How to Tighten up After You’ve Ripped Open a Corn
If you do a lot of deadlifts or other grueling exercises like pull-ups, you probably have calluses on your hands. And if you don’t take care of the calluses, sooner or later one of them will burst. Fortunately, you don’t need to stop lifting while you wait for it to heal.
Why do calluses break?
Callus is a thickening of the skin that occurs in response to pressure. While corns protects to some extent, the tough layers of skin that can form on corns can be more problematic if you keep them close at hand than if you don’t. As the surgeon explained in our article on calluses , due to too many crusts, the dead skin leaves the callus vulnerable to tearing, cracking, or further irritation (such as when doing a lot of reps).
To prevent this, take care of the blisters before they reach this stage, using, if necessary, a nail file or pumice stone, or even a razor for corns (assuming that you will be careful not to cut yourself on the live skin). You can do this in the bath or after a shower; or you can do it after your workout when your skin is dry and chalk-coated. Both methods work, although you may prefer different tools for each scenario.
How to protect a torn corn
First cleanse the area and gently remove the dead skin. You can apply a bandage or tape if it is on an area of the arm where you think the bandage will remain, but this is often not possible.
Ironically, gymnasts and climbers often protect their severed hands with a balm that keeps the skin moist. There are various brands like Joshua Tree Healing Salve or Ript Quick Fix . Something like Vaseline will probably do.
But this is just skin care. What do you do when you come to the gym and you have a callus on the top of your hand that prevents you from sticking the tape on and even hurts to lift the bar? Then it’s time to do the tape grip.
How to make better tape grip
To do this, you’ll use sports tape – a fabric you can find at any drug store – but you’re not going to stick it to your skin.
Instead, make a grip around your finger and attach it to your wrist. This video from Fight or Flight Academy is a great tutorial. The steps are as follows:
- Cut a long piece of tape and fold it in half with the sticky sides together.
- Use scissors to make a plus-shaped notch about an inch from the folded end. This becomes a hole in which you can stick your finger.
- Place the folded tape in the palm of your hand and secure it to your wrist by wrapping it around your wrist. The only tape that sticks to the skin is the fabric on the wrist.
The resulting strap grip is loose enough to allow your arm to flex and bend as needed, but keeps your sensitive callus from contacting the deadlift bar (or chin-bar or kettlebell). Try the next time you run into a torn hand, and then buy a callus removal tool so that it doesn’t happen again.