WAG Toughen up hands?

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SurpriseGymMom

Coach
Proud Parent
is there a way to toughen up hands to not get rips? DD is just starting to do giants and is not one of those super light, super strong gymmies. Her hands are getting ripped left and right. I totally understand that it happens and its part of being a gymnast, she's not complaining and neither am I. I would like to see if there's anything we can do to make it a little better though... She knows how to deal with rips once they happen, this is more to prevent them. :)
She will be upping her hours quite a bit over summer and she's a little concerned. Our gym doesn't allow the girls to use grips until at least L8 (which she is not, obviously). They can use homemade tape grips if they have rips.
Any tried and true tips??? Thanks!!
 
Wow, it's always so interesting to see other gym's philosophies on grips...level 8 seems high! Our gym enforces grips at level 4 once they start jumping to the high bar, so that the gymnasts have time to get used to them throughout the levels.

Anyway, for rips...

Her hands will naturally toughen up with the increase of hours at the gym and increased workouts on bars. She will likely come home with a lot more calluses. This is good! It means that the skin on her hands is getting tougher. Now as far as caring for the calluses, it's important to file (not cut!) them down occasionally so that they don't catch on the bar and rip open. The thicker the callus, the thicker the rip. So it is important to file them down, just not too far! They are still important in toughening up the hands. Pumice stones work great, just be careful to again not file them down TOO much and to not irritate the "soft" skin around the calluses. After filing them down, coat her palms in a thick salve/ointment such as Bag Balm, which can be purchased at Walgreens. This stuff works great to treat fresh rips but will also work as a hand conditioner to prevent rips. (Side note: this stuff is also used on cow's utters to prevent them from cracking or splitting).

Now for when she has rips, make sure it gets entirely clipped, don't leave any skin hanging! I've also heard GREAT things about "Rip Guardian" which you can buy on GymSupply. It's a wax-like substance that you mold over your rips to act as skin. Some of the optional gymnasts use this at my gym and love it, saying they can't even feel their rips at all! It's also supposed to prevent infection as opposed to swinging bars with an open wound. The girls at my gym mold this onto their rips and then put their grips over it, but your DD could just use a tape grip instead.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
 
Vitamin E ointment on the rip! Breaking open a capsule and putting the liquid on the rip works as well. Put it on religiously and it'll heal very quickly.

As far as toughening... bars and rope, bars and rope, bars and rope, etc.
 
Bag balm is the best. With the start of callus put thick layer of bag balm over it, place sterile gauze pad then wrap with athletic tape around hand. Do this at bedtime and in morning skin will be smooth, it's the rough dry callus that will become the rip. Same process with an open rip, depending on depth it can take a night or two. Tough hands are not dry hands keep her skin conditioned. Your DD will look like a prize fighter at bedtime but trust me it works wonders !!
 
Rips happen as do calluses. With or without grips.

Our gym doesn't do grips at level 4.

Not sure what goes into what level and who. Because I try not to stress it until we get there, and coach says not yet, we'll let you know. So off my radar.

I do know not all our gymmies at higher levels have grips.
 
yes. work more bars. :) there is no magic bullet on this one.
Yeah and as far as I understand being new to giants means a lot of rips. My ds recently went through this, a few weeks of awful rips and then his hands began to toughen back up.

It will get better soon.
 

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