injuries—is essential. How to take care of the skin of your palms, prevent and repair injuries, and progress calmly: we tell you everything!

CrossFitters: Focus on Prevention

Prevention is better than cure: this is also true in CrossFit.

Between gymnastics movements, working with dumbbells, pull-ups, or even dumbbells, your hands will inevitably come into contact with bars during the WODs (workout of the day).

Pamper your skin to strengthen it

The skin is made up of more than 80% water. When it no longer retains enough moisture, it loses its flexibility and becomes sensitive. In a CrossFit gym, the regular use of chalk is one of the main causes of skin dryness on the hands. Whether liquid or solid, while it’s very useful for preventing sweaty palms, it can also weaken the skin and increase the risk of injury.

To avoid this, the best approach is to adopt a preventive routine by hydrating before each of your WODs. The Ritual After Sport combines hyaluronic acid (a hydration champion molecule) and the RGTA complex, a patented innovation that promotes skin cell regeneration. Fluid and odorless, it leaves no greasy film on the skin.

File the Calluses

Regularly handling bars, ropes, or bands leads to thickening of the skin, especially at the base of the phalanges. It’s a natural process, but it can become painful. Moreover, when calluses become too thick, they tend to crack and lead to tears. To prevent this, file them frequently. After your shower, use a fine-grained rasp on the calluses before moisturizing.

Equip Yourself to Protect Your Hands

In CrossFit, grips protect the palms from blisters and tears. They are also useful for improving adhesion, grip, and stability. In short, grips are real allies!

Grips with holes are ideal for exercises like pull-ups because they help the skin adhere better to the bar. They allow the fingers to maintain full mobility. However, since they don’t cover the entire palm, injuries can still occur. As for whether two-hole or three-hole grips are better, it mostly depends on the size of your hands.

As for hole-free grips, they are easy to put on and take off. They cover the entire palm, offering full protection. However, hole-free grips can sometimes be less adhesive. They’re perfect for sessions where you know you’ll apply significant pressure on your hands, without needing too much precision.

To protect not only your hands but also your fingers, some CrossFitters swear by adhesives designed for custom protection of the knuckles, wrists, or palms.

To Protect Your Hands, Work on Your Grips!

What is grip?

In CrossFit, grip refers to the technique of how you hold on to something. A good grip combines strength and quality of the hold. Training it helps to improve performance (your movements are more efficient, you fatigue less), and safety. Grip will help limit the risk of falls, poor movements, while protecting your palms.

To progress and prepare your hands, if you’re a beginner, start with just a few sets, then gradually increase the pace as your hands get used to it.

The Toes-to-Bar Grip

As the name suggests, during a toes-to-bar, athletes aim for their feet to touch the bar they are hanging from. An effective toes-to-bar grip not only provides a more efficient posture but also reduces the friction effects on the palms. Thus, gripping the bar with the fingers and locking it with the thumb underneath is safer and gentler on the palms.

The Hook Grip

This grip is a classic: it’s the one used for holding barbells to lift them. However, if executed poorly, you risk dropping the bar (especially if your hands are sweaty) and causing tears. Hook the bar with your thumb, then grab it with your index and middle fingers. This grip can cause discomfort in the thumb: to get used to it, protect it with an adhesive.

Bar Muscle-Up

During the bar muscle-up, the hand rotates on the bar. This creates a large range of friction. To limit the friction, wrist position is particularly strategic: slightly tilting it forward. More experienced CrossFitters can therefore consider keeping their thumb above the bar.

After the WOD: Repair and Heal

At the first signs of injury: stop. Yes, even if you’re in the middle of a WOD! Continuing will only worsen the damage.

The first thing to do is wash your hands thoroughly with a mild soap to remove any impurities. Dry them with a clean towel.

Have pieces of skin torn off? Don’t pull them! If they’re small, leave them. If they’re large enough to be bothersome, you can consider cutting them with sanitized scissors.

Soothe the burning sensation and help your skin start its healing process in the best conditions by applying a generous amount of Bye Bye Burn. In the following days, rest your hands to give your skin time to regenerate.

Leave the wound exposed to the air. Clean it regularly with mild soap and dry it thoroughly before reapplying your repair balm. Thanks to the RGTA’s action, your skin will regain its original structure while becoming stronger.