Tough Hand Care

Got Calluses?

Congratulations! You can’t buy them anywhere, you’ve got to earn them. This post is about how to get them and keep them in good working order. I ditched my workout gloves probably about 15 years ago. Partly because I couldn’t find any that worked well for me no matter how much money I spent on them. I finally just let the body do what it does to protect its self. I let my hands develop a set of callouses and I never looked back. Yes, the initial jump start for calluses will be a bit painful. You’ll be alright though buttercup. Once you have some good ones, use a little gym chalk and you will never go back to using workout gloves no matter how cool looking you think they are right now.

What about Blisters?

When you first stop using the gloves you will most likely get some. It’s a part of the process for building calluses. I will tell you the way I was trained and often used as a Special Forces medic who has spent plenty of time in the middle of lots of jungles far away. Now, I’m not telling anyone to do this. I’m not that kind of doctor, so go sue somebody else. I’m only explaining what I have done and the results I’ve seen. When needing to treat blisters, I would used a sterile needle if I had one (sometimes all I could do was pass the tip of a safety pin through an open flame a few times). After giving it a few seconds to make sure it was not hot, I would poke the blister and squeeze out the fluid. This is necessary, because just continuing to work with a blister will only open it up all by itself. When that happens it will most likely rip open, cause more pain, and generally just make a mess. Not good. By puncturing the blister and squeezing out the juice, the top layer of skin remains intact allowing the tissue beneath to heal faster. That is to say to start building a callus to naturally protect the hands. It’s a beautiful process perfectly designed by our glorious Creator.

Taking Care of Calluses

Calluses are a lot like fingernails. Both are tough hard stuff with no feeling. That is unless you expose the live tissue from which they grow. Just like the longer your fingernails grow the greater the risk of having one pulled off and exposing the live tissue, calluses can also grow too big and need the equivalent of trimming just like nails do. A nail clipper is NOT recommended for calluses. However, I have found a perfect tool. I’m not sponsored or being paid in any what to promote this product. It’s just one that I use, that works great, and I can recommend with complete confidence that it is a genuinely good product. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the amazing Ped Egg.

I really like this thing. It’s advertised for shaving off the hard stuff that builds up on the feet. I learned the painful way that if I just let thickness on my feet continue to grow, it will eventually lead to cracked heals and pain. I tried to go to one of those nails shops that take care of feet, but I felt really out of place. Like I had just walked into the ladies room by mistake. That was years ago, but I have never really felt like ever getting another professional foot treatment. So, I bought the Ped Egg and it worked great. The thing I like about it the most is that it is really hard to shave off too much of the tough skin while using it. This is a real concern with some other products. If you aren’t careful you can easily be left worst off after having used them. In fact, I was so impressed with what the Ped Egg did for my feet, I decided to see what it would do for the calluses on hands. I was really happy to see that it worked just as well on my hands as it did on my feet.

When my calluses grow a bit too big, they start to cause a little pain. This is a good thing, because it draws my attention. Normally, I don’t think about my calluses at all. I just go to work. When I get a little pain from them though, I know it is time to shave them down a bit with the Ped Egg. This is necessary to prevent calluses from ripping off. It is as traumatic as it sounds. Harden skin torn off to expose the live stuff underneath, that’s what happens when you don’t take care of them when they need a little TLC. Take care of your calluses and they will take care of you. I can go months between when I need to shave my calluses. It really depends on what type of lifting I’m doing. It only takes me about a minute (hands need to be dry). And after trimming them up with the Ped Egg, they once again become pain free during my workouts.

The photo on the top is the before using the Ped Egg, and the one below was taken about one minute later after using it.

85 Days Out from the Charolette Cup?

Question mark because I maybe competing in an earlier contest in March instead of the Charolette Cup in April. Stay tuned and I will post the details soon. The big change I made this week was fasting on Tuesday and Thursday. I was looking to start this sometime in February, but if I’m going to get on stage a whole month earlier than I originally planned it’s time to start fasting two days a week now. I fasted all day after breakfast yesterday. Hopefully, I will get used to going to bed after fasting for about 10 hours without all the tossing, turning, and crazy dreams. Much harder to stay warm too. And this morning I was wondering if I would even be able to even complete my planned workout after doing my warm-up. It’s never a good sign when your normal warm-up nearly wears you out. I’m thinking that it was a combination of being carb depleted and not sleeping well that left me feeling much less energetic than usual. This was a really tough workout just to get it done. It’s the kind of workout that makes the workouts when I’m feeling good, so much more enjoyable.

This Morning’s Workout

PLANNED	ACTUAL	COMMENTS
Start/Finish – 4:30/6:00am	4:00-600am	The earlier wake up time is working great. Looks like it will be here to stay for awhile.
Daily Min. (Feet)	long version	Ends with getting my heart rate elevated a little, but usually only for a few breaths. Took a little longer to recover this morning.
Ab roller	10 reps
Light Dumbbells (with 5 pounders)	as planned	Chest: 3 moves, 30+1 reps each move Biceps: 5 moves, 30+1 reps each move Triceps: 5 moves, 30+1 reps each move
Patrick Step down	as planned	4 Supersets of 5 reps each side. Total of 20 reps each side. Right side is weaker with a little knee pain. Better than last week though.
Squating calf raise and standing tib raises superset	as planned	3 supersets of 30, 30, 30
Mandatory Poses	as planned	Zero juice left in the tank by this time. Ended up cutting it short.