Hand tears on Murph happen when 100 pull ups create more friction than your calluses were built to handle, and you prevent them by managing the friction: smooth maintained calluses, a relaxed grip, gymnastics grips, and caution around taped, knurled, or hot bars. Murph is coming this Memorial Day weekend, and a torn hand costs a fishing guide real money and anyone weeks of training. In this Physical Friday I share everything I have learned from tearing my own hands too many times. This is an audio episode, so press play and follow along.
Listen now: press play in the player above and follow along.
Manage the friction. Keep your calluses smoothed down with a pumice stone or callus razor so there are no thick edges or dry cracks to catch, relax your grip instead of death-gripping the bar, go easy on chalk, and watch out for anything that grips your skin harder than you are used to, fresh athletic tape, aggressive knurling, or a hot painted bar. Gymnastics grips add a leather layer between your palm and the bar and are what I use for almost all pull up work.
Your body builds a callus exactly where a repeated stimulus lands, and exactly as thick as that stimulus requires, which is a beautiful response. The tear comes when you ask far more of it than you trained, sets of 20 pull ups in training and then 100 on event day, especially combined with new friction like a knurled or freshly taped bar. The skin can only take so much, and when it goes, the whole callus rips off, about a two inch injury that hurts badly.
Three to watch: freshly taped bars, where your hand is basically cemented to the tape and every rep pulls the skin; aggressively knurled bars, which grip your skin instead of letting it slide the way your smooth home bar does; and hot bars, especially painted playground bars in midday sun, which blister the skin under the callus before the whole thing lets go. I watched a friend rip both entire palms off on a hot bar at around 25 toes-to-bar.
Yes, they are the best protection I have found. Mine range from old 2009-style flat leather pieces with two finger holes to the modern ergonomic ones, I like the Bear KompleX Rich Froning signature model. I have still torn underneath grips occasionally, so they are not perfect, but I wear them for pull ups, toes-to-bar, and even lifting. Some athletes flip them around for barbell work and back for the pull up bar within the same workout.
Clean it first, even though it hurts, wash with soap and water, then disinfect, betadine stings far less than alcohol. Do not use New Skin on day one, that is the most painful mistake I have made, save it for a couple of days in. I leave the skin flap on rather than cutting it off, add a little Neosporin, fold it down, and cover it. It heals fast, but expect to back off pull ups and grip work for a couple of weeks while the callus rebuilds.
Not the night before. If you have not been maintaining them, leave them alone right before an event, aggressive last-minute removal makes things worse. The right move is to make the pumice stone or callus razor part of your regular weekly routine, keeping calluses thick enough to protect but smooth through the middle and edges. I have even used a Dremel tool. A smooth callus protects you, a cracked, ridged one is a tear waiting to happen.
You will see CrossFitters posting torn palms like a badge of honor, and I get it, you did a lot of work, but a tear costs you weeks of training, and if you are a fishing guide it changes how you pole the boat and throw the cast net, which gets into your pocketbook. A carpenter cannot swing a hammer. In the episode I make the case for treating your hands like equipment. Press play above.
Here is the plan I walk through in this Physical Friday. I cover the details and stories in the episode.
I unpack each of these in the episode. Press play in the player above.
Your body is a perfect creation. Put a repeated stimulus on a patch of skin and it builds a callus exactly there, exactly as thick as the work demands. The problem is event day, when you ask for five times your training volume on an unfamiliar bar. I explain how the EVA workout, 150 pull ups and 150 kettlebell swings, has torn my hands twice even when I was being careful. Listen to the episode for the whole picture.
A friend of mine, mid-competition, jumped on a hot painted bar for 30 toes-to-bar. Around rep 25, both entire palms let go at once, the worst callus tear I have ever witnessed. Hot bars blister the skin underneath the callus before you feel a thing. I tell the full story, and what it taught me about midday outdoor workouts, in the episode, so press play above.
I hope you do not tear, I would not wish it on anybody. Smooth calluses, a relaxed grip, smart bar choices, and a pair of gymnastics grips will carry most people through 100 pull ups intact. If it happens anyway, you will deal with it, clean it, cover it, and rebuild.
Get out there, complete Murph in your record time, and remember why you are doing it, to honor those who served and sacrificed. Press play in the player above for the full episode.
Murph workout · Memorial Day · Lieutenant Michael Murphy · hand tears · calluses · gymnastics grips · Bear KompleX · Rich Froning · EVA workout · pumice stone · callus razor · pull up bars · chalk · betadine · fishing guide hands · Physical Friday · Tom Rowland Podcast
Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen — the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay in the game for life. Watch and listen to every Physical Friday episode from Tom Rowland.
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's Physical Friday series I share the training, nutrition, and recovery practices that keep fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen strong and healthy for life, in short, focused episodes you can put to use right away.
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