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Painfull callouses


new2thegame

5-Apr-2005
4:08:56 PM

I have just recently amped it up to climbing twice a week and am finding that my callouses get sore about 1/2 way through the 2nd days climbing to the point where its affecting holding on.Any tips for relief out there?So far the crew at battlestar hardrock have suggetsted I seek out "klaus for zee lohshun for zee hans"


Gunta Skirtpulla

5-Apr-2005
4:26:46 PM

Jump onto the Uncarved Block website and buy yourself a tub of 'hand spooge'.
I've used it extensively for when you are climbing/bouldering 2 days on rock and it makes a big difference.
Also, on your last day on, you should try to sand or file down the callouses so they don't build up too
much over time and become potential flappers.


LittleMac

5-Apr-2005
4:31:02 PM

Welcome to the world of devolping tough hands. We all unfotunately go through it but as mentioned above we can assist ourselves by taking good care of our hands in between. Sanding down your callouses does work but be careful to make sure that you don't rub them flat as you will then have to endure the agony of actual blisters again.


nmonteith

5-Apr-2005
4:36:06 PM

Maybe its just my permanetly sweaty hands - but i have never had a callouse or had a flapper in 12 years of climbing. My hands just tend to get worn away generally and eventually go red raw. They are painfull all over - the thought of 'sanding' my hands down seems like luancy! Do others have the same problem?


LittleMac

5-Apr-2005
4:45:56 PM

On 5/04/2005 nmonteith wrote:
>Maybe its just my permanetly sweaty hands - but i have never had a callouse
>or had a flapper in 12 years of climbing. My hands just tend to get worn
>away generally and eventually go red raw. They are painfull all over -
>the thought of 'sanding' my hands down seems like luancy! Do others have
>the same problem?

I think my hands develop callouses from other activities (paddling, gym (ages ago) etc) and climbing just maintains them.

Rocky

8-Jun-2005
9:39:25 AM

I used to do gymnastics and i was taught to put methylated spirits on my blisters, then put some moisturiser on it before you go to bed that night. i didnt put much moisturiser on but i found that the methylated spirits worked well on the red raw blisters, it was rather painful and stung a lot, but it dried out the skin and it didnt hurt so much the next time i had training. i find nowadays that i dont get those kind of blisters, there just dead bits of skin that i can rip of, then again i'm not exactly cranking out the 30's etc.

As for a quick fix whilst your out climbing, fill the blister with chalk, rubbing it in, its not to painful, but it lets you continue climbing, i dont do this because i'm not a chalk user, but thats what i did at gymnastics to help me get through the session.

Tim

James

8-Jun-2005
9:27:50 PM

I've always had callouses as long as I've been climbing, then get bigger, tear, come off, get bigger etc but
never ever hurt. bouldering on wood hold used to get really sore - red & raw (it was worse in the hot humid
summer). lots of indoor plastic climbing can be similar (but not as bad as on wood).


Tav

8-Jun-2005
10:05:37 PM

On 5/04/2005 new2thegame wrote:
>I have just recently amped it up to climbing twice a week and am finding
>that my callouses get sore about 1/2 way through the 2nd days climbing
>to the point where its affecting holding on.Any tips for relief out there?So
>far the crew at battlestar hardrock have suggetsted I seek out "klaus for
>zee lohshun for zee hans"

This happens to me sometimes. It's just getting used to it. If I boulder for the first time in a while or come back from time out or something it happens. Normally just resting up for a couple of days helps. I've found that it happens mostly if the skin at the base of my fingers gets pinched against a hold and then ground into it. It takes a couple of days to go away and the only cure I've found is more climbing. (Oh what a horrible cure!)

Lol. Good old Klaus...lotion is a personal thing. I've got friends who use it everyday they've climbed and others who say they learned through rowing that it only makes the chance of flappers worse. I don't because I like callous and also because it seems logical to me that softening your hands would take longer for them to toughen up and stuff. I know my harp teacher tried to throw a chair at me when I told her I'd used hand lotion once (you build callous on your finger tips when you play the harp. trust me, you need it)


Uncle Chester

9-Jun-2005
10:45:43 AM

taking a piss on your hands while in the shower, helps somehow...
i think it has something to do with that your urine is a little acidic


cheesehead

9-Jun-2005
11:26:49 AM

I think that's more of a humility thing Ches'*

Neil, Yes sanding is lunacy. Less so than climbing in the first place. It works. So does Climb On (TM) Cream. THE GOODS for busted up hands.

*a mate of Paulie's and mine told us about an older dude who went winter climbing in Scotland for the first time, and just couldn't warm his hands up again. He ended up peeing on them, which did the trick. Climb on! I think I'll coil my own rope said the guide


LouK

9-Jun-2005
11:38:38 PM

I did gymnastics too... they said metho or tea bags.... if you leave the tea bags out for a day... til they're not quite dry, and then leave them on for a while, it does work, soothes and heals. But i used metho mainly on my hands.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

10-Jun-2005
5:31:41 PM

Sanding the callouses does actually work up to a point*. Try brickies labouring without gloves for a while and your hands toughen up but with worn callouses, which keeps the flexibility.

*If you wear your fingers hands to the point of not having finger-prints then you have gone too far and it won't help!
:P


mousey

10-Jun-2005
7:48:10 PM

i had a wee paragraph in rock a couple issues ago about this, (bastards left out all the good parts about wankingwith emery paper wrapped around your appendage)
anyhow, anhydrous wool fat from the chemist, get a small tub, smear it on ya hands before beddy, put on some cotton gloves or somethingto save the sheets, sleep.
also, i have found that rest days tend to work well, or the seemingly less travelled road that works well is to stop being such a nancy.


sabu

10-Jun-2005
10:42:30 PM

On 9/06/2005 Uncle Chester wrote:
>taking a piss on your hands while in the shower, helps somehow...
>i think it has something to do with that your urine is a little acidic

i almost choked on my coffee when i read this!!!!
DUDE!!!


steph

12-Jun-2005
11:01:14 PM

don't know about the shower thing.... but in my opinion your hands will naturally harden over time as callouses cover callouses and you grow a glove. (not the most attractive look on females) however it's great for climbing.

Also I've heard a lot about using metho and other 'skin hardening' substances people use. My advice is to simply MOISTURISE hands after climbing cos eventually you'll find that with softer yet more built up skin, you'll never tear a flapper larger than one layer. If you've hardened the skin too much, it's hard for it to regrow over it - and when it tears count yourself out of any serious climbing for a long while cos you lose half the width of your finger. eww yuk just thinking about it!!


Super Saiyan

13-Jun-2005
5:32:13 PM

On 12/06/2005 steph wrote:
(not the most attractive look on females)

climber chicks with calluses are hot!


cheesehead

13-Jun-2005
5:37:46 PM

So are lasses with more muscley shoulders than me


mousey

13-Jun-2005
5:44:38 PM

but matt ive heard that you've got shoulders like an 8 year old computer nerd...is that true??? :P


Tav

13-Jun-2005
7:46:40 PM

On 12/06/2005 steph wrote:
(not the most attractive look on females)
>
you'll find that with softer yet more built up skin, you'll
>never tear a flapper larger than one layer.

**sigh** why doesn't anyone love my callouses the way I do? So THAT'S why you moisturise Steph! I never did quite understand it. Does it take long to get soft yet strong skin? (did you like my alliteration steph and cheesehead my english buddies?) I mean, I reckon it'd suck until they got that way. It'd like be climbing on virgin fingers every time you climb (teehee note the assonance. Ok. shutting up. Over tired) for at least a month....


cheesehead

14-Jun-2005
7:35:01 AM

12 y/o!!

There are 22 messages in this topic.