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A few weeks ago, I was in Miami for a private series of workshops and a bachelorette party. I was in prep mode for my book's photoshoot, so I hit up my friend's gym.
The day's workout
The line up for the 21 minute AMRAP is the kind of stuff I live for in a workout. It's the kind of workout where you're pretty sure you might throw up but you somehow are able to keep going and at the end you can barely walk but you feel ah-mazing.
So as my friend James was going over toe to bars, he cautioned us to watch the grip, and advised wrapping the thumb around the bar or we'd surely rip our hands up. Now I'm pretty new to toe to bars but I felt like I was ok and didn't need to wrap the thumb. Out of habit, I'd just always had my thumb over the bar next to all my other fingers.
We went through the entire workout, and my hands were just fine. Prior to the workout, James had taught me this trick to getting right into the toe to bars (push the bar away and point your toes) so after the workout, I wanted to play around with that a little bit more.
I did twenty, and on my last one, I ripped my hand. Hahaha. Let's just say it didn't feel great. The shower afterwards? YIKES. I put some coconut oil on it, because let's be real, that shiz heals everything from sunburns to new tattoos to relationship problems.
Day two and three came and went and I couldn't put my hand flat on the floor for yoga, and babied it like crazy. I kept applying coconut oil and one of my girl friends gave me a homemade salve with lavender and more coconut oil and that seemed to really help!
By day four I was ready to get back on the horse, so I taped it up as shown above. I used some old hockey tape we had laying around, and did the following:
1. Cut one long strip a little bit longer than twice the length of your palm.
2. Fold the strip so the two sticky sides are attached to each other.
3. Use a pair of scissors to cut a hole for your finger to slide through.
4. Put your finger through the hole, and lay the strip down the palm so it covers your rip.
5. Cut another piece of tape about twice the length of your forearm.
6. Place the end of that second piece under the end of the strip that is covering your rip. Fold that second piece over so the two sticky sides stick to one another and the strip that covers your rip is secured by the second strip.
7. Wrap that second piece around you like a bracelet and secure with a piece of tape.
8. Hit the gym.
That was great, and worked like a charm. After working out, though, my rip felt raw and hurt quite a bit. Plus, the chalk dried it out even more and it was just gross. I washed it immediately after my workout with soap and hot water, and then dried it thoroughly and put more coconut oil on it. I didn't cover it with a bandage or anything because I wanted it to be able to breathe.
By day five, the rip was a lot better and well on its way to healing. By day ten, it was a thing of the past.
I found myself unable to really commit to the toe to bars after that though, and I wound up getting a pair of gymnastics grips from Rogue (although these look the same and are cheaper). At first, I was slipping and sliding everywhere and therefore still couldn't commit to being on the bar. But then, I used chalk (I have this chalk) which provided some friction and rubbed the grips back and forth along this new bar my gym has that's sort of spikey and that wore them in perfectly. Now, I'm good to go!