Calluses are the formation of hard tissue over a wound made by the body to protect sensitive skin. These wounds are mostly caused in areas that have had continuous friction against the skin. They vary in size, shape, and can sometimes be very painful. They are very common in people who weight train regularly, specially CrossFitters. These type of athletes need to treat the callus carefully in order to prevent them from appearing over again. Some people opt to reduce callus caused by weight lift by wearing training gloves, but often times this is not enough, the callus still appear and another method is necessary to reduce them by removing the excess skin growth. Athletes strive to prevent calluses by using gloves and grips; however, these options do limit the mobility and proper movement of the bar when it comes to Olympic movements and kipping/butterflying on the bar. If these prevention methods don’t keep them from growing calluses, many athletes tend to use traditional methods to remove them from shaving them off with blades or other ineffective callus remover products. These methods are not recommended since they can weaken the skin and still cause the callus to rip causing painful irritation and bleeding.
Using the Callus Performance® blade is very simple, check out this video:
Anyone can get calluses, but the intensive use of the hands during physical exercise makes athletes more prone to getting them. CrossFit training, climbing ropes, swinging on bars, playing baseball or even shovelling snow, are some of the physical activities that can increase the appearance of calluses, in other words, anything that causes intense friction with the skin will make your hands susceptible to ripping. Because of their rapid growth, detecting them quickly before they appear is not easy, a fast way to identify them is by noticing when the surface of your hands becomes hard, dry, and thick. The skin becomes rough, with bumps, ridges and you can feel tenderness under the skin. Some athletes feel proud of their calluses because they develop stronger hands, but the truth is, that the excessive appearance of calluses can be very dangerous and lead to injuries or infections without the proper care.
