Tips for taping or taking care of skin on hands?

[Drew Barquist]

The skin on my hands keeps tearing off when I snatch or clean, especially snatches though. The skin on the pads of my thumbs(both distal and medial phalanges) have a tendency to tear off, and I'm finding it difficult to tape them without the tape slipping off throughout the workout.

Anyone have tips to keep the skin on your hands tough and not tearing during workouts? Or any good taping techniques that could help?

P.S. I've tried using straps, but I hate lifting with them, they throw off my technique, take forever to use, and put some weird strain on my wrist in the snatch.

[Ian MacDonald]

Hey Drew, I use some elastoplast sport tape. Its about 1.5cm wide and i wrap a couple of times just below the joint. That seems to be all i need but i have tried wrapping the end of the thumb as well with a separate strip and that works well.

The tape i use is really sticky and that may be the key. It lasts a while as i quite often find it still on a few hours after i finish

[David Boyle]

Shankle rules!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otorSGl3sG0

[Greg Everett]

Yes, elastic athletic tape for the thumbs so you can cover the whole thing without preventing the joints from moving as needed. Use TiteGrip or something similar to kill the sweat and keep the skin a bit stickier under the tape.

Use fine grit sandpaper to keep calluses smooth (don't remove them, just keep them smooth with no rough edges - that's what causes tears usually).

Use Cornhuskers lotion every day to help heal them and toughen up the skin.

[Drew Barquist]

Thank you guys! Tons of great info, bought some elastic athletic tape, tite grip, and will see how those work. Been recently using corn huskers lotion and it works great, I like it better than Bag Balm.

Checked out Donny's video and he some great tips I hadn't heard of before, so I'll be putting those to use as well.

[Tyson Wright]

Any recommendations on where to buy elastoplast sport tape in the US? I was thinking Amazon.com...on a different note, when I searched for Tite-grip, I wasn't expecting info on pole dancing.

[Blair Lowe]

I like to tear half strips down the middle of a tape roll for fingers or in between the web of my thumb and index finger. Something we do a lot in gymnastics when making tape grips.

Cornhuskers. I've heard of Bag Balm, it's legend in gymnastics but will look for it soon. Thanks, Greg.

[Mike Ng]

Elastikon is another brand of elastic athletic tape that works well. I usually just get it off Amazon, although I've gotten really good deals on it off of ebay once or twice.

O'keefe's Working Hands lotion is another really good moisturizer that I've found to be really helpful as far as preventing callous tears and cracks.

[Allen Yeh]

I've never messed with tape but I plus Greg's recommendation for the cornhuskers lotion. I've always gotten mine on base something I use on my feet as well to prevent callus tearing during ruck marches and stuff. I think I first heard about that stuff from an article by Coach Burgener years ago.

[John Janecek]

Ped Egg.

Got one at target several years ago, best thing I have ever bought to keep rough spots smooth.....