Anyone who does rope climbing, rock climbing, or bouldering knows how important it is to take care of their hands. In all kinds of climbing, they are our climbing devices and are therefore very much exploited. In this article, we’ll give you some advice on how to take care of my hands after climbing and what exercises are good for strong hands.
So, how to take care of my hands after climbing? The most important thing is to moisturize the irritated skin and rub off the old epidermis, this will facilitate the regeneration of the hand skin.
Hands after climbing, how to care for them?
Regardless of the type of climbing you do, be it bouldering or rock climbing, your hands are more or less exposed to irritation. Of course, especially when rock climbing, you have to pay attention to hand care.
This is where they are most exposed to all kinds of abrasions, cuts, and corns on the skin. Unfortunately, it is impossible to avoid this with this sport, but we can alleviate the symptoms and speed up the healing of the skin. Here’s how to treat the skin on your hands after a climbing session:
- Hygiene and washing hands seem quite obvious, but they should not be neglected. After each climbing session, wash your hands thoroughly with soap to clean them of magnesia. Magnesia makes climbing easier by reducing friction and sweating on the skin, but it should be washed off thoroughly afterward, as it also impedes recovery.
- Moisturising and oiling, the epidermis, which is prone to the formation of thickening and calluses, needs to be properly nourished to maintain its natural elasticity. There is a wide range of creams and lotions to choose from, but their use by climbers is not entirely successful. In recent years, special preparations dedicated to climbers and aimed at protecting their hands have appeared on the market.
- Abrasions and corns, on a climber’s hand, there are several obvious zones for the formation of thickening, calluses, and corns. Most often these are the interphalangeal joints of the fingers. The thickened epidermis growing there is very poorly permeable to sweat, which softens the whole epidermis around such an imprint. The simplest preventive measure is regular abrasion of the thickened and keratinized epidermis with sandpaper, a file, or nail polish.
These few important steps can effectively improve the condition of your hands and speed up their recovery and will tell you how to take care of your hands after climbing. Depending on the type of climbing you do, your hands will be more or less damaged and need rebuilding.
How to take care of damaged hands naturally?
We already know “How to take care of my hands after climbing” you can rely on ready-made products from the shop or on natural methods. You don’t need to go to a beautician for specialist treatments or spend a fortune. You don’t need to go anywhere or do any special shopping because you can find most of the ingredients in your kitchen. Here are just a few of the treatments you can try from time to time to revitalize and relax your hands:
- Hand peeling; the first part of hand care is to exfoliate the epidermis and smooth the skin. This is done by scrubbing the skin with three ingredients: sugar, olive oil, and lemon juice. Mix the ingredients, massage your hands with the prepared slurry, and cleanse them at the end.
- Hand and nail bath; Argan oil bath is designed to strengthen the nails, nourish the cuticles and provide maximum moisture to the skin. Prepare only argan oil, olive oil, and lemon juice. Heat the oil in a glass bowl, preferably in a water bath. Add 2-4 tablespoons of lemon juice. Soak your hands for 10-15 minutes, and give a gentle massage.
- Oil hand mask; mix 3 tablespoons of warm olive oil and egg yolk. Spread the mixture on your hands, and wrap them in foil and a towel. Remove after 20 minutes. The oil provides nourishing fatty acids and vitamin E for moisturizing and rejuvenating; the yolk contains vitamin A and zinc, among others, which have a regenerating and protective effect on the skin.
These are, of course, only a few suggestions for the care of our damaged hands, but they will help to regenerate and rebuild our epidermis. Thus, we already know how to take care of our hands after climbing. In this article, you can find out whether bigger hands make climbing easier.
In Summary – How To Take Care Of My Hands After Climbing?
How to take care of my hands after climbing depends mainly on the type of climbing we do, but regardless, our hands get more or less damaged. There are a lot of different care products for climbers available on the market.
There are different types of ointments, creams (including Climbone), or even oils. You can also use home remedies, lemon juice or argan oil works great.
