Ripped Hands

[vicjg]

Coach,

My deadlift has finally started to move after being stuck in the low 330's for a LONG time, I finally pulled 405 in a meet. In fact I pulled 430 a few inches before lockout, but ripped open my hand and dropped the damn thing. This has developed into a problem though and I'm not sure how to go about fixing it.

There is a picture in your book about grabbing the bar higher in the hand and then wrapping your fingers around the bar. My hands are so small and my grip so sh*tty that this is impossible. To give you an idea, I can't double overhand 225 for more than 3-4 reps. I've compensated by grabbing the bar lower in my hand (almost in my palm) and trying to wrap my entire hand around it. This has obviously caused some problems and everytime I DL I ripped open my hand and it bleeds all over the place.

I have another meet in ~9 weeks so waiting for the thing to heal isn't an option. But I also can't go around bleeding all over the place every week.

Do you have any suggestions?

[Mark Rippetoe]

The only thing you can do with small hands is to develop either a godawful strong grip lower in the fingers, or learn how to use an alternate monkey grip. This is done with the bar held in the fingers with the first knuckle after the hand held straight, and thus does not involve either the thumb or the fold of skin you keep pulling loose.

[Heather]

For the meantime, trim the skin flaps as much as you can, and use an antibiotic ointment and bandage over it to keep it soft and help it heal faster. (An open wound on the palm is bad, an infected open wound is worse.) A daily hot salt water soak also helps it heal faster. When training, there are a number of ways of taping up torn hands, here's a good one: http://www.crossfitinvictus.com/blog...y-june-2-2009/
And another: http://www.crossfitvirtuosity.com/ar...to-you-part-3/

For the long term, if you're not doing hand care then you oughta be. Get a ladies foot file, a pumice stone, and/or a callous shaver and go to work. (I use a heavy duty nail file made for artificial nails, but I'm betting you don't frequent beauty supply stores.) Anyway, they won't tear if you don't let them get too thick. Also, lotion at night, some people like the Corn Huskers stuff, I prefer good old Bag Balm.

[zephed56]

I find that if I keep my callouses filed down regularly they don't tear. If I don't, invariably something gets pulled open. Not sure how this helps you know though.

[Mark Rippetoe]

While you guys are busy looking up CrossFit videos, find the one where I told the folks in Chico how to keep from tearing up their hands by minimizing callus formation with the correct grip. Back in March or April on the main page.

[Heather]

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/C..._RipOnGrip.mov

[killyouintheface]

The only thing you can do with small hands is to develop either a godawful strong grip lower in the fingers, or learn how to use an alternate monkey grip. This is done with the bar held in the fingers with the first knuckle after the hand held straight, and thus does not involve either the thumb or the fold of skin you keep pulling loose.

Depending on how small the OP's hands are, could they possibly try a hook grip and lock the whole thing together that way?

It hurts like shit, but the bar's not going anywhere.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Small hands/short fingers/fat palms also prevent an effective hook, for the same reasons. The hook requires enough relative finger length to overlap the thumb and middle finger tips.

[quadancer]

As a longtime carpenter, ex dirt bike racer and ex-thug (before that was a word) I've had numerous hand injuries that weaken my grip. Still doing carpentry, I NEED my callouses that make my hands into 'gloves'.
So what I've done mostly is do all my dead training with a hook grip, what you called 'double overhand' as far as I can, and going heavier use the reverse grip, still hooking with the fingers. Occasionally do chin bar hangs with BW, until you drop.
Every day, the finger grip gets stronger, and now I can hook and pull reps with about 350 before needing to reverse it. But the boon of this is that I can easily pull ANY weight for a single, using reverse grip, even without chalk, because of this small modification in training.
Hope that helps- Gary.

[vicjg]

FWIW,

I could prob hook the DL if I could stand the pain, but the main issue (which has been addresses here, thanks by the way) is how to continue to train with a big f**king hole in my hand.

The tips on how to tape correctly are great. And I will be giving the monkey grip a test.

Thanks