callouses - hard v. soft
Anne Rogers
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
James.
I don't actually row (cox/coach) so am not best placed to advise, but
my rowers swear by bio-oil. I'm not sure what they think it does, its
advertised to promote healing- presumably it softens the dead,
blistered skin and helps new growth. I could be wrong, but am sure
that there is something about it that they like!
J Flory
pressure points. As the skin heals and toughens up, calluses build.
Eventually the calluses (if left alone) become thick enough that they
are no longer pliable. Then blisters may start to form under the
calluses, which may be what you are experiencing. What works for me
is to keep trimming down the calluses, being careful not to cut
through ALL the skin, until what is left is reasonably pliable. I use
the sharp scissors on a Swiss Army knife to do this, but I have heard
of others using a razor blade (carefully!).
I discovered that many people find watching this trimming procedure
distasteful. So when I have someone in my office (such as a sales
rep) and would like them to leave, I simply whip out my Swiss Army
knife and start trimming my calluses reflectively, and they vanish.
Very effective!
Sarah F
Yeah I'd tend to agree. Keep them trimmed and use handcream so that
they don't dry out and crack - it keeps them supple.
Not sure about the feet issue. When I dance I tend to find my feet
hurt from being in heels - similar sort of thing to wearing really
high heels on a night out - I really don't have enough fat in my feet
to cushion them! Though if you want to keep callouses soft, then
probably go down the route of body lotion overnight with socks on!
Hope that helps!
Sarah
x
Andrew
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
Emily
> On 8 May, 22:56, Anne Rogers <annek...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
calluses build up, they tend to be soft and pliable so I don't get
further blisters underneath. My big problem tends to be when I
suddenly have to sweep row as I'm normally a sculler - not a lot I can
do about the blisters then.
I never had problems with my feet despite running two marathons
(except when I forgot to keep my toenails short). As with rowing, it
seems the best thing to do is to regularly perform an activity up to
the point where the skin has started to rub, but before you get a
blister. This seems to keep the skin hard, but not callused or cracked.
tom
shower. Lessons heat build up and seems to work for me.
T
Carl Douglas
> Tape your feet up, heels and balls,
<snip
I understand the feet & heels bit. But isn't that last bit rather OTT?
;)
C
Andrew
Balls of the feet. Really are you that simple?
You really don't want to know what some people suggest for elsewhere
to ease the pain of marching.
Andrew
Caroline Smith
out rips on my hands (on the palms - horribly, horribly painful!) but if I
used it too much my skin would harden too much and crack and bleed, which
was way worse than ripping soft skin.
The thing that worked for me was Compeed foot cream with urea in it, on my
hands. (And feet. Heals up cracked heels a dream.)
(By the time I started rowing I had so many callouses from years of doing
bars at gym that I never had any blister issues - recently started sculling
again and still haven't!)
One of my lightweight crew from Oxford swore blind by nipple cream for
blisters - if it can heal chapped and bitten nipples when breastfeeding then
I suppose it must be able to heal blisters while keeping skin supple.
Personally I've not tried it though.
The other thing I like for feet is Aveda foot cream. Smells better than the
Compeed one (although it is more expensive), and sort of softens and
toughens at the same time.
That reminds me - I need to buy some more before sandal season really kicks
in...
C
Anne Rogers
> The thing that worked for me was Compeed foot cream with urea in it, on my
> hands. (And feet. Heals up cracked heels a dream.)
ooh, that's an idea, I get wipes with urea in them on prescription for
a totally unrelated skin problem, I could just wipe them over my feet
after I've done the other bits
> One of my lightweight crew from Oxford swore blind by nipple cream for
> blisters - if it can heal chapped and bitten nipples when breastfeeding then
> I suppose it must be able to heal blisters while keeping skin supple.
> Personally I've not tried it though.
well that's how I discovered vaseline! it seems to have the ability to
deeper layers even if the surface isn't cracked, I tried it simply
because it was there rather than needing to go to the shops and it
worked so well I never bought the official stuff!
>
> The other thing I like for feet is Aveda foot cream. Smells better than the
> Compeed one (although it is more expensive), and sort of softens and
> toughens at the same time.
Well that's a point in favour of vaseline! Seems like preventing
callouses getting too big, possibly by softening is the way to go and
I can't be dealing with keeping them trimmed, it's much trickier to do
that on your feet and I'm very bad at things like that and would
likely get the good skin!
Cheers
Anne
tom
I have not tried it.
tom
Emily
> Hikers use duct tape on their feet and swear by it. Just leave it on.
> I have not tried it.
>
> tom
A friend of mine used duct tape for rowing blisters. It worked a treat
until her hands got sweaty/wet and then it came off too easily. But
perhaps if you cover it with zinc oxide tape to help keep it on it
could work well. I find that a combination of micropore and zic oxide
tapes works well to prevent/protect blisters - it stays on when wet
but comes off without leaving sticky stuff all over your hands.
Emily