THIS IS NOT COOL!!!!

Torn palms. What causes it? Usually, it is caused by high rep pull-up workouts done by folks who have to use a HUGE kipping movement to perform a pull-up. The kipping pull-up is a fantastic gymnastic movement to get you from below the bar to chin over the bar. In gymnastics, it is performed all the time.... but not over and over again. A huge kip done in high reps is likely going to tear up your palms. If you get stronger at pull-ups, you won't have to use such a violent kip to get over the bar. The huge kipping pull-up is, in all actuality, a cheat to get a pull-up.

This picture appeared on www.crossfit.com last Friday:
No offense to anyone, but the fact of the matter is that if you do a kip this huge, you do not have the strength to do a solid pull-up repeatedly. If this huge kip is what you need to do to get through a high rep pull-up workout, I am not going to stop you, but do a kip this extreme and somewhere after 50 reps (or sooner) most of you are going to shred your palms.

What is with the CrossFit fascination with torn hands? I have to admit, I am sure I have posted a picture of torn palms in the past (though I am pretty sure it was a long time ago). Torn palms are not a "Badge of Honor." Torn palms are an INJURY! Would you not all agree that it is hard to train when you have an injury?

I have to tell this story.... I program workouts for an amazingly strong young lady who trains at a CrossFit gym in Utah. The other night, she text me pictures of her hands after a high rep pull-up workout. Both the palms had tears of the callouses. I sent her a text back that said "Buy some gloves. Try to find some thin ones that won't affect your grip on the bar." She sent me back the message, "Gloves are for pussies! Would you wear gloves?"

The answer is a wholehearted "YES!" Luckily I rarely ever tear, so I have not had to wear gloves, but..... GLOVES ARE NOT BAD!!!

Why is there a problem with gloves? If you don't ever tear your palms open does that mean you are not a true "CrossFitter?" That is a silly way to think. I can TOTALLY understand if you don't wear gloves because it affects your ability to get a good handhold on the bar. Most traditional weightlifting gloves have padding in the palm. The padding can make it hard to get your grip all the way around the bar, especially if you have small hands. Try some leather work gloves and experiment from there. (You can cut the fingers off if you want to look more "hardcore")   

Chong and I had a great conversation about this the other night. If you injured your knee during a workout, wouldn't you stop? If you were not smart enough to stop, then I, as your trainer, would make you stop. This same train of thought needs to happen with a torn palm injury. That being said, if you tear your palm during a workout, the trainers at One World are going to make you stop your workout. We don't want your blood on the bars, and we do not need you injured and no longer able to perform anything that demands a solid grip.

Torn hands are lame.

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Interested in competing on the One World Affiliate Cup team? Show up Sunday at 9am for a team workout. 

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The Free Sunday Session at 10 am is on. See you all there!

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Comments

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I take care of my hand using the ped egg and making sure I don't over chalk the bar or my hands. But I still rip in my higher rep workouts. How is it i'm supposed to keep my hands from ripping even though I take every precaution there is?

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Laser-eye Surgery. I never even considered this. The idea of
physically altering your eye seemed like ill-advised, too good to be
true, and would rather just put up with wearing glasses then risk it.
(You don't want to mess up your eyes). But something made me think it
could work for the first time -- that thing is Peter Jackson (King
Kong). I'd love to know what he has done. He used to wear glasses, but
now has no problem without them. If there was ever proof of eyes
working from an operation like that, it is his amazing artistic
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[Matt Lentzner]

An even better question is whether 100+ rep PU WODs are even worth doing.

[Jeb Smith]

I agree tearing your hands isn't fun, and it can affect training.

But I am a 265 lb male and I don't have a big kip at all, even in my higher rep workouts. I take care of my hand using the ped egg and making sure I don't over chalk the bar or my hands. But I still rip in my higher rep workouts. How is it i'm supposed to keep my hands from ripping even though I take every precaution there is?

[KA]

#1 Learn how to tape your hands for pullups. Lots of ways to do it without it coming off on high reps...just play with it.

#2 Don't use chalk...just wipe off your hands. Chalk causes tears by keeping your skin dry.

#3 Don't use bars or rings with tape on on them. Dumbest idea ever...ever...

[Chris]

Gymnastic grips work well for high-rep pull-ups: http://www.atafa.com/sports/products/GYMNASTIC_HANDGRIP_piece-279571.html

Also, using a Ped Egg several times a week works wonders: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16896837001&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Houseware-_-Telebrands-_-96837001

[Anthony Bainbridge]

Freddy!! Apologies if the above sounded like me being a hard ass. I just hate gloves. :P

[Anthony Bainbridge]

Tears definitely suck and I'll never congratulate someone for it, but they aren't an excuse not to train.

Take care of your hands so that you don't tear in the first place. We spend a lot of time teaching our people how to maintain their hands and almost no one tears.

Even if you do tear, there are things you can do to work around it. My personal recommendation: start with peroxide (this won't really do much other than numb the area a bit), wash with soap and water, dry hands, apply NewSkin (stings, but works), and tape before a workout.

Uncomfortable, sure. But it won't prevent you from accomplishing your task.

PS - Nothing in that picture is even worth discussing ... minor blisters that just need to be clipped off and taped over.

[Charlie]

Glad you said this. When necessary, I use NewGrips. But I mostly try to do standard pull-ups (only kipping during very high-rep workouts). The whole Crossfit line that kipping is somehow challenging your body more than strict pull-ups is BS. Fact is, kipping is taking easy-to-generate horizontal motion and converting it to harder-to-generate vertical motion. I'm sick of hearing that strict pull-ups are for wimps because kipping generates more power. Standard pull-ups are clearly more difficult than kipping pull-ups, so I'm not sure how anyone believes that nonsense.

There are some good things about Crossfit, and I still incorporate some of the workouts into my schedule. But geez, the level of dogma in the CF community is nauseating. The programing is often flawed, the stigma attached to people who are trying to nurse injuries is dangerous, and the hordes of drones who defend all this is what drove me out of my CF box.

[Melodia]

I dunno if anyone mentioned it before, but for those of us who are Firefighters, the vast majority of us are Firefighter-EMT's... and it's awfully hard to perform patient care and assessment w/ injured hands. The tears leave you vulnerable to infection as well if you are exposed to pathogens and have a glove fail or need to change gloves repeatedly, not to mention hard to heal with how often we have to wash our hands. Yay Freddy, for mentioning this.

[g]

weightlifting gloves ARE gay but gloves for large rep PU's are just smart. use either leather batting gloves, similar type football gloves or even thin leather gloves from a police uniform supply shop... i've used all three and they all work great [if you dont want to look like gay, like most traditional lifters do, put 'em on do the work and take 'em off... i hate those guys who strut around in them!

[David B.]

I've actually changed over to kipping chin-ups for fran and other metcons...and it's actually better. I saw that greg a. did this...I go faster this way.

[Playoff Beard]

Just make sure the gloves match your purse ;-)

[Chad]

Freddy,

I've been following since the new strength focus and everything you are saying is making sense, The strength workouts have been excellent and your advise has been spot on. Keep it up.

Thanks from Alaska,

Chad

[Anna]

Been there, done that! The stronger I get the less I have been tearing, YAY! But 100 pull-ups will probably still wreck my hands ;0) I am noticing that my kip doesn't to have to be as huge to get over the bar now. Now about those strict pull-ups...yikes!!

[grambo]

Thanks for saying this, it needs to be said.

Also one shouldn't worry about maintaining callouses with a stone, it's normal, weightlifters and powerlifters do this. Callus = injury = wasted time not able to train properly.

[Daron]

THANK YOU! Finally, a voice of reason! So the globo jackasses think I'm a pussy because I kip and my fellow crossfit friend thinks I'm a pussy because I use gloves. It's like, "Dude, I can't win!" But I found these online and I really like'em! http://www.newgrip.com/ I just did "Barbara" yesterday and used them for the pull-ups. They're made of neoprene and DO NOT cause you to slip like leather gloves do. The only downside is that sometimes when I come off the bar, the glove comes flying off because they don't wrap around your hands (it's more like a palm pad) but it's not that big a deal. Just pick it back up or attach'em to the wrist straps with the velcro they come with. I do recommend these as a solid alternative to leather gloves, though.

[Danny_CrossFit Santa Clara]

Freddy, love the opinion on hand tears. I used to tear my callouses about once every other month and every time I did it took about two weeks for them to fully recover. That meant no pull ups, snatches, or cleans for two weeks...It sucks! Now I use a pumice stone on my callouses every night in the shower (I know it's kinda gay, but it works and Khalipa recommended it it! haha). Anyway, good call on comparing hand tears to any other injury, it's a total setback in your training. Thanks for the great blog you provide us all.

[loveyourhands]

Tight fitting gardening gloves work well.