On 8 May, 22:56, Anne Rogers <annek
...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> please bear with me, my mind is very hazy on this one!
> Back in my teens, for both dancing and walking, I hardened the skin on
> my feet with surgical spirit, which generally seemed very successful,
> but I did notice that I occasionally got a deep blister or sore spot
> that seemed to be as a result of the hardened skin, but this was far
> less of a problem than the problem I was solving.
> When rowing, I seemed to be fairly lucky, I gradually got tougher
> skin, but didn't get callouses (I didn't row that much...). I got some
> horrendous blisters once coxing a boat with minature handles on the
> rudder wires that also had a odd shaped rim on the saxboard, I
> couldn't avoid them whether I held the saxboard or not - I prefer to
> hold the saxboard.
> So it was something I never really had a problem with, but I have some
> kind of vague recollection of a minority of people suggesting that
> hardening the skin was a bad thing and that building up callouses
> would ultimately result in major pain and blisters when you at some
> point, inevitably, used different equipment, or any number of more
> subtle things and that the best way to minimise the issue was to keep
> your hands very soft.
> I'm asking now because I've been dancing a lot recently and I've been
> noticing I'm starting to develop lots of patches of thickened skin.
> Sore feet seems to be inevitable for dancers, but just recently I've
> been noticing that after an hour or so of practicing I can feel sore
> spots on my toes that seem to be from the harder skin pressing on
> them, not because they would be sore anyway from shoes or something.
> I've been a little reluctant to go for the soft route, the pain of
> broken skin is much more intense! Then I remembered I'm sure I've
> heard this debate from rowers, I just can't recall the answer!
> If you do go for soft, how to do do that and maintain it? I'm a
> devotee of vaseline for healing and softening on other parts of the
> body, but it's not something you can just rub in. I had a particularly
> intense session on Monday night and decided I would smother my feet
> and put socks on overnight and it worked like a dream, I would usually
> expect to feel the after effects of such a session for 48hours or so,
> but felt great Tuesday morning.
> Any thoughts?
> Cheers
> Anne
The medics who patch those of us up who are foolish to take part in
the RAF Two Day March and Nijmegen Four Day marches, reckon it is best
to tape your feet in advance with Leukoplast tape- its like zinc oxide
tape, but much more sticky.
Tape your feet up, heels and balls, sleep with your marching socks on
and it will stay on through 25miles in standard issues boots, two days
in a row, stay on in the shower, and even swimming a few days later!
I am not convinced by putting surgical spirit on. It will harden up
the skin, but it dries it out as well, and if your skin is to tough,
you will get a blister underneath which is much worse. So I tend to
just keep the dead stuff trimmed and then put tape on.
Not sure about whether it would help on your hands.
Andrew
