Deadlift and Calluses: How to Avoid Tearing

 

If you wish to develop your back strength you need to focus on the best exercise for it: the deadlift. This exercise when performed correctly can allow people to lift incredible amounts of weight, with the world record currently being just over 1,000 lbs. However, the constant friction that this causes on the skin of your palms can cause them to abrade and result in the formation of thick calluses if performed incorrectly, which can in turn then tear and be incredibly painful. To avoid this problem, read this article which explains in detail how to best grip the bar.

It is important to understand why calluses might form incorrectly in your palm. First it is important to understand that calluses form where your skin is abraded or stressed. Thus  your skin thickens in order to protect you from blisters and tears. They are only a negative if they become too thick, at which point they run the risk of tearing and making the rest of your workout a challenge.

The incorrect way of gripping the bar is to place it in the middle of your palm and fold your fingers around it from there. When you do this a fold forms between the bar and where your fingers start, a fold which is shoved down when you lift the bar, and it is there that the calluses will form. The calluses make the problem even worse, and eventually grow so thick that they will tear.

The correct place to hold the bar is to allow it to sit right where your fingers begin. This is where gravity will pull the bar down to, which is why it tends to aggravate that very fold of skin and encourage callus formation. Instead, place the bar there to begin with and wrap your fingers around the bar from there. This has several other benefits, amongst them being a marginally shorter distance to lift the bar from the ground, since your shoulders and chest will be higher by about an inch or so.

Finally, if you are having difficulty with this you can use chalk to keep your skin dry and tight, so that it will fold less. Second, try to find a bar with a smoother, tighter knurl so that it won't aggravate your hand, and if necessary get a lifting glove so as to protect your hand even further.

 

 

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