site banner
PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   1137 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for October 22, 2025

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Mottizens that lift, how do you deal with calluses?

Depends on the activity. For barbells, generally just suck it up, it won't hurt for that long. For kettlebells, climbing, or rowing I'll use tape to cover them up if they tear or are about to tear.

When they tear, use cuticle scissors or nail clippers to trim the dead skin and then sand down the rough edges to keep it from getting worse and tearing off additional live skin. Super glue can work well to secure a flapping bit of skin for day to day.

Also obviously be careful as it's an open wound, when I'm dealing with calluses I'm careful to have gloves for day to day use when handling dirty stuff.

For barbells, generally just suck it up, it won't hurt for that long.

In my case, I can do a palm grip if I sand my calluses down, but if the bar slips down for a rep or two to the place where the fingers join the palm, I can no longer execute a proper palm grip, as pinching the "ball of the hand" with the bar becomes painful.

Just to add, I started washing my hands with cold water wherever possible and that really reduced my torn calluses.

I have an old pair of leather work gloves that have become fingerless lifting gloves when I have a badly torn callus. I get mocked for wearing "sissy mittens" on occasion, but it gets me through the workout.

Was just going to recommend weightlifting gloves but suspected this type of reaction at gyms. In Japan there's not a lot of (open) mockery and you see people using gloves all the time. I myself do not but then I probably don't lift nearly enough to get serious callouses.

The trick is to just lift more than the people mocking you.

I typically use leather teardrop pattern straps for anything that's grip limited. Hook grip for competition lifts.

The trick is to just lift more than the people mocking you.

I would typically silently judge someone using gloves. That being said, if you're lifting enough (800 solid-ass pounds), chalk, gloves, straps, and mixed grip all combined somehow does not look goofy at all.

I just use straps for deadlifts, and many other pulling motions, for that matter. Don't at me; I ain't competing. I set up my grip "in the fold", between the bottom pads of the fingers and the palm. The calluses never really get all that bad.

Just how heavy are you lifting? I don't really mind if people use straps or gloves but I just don't understand and interpret it as performative most of the time, since I've had zero issues and lift more than most people in the gyms I've been in and accessory usage doesn't seem to correlate much with with weight lifted.

Perhaps it's a hand size thing? I have large hands.

Deadlift is four plates, not yet five. At my size, that's not bad, but yeah, I'm not looking to set world records. In my current gym, at the time that I go, I'm definitely lifting more than everyone else, but that's more of a function of the current gym/time. I've certainly had prior gyms with legitimately huge dudes putting up ridiculous numbers.

It's not that I couldn't manage without them. It's just annoying, and it's not the main point of doing those things. If you're competing, then yeah, it's part of the deal to deal with the annoyance. Apparently, even for top competitors, there's a relatively definable "class" of "grip-limited deadlifters". I remember the Stronger By Science folks talking about this. It's apparently an annoyance to their sensibilities, too. They said that they would like to just have a category for deadlifts with straps; just take the grip out of it and see what people's major muscles can do. Nobody likes a hook grip.

Not sure on hand size. My current gym has one Rogue bar (I can't remember which exact model) that I swear feels noticeably thinner than the others (I haven't yet taken a micrometer to the gym). I prefer it for deadlifting, but anti-prefer it for bench/OHP.

It's strange. I've lifted similar amounts but I've never even thought about grip strength being the limiting factor, like it's never crossed my mind as a concern. I've never specifically trained grip strength either.

I wonder why there are such big differences in seemingly innate grip strength that has only limited correlation with overall strength.

Hand size is a lot of it.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats