Over the next week, I’m going to be peppering in some good articles about hand care. We, as CrossFitters, love to show off our banged up hands. It’s like a badge of honor. Except for one thing – it sucks when it keeps you from training. Your first rip is like a rite of passage. Rips after that are generally from poor hand care. So, this first post is about the fine white powder we have all come to know and love: chalk!
Before I link to the article that does a good job of explaining ‘chalk guy’ and ‘chalk girl’ (you know who you are!), I want to expand on one point they gloss over relatively quickly – while chalk is great for providing some dryness on your hands so that you can more safely hold onto the pullup bar/kettlebell/barbell, too much chalk is actually quite detrimental to your hands. Since chalk dries out the hands so well, it also creates a lot of friction between your hands and whatever you’re holding onto. You also get a lot of friction from swinging a kettlebell, doing cleans and snatches with a barbell, and doing lots of kipping pull-ups. Combining the two sources of friction is a recipe for disaster to your precious, supple hands. This is actually what causes your hands to tear. So, if you’re one of those that has an inch worth of chalk on your hands and/or you chalk up the bar, be prepared for rips/tears/bleeding/pain! A ‘light dusting’ of chalk (after you dry your hands with a towel, duh!) is more than enough to keep your grip worthy.
And now, for the funnies, click here. Some of my favorite points:
– “We also have the athlete that subconsciously re-chalks every time their hands leave the bar. Clock is running and you are losing the race at the chalk bucket!”
– “Remember Mark Rippetoe’s famous quote: “if you insist on wearing gloves, make sure they match your purse!” This goes for chalk gloves too.”
I could really care less if you wear gloves, to each their own. But man, that was funny!
I challenge everyone to do this WOD sans chalk:
A. Skill –
Handstand Practice
B. WOD –
3 RFT:
Run 400m
7 Clean and Jerks
