Hello all fellow aspiring CrossFit ninjas!

How did you go in the CrossFit Open WOD 14.4 this week? It was a doozy, wasn’t it?

If you’re unfamiliar with the workout, it went like this: 60 calorie row (800m-ish for me), 50 toes-to-bar, 40 wall balls, 30 power cleans and 20, ahem, muscle ups. Do as much as you can in 14 minutes.

I took an educated guess that given my loath/hate relationship with wall balls, I probably wouldn’t make it to the heavy power cleans. That was fine by me.

That left the toes-to-bar to contend with. Normally I quite like this movement, but 50 in one hit is a lot, and after busting your core and lats during the row, hanging from a bar and bringing your toes up gets pretty damn hard. Not to mention it can wreak havoc on your hands.

I hadn’t been paying much attention to my hands as of late, and had been building up some pretty decent calluses (yes, very attractive I know).  Then, a couple of weeks ago, I did 63 toes-to-bar in a WOD and literally ripped them all off. Ouch, ouch, and ouch.

This is what it looks like two weeks on (mm, delicious). As you can see, ripped calluses don’t heal quickly.

Yesterday, I decided to be prepared and made some simple hand grips. They definitely saved my hands during 14.4! I made it through all 50 toes-to-bar without leaving any skin behind. Good times 🙂

Hand grips are VERY easy to make. It took me about 5 minutes. Plus, you can reuse them! All you need is some rigid sports tape.

Here’s how you make ’em:

1. Rip off a piece of tape about 40cm long

2. Fold it in half so it sticks to itself

3. Fold it in half lengthways with the folded edge along the outside

4. Rip off another piece of tape and lay it over the folded tape to stick it together

(Make sure there is enough room at the looped end for your finger to go through)

How to wear ’em:

+ Put your middle or ring finger through the loop (whichever one is more susceptible to calluses)
+ Wrap a fresh piece of tape around your wrist to hold the grip in place
+ Before you stick the grip to yourself, bend your wrist back to allow your wrist some movement once it’s on!

Hurrah! Kip away!