Take Care of Your Thumbs!

That's the advice Rachel Siemens had to offer when we asked her how a CrossFit athlete turned Olympic weightlifter (who recently competed at her first international weightlifting competition in Russia) should take care of their hands. 

Although pull-ups and toes-to-bars are harder on her hands than Olympic weightlifting is, lifting barbells still causes her some problems from time to time.

“My hands are pretty much one giant callous. The boys love that, right?” she joked.

Sometimes her hands get specifically bad when she mixes it up and trains with the men’s bar. “I guess my callous build up specifically for the women’s bar and when I use the men’s bar, I expose a weak section of my thumb to the bar,” she explained.

Siemens admitted she doesn’t take care of her hands enough in terms of sanding them down with a pumice stone or a callous shaver; it’s her thumbs that cause her the biggest issues.

“When volume is high, I wrap athletic tape around my thumbs, and it helps for gripping the bar as well as protecting my skin.”

How RIPT Would Have Helped

"Using RIPT in the days and weeks leading up to the competition could have saved me a ton of troubles."

RIPT could have helped me in three different ways:

For one, the GRINDSTONE would have been a great way to thin and smooth out my rough, dry, thick callous that I knew was there but chose to ignore.

It is fast and simple – the best way to use it is while in the shower when your hands are soft - and easily would have kept my hands healthy and able to handle pull-ups and muscle ups on Day 1 and 100 chest to bar pull-ups on day 2.

Second, QUICK FIX could have been applied liberally to any smaller rips that inevitably may still have occurred due to the sheer volume of time spent hanging from a metal bar.

With its natural ingredients – essential oils, bee’s wax and coconut oil – QUICK FIX’s anti-bacterial and anti-viral ingredients also keep your hands from developing infections, as well as accelerate your body’s healing response.

Third, DAILY DOSE could have helped me leading up to the competition, as well as the weekend of the competition. In conjunction with the GRINDSTONE, my calluses would have been kept not only thin, but also hydrated and pliable and less susceptible to tragic mid-competition skin ripping.

Since the Regional competition, I started using RIPT. I used to rely on freshly manicured nails and multiple rings to keep my hands looking somewhat presentable; I was so embarrassed by my constantly cracked dry skin and ugly-looking rips that dominated my hands. At least my pretty colored nails keep me looking feminine, I thought.

But with RIPT in my life, my hands aren’t cracked all the time, and rips are preventable and easily treatable.

The point is, it pays to take the time to treat your hands well.