I was at the gym about to leave a few weeks ago, when I overheard a couple discussing their calluses and how it was putting them off working with the bar or lifting anymore. This made me really sad to hear, so I went over and told them about some methods I had discovered that were helping me to manage my calluses. Their delight at hearing these survivor tips made me wonder if anyone else is being put off the gym by calluses, so I decided to write this post.
Calluses: Those horrible hard layers of skin that form over your hands. They are a pain and something that never affected me until a few months ago. In fact, I wasn’t really aware that there was a possibility of developing them on my hands during my training sessions so when they did form, I had no idea how to manage them.
If you are starting to do a lot of work with the bar, like pull-ups, or lifting, there is a chance that you will develop these calluses, especially if you aren’t wearing training gloves, due to the continual friction between the bar and your hand. Mine started to appear when I stopped wearing training gloves for bar work.
I do wear training gloves, but only when I am training with kettlebells, dumbbells, the sled or barbells. I have found that when working on my pull-ups, the training gloves don’t provide sufficient grip and so make the pull-up much harder. I’ll admit the feeling of holding the bar whilst doing pull-ups without gloves isn’t the greatest (wearing the gloves adds comfort) but the grip is much better. On the down side, the friction has resulted in a fair few calluses forming on my hands. What a lovely, pretty sight.
So here are three methods of managing calluses that have been effective for me: Pumice stones (the kind you can buy at The Body Shop or Boots) have been really effective in filing them down, but only when the calluses are large. But the magic item that has made the calluses almost disappear is…. foot cream for dry, cracked heels. I laughed when I discovered it, especially as Mean Girls popped in my head; the scene where Regina uses peppermint foot cream as an acne remover cream! I can’t take credit for working this out. I was at Boots and the sales assistant told me it worked for her.
Just apply the cream to your affected areas before you go to sleep. In the morning, apply again. After a few days of doing this repeatedly, it should mostly go away. I also have found using Aesop’s Geranium Leaf Body Cream works wonders as a hand cream, especially after using the Geranium Leaf Body Scrub. Your skin feels so soft and smells delicious. I have been obsessing over these two products for a long, long time now! The body cream really does maintain the moisture in your hands and keeps them feeling soft. Using the cream during the day or after use of the pumice stone on those calluses is a godsend. On another note, using chalk is a great alternative to wearing training gloves because it absorbs the sweat but still enables you to maintain a good grip without getting a ripped callus; I haven’t had one yet, but I have seen them. And they look painful.
Hope this was useful and let me know if you have ever used Cracked Heel Balm for your calluses. I’m curious to know who else knows about this product as a callus-remover. Leave a comment below or tweet me.
