Protect your hands!
Ripped hands as a “rite of passage” isn’t cool— they are no joke!
Ripped hands prevent/hinder you from doing things not only in the gym, but outside the gym as well! Our coaches see them as injuries, so we will try and help you prevent them as much as possible. So some basic rules to prevent ripping:
Grip the bar right! Basic rule of PINKY— try and get the pinky knuckle as far on top of the pull-up bar as possible. Without getting too complicated, it allows you to have the most efficient and effective grip by creating a shorter lever to perform swinging movements from. Note it takes time to develop strength in this position!
Develop your calluses, and keep them in check. Inevitably, in order to get better on the pull-up bar, you need to develop calluses. Gloves can hinder this development, and so can grips. Once you develop some good, smooth calluses, grips go a long way! Once you develop them, keep them in check by making sure they aren’t to raised from the palm/fingers on the hand. And now….
Get some grips! Grips (if used correctly) serve one very important purpose: it provides a layer between the bar and your hands that helps prevent your skin from becoming over-stretched and ripping. It differs from gloves because it can actually attach to the bar, removing the sliding surfaces and friction that can cause skin rips. Now lets talk about 2 ways to use them:
The Dowel
This is the most popular and recommended way. This will require you to have grips that are not too small as well as a little trial and error to see what works for your hand.
Essentially this mimics a gymnast who use actual dowels that lock onto the bar. The grip folds over the bar, sticks to it with friction, folds back to the fingers, and the pressure moves from the hand and into the wrist + Grip.
Do note that this does take lots of practice to get used to as well as finding out the right fold for you.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VwbCOcMFpA for even more detail!
The Slapover
This one is a little more advanced, but is pretty much the same as the dowel with less fold, and A TON of pressure on the wrist.
This method creates a strap effect where the entirety of your swing stress is placed on the grip and into the base of the grip. You’ll need to have plenty of experience with the basic dowel as well as good awareness of how to manipulate your grips to take pressure off your hands. However, if you do figure this out, its almost like you don’t have to grip the bar at all.
Note: if you don’t have high quality grips, you can risk completely ripping your grips from the pressure.
All in all, if used correctly, and not dependent on them, grips can play a huge part in the protection of your hands! Remember to learn and develop our first 2 points above, and then look into grabbing some quality grips! Not all grips are made equal, so be sure to talk to a coach or athletes at the gym for their preferences! (Our recommendation is www.victorygrips.com. This isn’t an ad and we don’t get any kickback from this, but we have tried literally all the grips, and not only are they the best quality, but they are the best performing and last quite a while if taken care of).
Got any questions? Comment below or ask a coach! We hope this helped!